Cellphone battery care

[kaspaas]

Hi,

maybe not strictly in the correct thread, but it is where the cellphone people lurk

What is the correct way to care for the modern Li cellphone battery?

There are so many stories around of how to prolong the life of you battery that I don't know what is true and not. I suspect that a lot of the care instructions of the old NiMH batteries was taken over by "general knowledge" into the mainstream care concepts for the latest lithium batteries - but are totally inappropriate.

Is it still required to "pre-charge" a cellphone 16 hours before first use?

Does one reduce the life of a Li battery by recharging before it went completely flat?

Any other care issues?

Thanks!

 

[bboy]

your right, there's loads of crap out there, me, i charge my cellphone every night, when i sleep , i put it on charge, it charges for its 8 hours, i've done this with all my phones since 1999, ericsson, motorola, nokia, it works the best, i've never had bad batteries even after two years of use, the batteries seem to die when you don't use them, ie leave the cellphone in a draw for a month, this whole , run it flat and then full charge thing doesn't work either, just charge it when you sleep, when i do need to keep it on for 5 days straight with bluetooth on and heavy usage and no charging, it works great, it all seems to boil down to "keeping it charged"to keep the battery healthy for a very long time!

 

[adsl3g]

I also researched this a while back and my take is as follows:- LiIon batteries prefer not to run down flat - i.e. top up charges are recommended before it is flat. With a new LiIon battery, full capacity is only achieved after the 2nd to 3rd charge anyway. I do not believe in the 16 hour charge and have never done that - charge until it is full and then charge again when half full or thereabouts

Follow the instructions in the phone manual - they usually know whats best

 

[RSnow]

I also tend to put my phone on the charger when I go to bed, and leave it on till I get up the next morning. I've done that since my first phone (Siemens S3, Li battery) in 1997. Never had any problems. The only problem I've ever had is when I let a battery run completely flat, and then left it like that for about a week. After that, it was completely dead. Wouldn't even recharge.

Anyway, in my ramblings, one of the more informative and amusing pages I've come across that discusses the charging of modern batteries is here: http://www.dansdata.com/gz011.htm

 

[vodacom3g]

A lot of the hype around batteries come from the NiCad days when memory effect was efficient, the ability of batteries to 'remember' their previous charge level and would not pass this point. You therefore had to 'cycle' the battery completely, i.e. use it till it's empty and completely charge it up again. Charge rates were calculated at a certain current rating typically resulting in a 12 - 16 hour charge time.

That's all history.

Modern batteries don't suffer from memory effect. I keep my phone on a charger whenever possible, a car kit is especially handy, so is a USB charger.

Beware the cheap, exploding knock-offs!