How Do You Care For A New Lithium Ion Battery?

Discussion in 'polls' started by TheKid7, May 13, 2015.

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What do you do with a New Lithium Ion Battery?

  1. Fully Charge it before use.

    15 vote(s)
    34.1%
  2. Start using it and charge it when you feel like charging it.

    6 vote(s)
    13.6%
  3. Fully charge it and do not charge it again until it gets down to a low level.

    5 vote(s)
    11.4%
  4. Fully charge it and do not charge it again until it gets down to a low level (Repeat several times.)

    3 vote(s)
    6.8%
  5. I don't care. I just do what I want.

    15 vote(s)
    34.1%
  1. TheKid7

    TheKid7 Registered Member

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    Please share your comments/opinions on how you care for a new Lithium Ion Battery when you first acquire it.

    Thanks in Advance.
     
  2. blacknight

    blacknight Registered Member

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    Fully Charge it before use.
     
  3. safeguy

    safeguy Registered Member

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    http://lifehacker.com/5875162/how-often-should-i-charge-my-gadgets-battery-to-prolong-its-lifespan
    http://lifehacker.com/why-calibrating-your-phone-or-laptop-battery-is-importa-1437221519

    I usually charge a new battery to 100%...but can be guilty of using the device at the same time (laptop or smartphone). Once it's charged, I don't really give a damn. I charge and discharge based on availability of power source and when I feel like I need to regardless of %. I run it down to near-empty once in a while but I don't really monitor how often I do this.
     
  4. TheKid7

    TheKid7 Registered Member

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    I normally fully charge before use.

    However, I received a new smartphone three days ago and I was in a hurry to check it out. I forgot about fully charging it first. I put my SIM in it and fired it up and started testing it out. Time passed quickly and the battery indicator decreased from 53% to 33%. The next day, I fully charged the smartphone from 33% to 100%. It took about 4 hours to charge from 33% to 100%. The smartphone seems to be working fine. The battery indication slowly decreased from 100% to a little under 90% (moderate use) by the end of the 2nd day. With light use the battery indicator slowly decreased to a little under 80% by the end of the 3rd day. Last night to this morning with no use (smartphone ON), there was no change in the battery indicator (78%).

    I need to point out that the smartphone (5 inch screen size) is a relatively new model (released January 2015) and has a HUGE built-in battery (5,000 mAh). I had to Reset the smartphone on the 2nd day to fix a problem with not being able to download a major update from the manufacturer. The update seems to have reduced power consumption, but that may be my imagination. The I think that the manufacturer states somewhere that the phone is optimized to reduce power consumption.
     
  5. roger_m

    roger_m Registered Member

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    @TheKid7 That's impressive battery life. What is the phone?
     
  6. TheKid7

    TheKid7 Registered Member

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    BLU Studio Energy (US GSM).

    It is still showing 78% battery. I played a 2 minute YouTube video to see if it would 'decrease', but it is still at 78%. Edit: It dropped to 77% about 10 minutes after playing the YouTube video. About an hour later it is showing 75%. I am not sure how a smartphone measures/calculates the battery charge level.
     
    Last edited: May 14, 2015
  7. roger_m

    roger_m Registered Member

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    @TheKid7 That's very impressive indeed. Gionee, the manufacturer of this phone (it is a rebadged Gionee Marathon M3, with different 3G frquency support for the US), make some excellent phones.
     
  8. TheKid7

    TheKid7 Registered Member

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    Today, exactly 7 days after charging the phone to 100%, the phone is showing 51% battery. I have not used the phone much. I mainly checked my Gmail around 10 times a day, very limited making/receiving phone calls and very limited web surfing. I would like to get the phone down to around 30% battery before I charge it to 100% again. I will probably charge the phone overnight starting in about 2.5 days.
     
  9. Noob

    Noob Registered Member

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    I often fully charge it WHILE using it.
     
  10. new2security

    new2security Registered Member

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    I learned something new - to follow a 40/80 % charge/discharge concept; e.g. charge your phone until it reaches ~80%. Use it until it goes down to ~40%.
    Li-on batteries don't like full charge/discharge cycles.

    My ~1 1/2 year old phone would shut itself off when battery level showed ~40%.
    I don't think that's acceptable for a phone less than 2 years old. Perhaps my unkind charge / discharge cycles had something to do with it-
    I always fully charged it, often during the night while I slept, and used it until the battery would almost run down, 10-20%.

    I've charged my new phone 4 times. Twice fully charged just to check how well the battery performs and twice ~80-90% charge.
     
  11. wshrugged

    wshrugged Registered Member

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    http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prime_batteries
     
  12. TheKid7

    TheKid7 Registered Member

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    My new phone seems to be doing OK now except that the battery percentage indication is not correct.

    The battery percentage indication decreases (sometimes in steps) until it is around 40% to 60%. After that the battery percentage indication starts decreasing at a greatly accelerated rate. At that point the phone has typically not been charged for around 5 days. I have decided to just routinely charge the phone after around 4 days.
     
  13. J_L

    J_L Registered Member

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    They should be advanced enough to not require any special care...
     
  14. roger_m

    roger_m Registered Member

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  15. TheKid7

    TheKid7 Registered Member

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    I never calibrated the battery of the BLU Studio Energy.

    I decided to get a new smartphone which also has a large battery (3,900 mAh) and a 6.1" screen size. The strange thing is that the new smartphone is lasting longer than the BLU Smartphone which has a 5,000 mAh battery. The new smartphone is also 4G LTE (The BLU is 4G.). I charged the new smartphone to 100% before first use (The battery was showing 75% before charging.). After ~6.5 days of use, I charged it from 38% to 100%. I am now at 47% on the battery after 7.3 days of normal use.

    I am using the BLU Studio Energy as a backup phone (new phone number) with a plan with only calling and texting. It looks like the BLU Studio Energy battery will probably last 2 to 3 weeks on a charge when used as a backup phone.
     
  16. chrisretusn

    chrisretusn Registered Member

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    Thinking the same thing.

    From How to Calibrate the Battery on Android Devices to Get Better Performance

    WOW!
     
  17. luciddream

    luciddream Registered Member

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    I fully charge it before first use for sure. Then after that I wait until it's close to dead, then fully charge it before using it again. I've come to find it both holds a charge better and extends a batteries life by waiting until they die before charging them, and charging them fully when you do, with (whatever it is) turned off while it charges. With some batteries, like a laptop battery, you shouldn't let it die (completely) though... or it could brick them. But let it get down to about 5%... even 2%. As close as possible without it dying completely. With a cell phone or whatever on the other hand let it die completely.

    Also, after charging it (fully) keep the thing off for a day or so (if you can) and let it hold the charge. I've come to find this helps extend and improve battery life & length of charge.

    I'm anal about doing this and my batteries last forever pretty much.
     
  18. Rolo42

    Rolo42 Registered Member

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    No! That's what you do for old NiCD and NiMH batteries but not Li-ion.

    Ideal conditions are to never go below 20% or above 80%. Almost ideal (and the greatest effect) is to never go below 20%. Reason: heat and throughput.

    When the battery is drained, it needs higher voltages to charge it. When the battery is full, it discharges at higher voltages. Avoiding these extremes preserves longevity.

    There are utilities that show and graph battery charging/discharging voltage.
     
  19. luciddream

    luciddream Registered Member

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    seems to have worked great for me. They last forever, and I'm big on results.

    Also I have it set to charge "standard". Use those setting that charge it faster and it can ruin it.

    The old batteries you mention, actually the best it to let them die completely, not just get low. I've had great results with laptop batteries letting them get low, but now dead, before recharging them. Altough 5% may be a bit too low, and 2% def. was. Maybe more like 10%. But I'd let it go lower than 20%.
     
  20. Rolo42

    Rolo42 Registered Member

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    That is called, "memory", where it "remembers" the last lowest charge and that ends up being "empty", diminishing capacity.

    There is a really good battery site that taught all about batteries but I cannot find it...keep finding stores instead.
     
  21. subhrobhandari

    subhrobhandari Registered Member

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    Is it?
    Code:
    http://batteryuniversity.com/
     
  22. ams963

    ams963 Registered Member

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    I fully charge it and do not charge it again until the phone shuts down with critical low battery level.:D
     
  23. Rolo42

    Rolo42 Registered Member

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  24. ams963

    ams963 Registered Member

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    I didn't understand much of the article but only the last few lines saying,"When fully charged, remove the battery and allow to voltage to revert to a more natural level. This is like relaxing the muscles after strenuous exercise." Could you state the reasons to why not 'fully charge a phone battery, leave it until it shuts down with critical battery level and then charge it' in simple language?
     
  25. Rolo42

    Rolo42 Registered Member

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    I did in post 18. I can't say the muscle analogy is a good one since stressing muscles actually builds them, increasing capacity rather than diminishing it. For pretty much everything else electromechanical, higher stress and temperatures = more wear/less longevity/capacity.

    The reason why the site explains in how Li-ion batteries work article. The reasons are technical, so can't be simplified. One could say it's already an atomic explanation! :argh:
     
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