Best Charging habits?

[MonKENy]

I have a Droid X and what Im doing is letting the battery run down till the phone turns off and the recharge it overnight with the phone off.

Is this a bad thing? Whats the optimal charging habit to do?

 

[guest0]

From what I know, that's it best way to maintain your battery.

Sent from my DROIDX

 

[want a droid]

From my knowledge, doing that to a lithium-ion battery will have no effect.

 

[qman66]

whatever u do to this battery i mean its not like the battery is $200 plus its not like ur gonna have it for 5 years. say the average dx user keeps it for 2 years battery will work fine by then.

 

[xliderider]

I have a Droid X and what Im doing is letting the battery run down till the phone turns off and the recharge it overnight with the phone off.

Is this a bad thing? Whats the optimal charging habit to do?

Not good. Letting a Li ion battery discharge fully is actually bad for the battery in the long run. There is no memory effect with these batteries, it is far better to charge often and not to let the battery run down too low.

 

[Threeball]

This will make no difference whatsoever to the physical battery. It WILL make a difference to the internal batt stats. The more often the phone is pulled from the charger at true 100% charge and plugged in as close to true 0%, the better.

Sent from my nonsensikal froyo using DroidForums App

 

[Threeball]

I should add: by batt stats, I mean the stats the phone uses to decide what percent to display in the notification bar. More accurate batt stats = more accurate %s displayed.

Sent from my nonsensikal froyo using DroidForums App

 

[xliderider]

I have a Droid X and what Im doing is letting the battery run down till the phone turns off and the recharge it overnight with the phone off.

Is this a bad thing? Whats the optimal charging habit to do?

Not good. Letting a Li ion battery discharge fully is actually bad for the battery in the long run. There is no memory effect with these batteries, it is far better to charge often and not to let the battery run down too low.

Here's supporting articles:

HowStuffWorks "Lithium-ion Battery Life and Death"

"Lithium ion chemistry prefers partial discharge to deep discharge, so it's best to avoid taking the battery all the way down to zero. Since lithium-ion chemistry does not have a "memory", you do not harm the battery pack with a partial discharge. If the voltage of a lithium-ion cell drops below a certain level, it's ruined."

How to prolong lithium-based batteries

"The battery prefers a partial rather than a full discharge. Frequent full discharges should be avoided when possible. Instead, charge the battery more often or use a larger battery. There is no concern of memory when applying unscheduled charges."

\http://highfields-arc.6te.net/beginner/battery.htm

"Li-ion comes partially charged. You can use the battery right away and charge it when needed. No priming required.
Do charge the battery often. The battery lasts longer with partial rather than full discharges, it is better to recharge more often; avoid frequent full discharges. Charging in stages is acceptable, full charge termination occurs by reading the voltage level and charge current. Charging a full battery is safe and does not cause harm. The charger should automatically cut the charge current when the battery is full, so leaving the battery in the charger will not harm it. "

 

[Backnblack]

Plug it in when you hit the rack
Unplug when you wake up....

 

[Beka27]

Regarding the OP other question: What about powering down?

I know "back in the day", it was recommended to me that I "power cycle" my phone often. So as of now, I do what the OP does, each night I turn off the phone and charge. I understand that many people use their cell as their primary phone, so they may not want to power off at night. Is there any benefit to powering off over charging while on?

 

[MrKleen]

Good gosh there is always so much misinformation.

With this type of battery you can do anything you want with it... it doesn't matter. Waiting until it dies before you charge sounds very inconvenient.

Whenever I am near a charger I will plug in. I don't want to be somewhere and have my phone die.

Anyway, however you choose to charge your battery is fine. Enjoy your phone and don't give the battery any more thought.

 

[xliderider]

Good gosh there is always so much misinformation.

With this type of battery you can do anything you want with it... it doesn't matter. Waiting until it dies before you charge sounds very inconvenient.

Whenever I am near a charger I will plug in. I don't want to be somewhere and have my phone die.

Anyway, however you choose to charge your battery is fine. Enjoy your phone and don't give the battery any more thought.

And yet you spread more misinformation. It is bad for a Li ion battery to be fully discharged. Do it often and the service life will be shorter, meaning it is being damaged. It is better to charge it frequently (topping off) than it is to let it discharge deeply before recharging.

 

[MrKleen]

That is exactly what I do. My point is that there is no need to discharge it. Your battery should require very little thought.

 

[DebianDog]

And yet you spread more misinformation. It is bad for a Li ion battery to be fully discharged. Do it often and the service life will be shorter, meaning it is being damaged. It is better to charge it frequently (topping off) than it is to let it discharge deeply before recharging.

1. True, but it won't be within the life of you phone (I have LiOns from 4-5 years ago that are still serviceable)
2. You can not run these batteries down to near ZERO as the phone shuts off way before that. (run you phone till it shuts off then but a voltmeter on it you have voltage)
3. There are internal switches on the phone that need to be reset every 30 days or so if you want the most battery charge http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/the_smart_battery

 

[Lex_Luthor]

All you got to know is that lithium ion batteries are not like the back in the day nickel alloy batteries where you need to charge them for so many hours when you first got the phone and so on. It is actually bad on the battery to drain and charge like that. A battery is a chemical reaction and letting the reaction(voltage) drop to a certain level and a recharge again is a bad on the materials because they wont fully return back to their original components anymore. Im not too sure on the limits for lithium ion but doing a google search about lithium ion batteries would definitely tell you. Theres even forums for batteries alone.