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. ams963

    ams963 Registered Member

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    Okay if it can't be explained in simple terms, could you at least suggest what would be the best ways to charge a phone and laptop? The phone is a MS Lumia and almost 2 years old. The laptop is from Acer and a year old. I follow luciddream's way of charging the devices that was mentioned in post 19, "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%." Is this a good way to charge the batteries of the phone and laptop?
     
  2. Rolo42

    Rolo42 Registered Member

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    Like I said earlier, keeping your battery between 20 and 80% would be ideal. Obviously you're going to charge it to 100% but, after some use, if you don't need to top it off, don't. To asses what your ideal percentages would be specifically, you could use a battery stats app that graphs voltage and temperature but I wouldn't worry about it unless you wanted to see how it works--a visual may be useful to you.

    Definitely don't drain it completely; that only helps NiCd/NiMH batteries, which are so old you shouldn't even have those at all but that is where that advice comes from but doesn't apply to Li-ion batteries. Doing this will diminish your batteries capacity (mAh) steadily over time.

    Now, as the original post was polling, you do, upon getting a new battery, you want to drain it, fully charge it, erase your battery stats, drain it again and fully charge it again so your phone is calibrated to the battery to measure it accurately and to charge it to full capacity.
     
  3. ams963

    ams963 Registered Member

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    Thank you Rolo. I forgot to mention I also have a tablet which is a year old. The tablet and phone are set by default to notify low battery level at 20%. So I should charge them when I'm notified at the 20% mark and stop charging when it reaches 80% to 85%, right? My laptop with Windows system is set by default to notify low battery level at 10%. Do you think I should increase it to 20% as in the phone and tablet? Should I stop charging the laptop at 80% also?
     
  4. Rolo42

    Rolo42 Registered Member

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    I only stop charging below 100% if I know there's no chance I'll need it and I charged it during the day. I leave all my rechargeables plugged in overnight.

    Laptop I keep fully charged as it doesn't have the capacity my phone has (4-5 hrs vs. like 8-24 hrs, depending on use of course). I do have notify set to 20% on the laptop mainly to give me time to react (wrap up what I'm doing, find an outlet, use a lower brightness, etc.)

    Remember the fine line between 'optimising' and 'obsessing' (or 'obsessively optimising'): your devices are there for your convenience and use; they aren't there to be preserved.
     
  5. ams963

    ams963 Registered Member

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    Could I leave my laptop plugged in to charge all night long and unplug it in the morning? It would remain fully charged and plugged in for long hours. Would it damage the laptop or battery? It would be great if I could charge it overnight.
     
  6. roger_m

    roger_m Registered Member

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    @ams963 It will stop charging as soon as the battery reaches 100% capacity, so there's no need to worry. I have my laptop plugged in to the charger all day.
     
  7. ams963

    ams963 Registered Member

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    Ah great. But then the devices would be fully charged every night. And from what I've understood so far full charge and discharge is bad for the longevity of lithium ion batteries. So is charging all night long a good idea?
     
  8. roger_m

    roger_m Registered Member

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    @ams963 Stopping charging before 100% is ideal, and may lead to longer battery life. But, on the otherhand, repacement batteries are cheap.

    Some laptops actually have the option to stop charging before 100%, either through BIOS settings or included software. So there's a small chance your laptop may have that option. But, if it doesn't you may as well just let it charge fully.
     
  9. Rolo42

    Rolo42 Registered Member

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    All Li-ion chargers stop when full (or even ~98%-ish); if they didn't, you'd have an explosion.

    Laptop batteries are less sensitive to current and temperatures than cell phone batteries due to their size and the laptop's internal cooling.
     
  10. ams963

    ams963 Registered Member

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  11. subhrobhandari

    subhrobhandari Registered Member

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    Just want to share my experience. My brother used his old laptop for past 7 years, most of the days plugged in 24x7. And it still gives about five minutes of backup. It's nothing expensive, just a cheap Compaq laptop with Celeron processor. So I wouldn't worry much about leaving laptops charging overnight.
     
  12. wshrugged

    wshrugged Registered Member

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    There are battery preservation mechanisms and safety related redundancies built into quality chargers and batteries but can anyone be certain that the final products have no imperfections? Unattended charging with quality components will be successful 9?% of the time.

    It's not probable that a failure will occur but the most costly consequences of failure are avoidable. A battery is relatively inexpensive to replace; a home and/or its inhabitants, not so much.
     
  13. Osaban

    Osaban Registered Member

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    I've had my Samsung series 7 Chronos notebook for almost 2.5 years. Its internal battery (it can only be taken out by unscrewing the bottom plate, therefore it's supposed to last longer than usual) is designed to deliver power for 11 hours when fully charged (100% and on 'Power Saver').

    Samsung however, doesn't recommend a full charge, the computer came with dedicated software which cuts the charging at 80%. I have never let it charge to 100%, and the battery still provides 5-6 hours of charge even on 'high performance' mode. Incidentally even my hybrid car is set to cut charging at 80% to extend battery life.
     
  14. Rolo42

    Rolo42 Registered Member

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    You said it. Redundant components failing simultaneously would be an astronomical event.
     
  15. mantra

    mantra Registered Member

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    hi
    wow , i want it , hope it will available in europe
    outside the only way to have it ,it's buying unlocked on amazon :(:(
     
  16. TheKid7

    TheKid7 Registered Member

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    It is my backup phone now with no Internet Access (Phone/Texting Only). It looks like it will last around a month on a charge using it as a 'standby' phone (phone for emergencies, normally not used). I charged it up yesterday after about 15 days of standby time and the battery indication was at 82%. As mentioned previously, the battery indication does not ready correctly. Therefore 82% battery is 'most likely' a little over ~50% to ~60% battery.
     
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