Charging my droid

[ajh2k]

I have the motorola droid. My Dad was telling me he always keeps his blackberry connected to a charger, unless he is out and about.
He tells me Lithium Ion batteries have no memory, and it is better for them to stay mostly charged, to avoid getting too low on juice. Charging from a low power state generates a great deal of heat, and is not good for the battery.
Is this concept true for the Droid? Is the best thing for it, to keep it connected to a charger?

 

[hookerdj]

I have the motorola droid. My Dad was telling me he always keeps his blackberry connected to a charger, unless he is out and about.
He tells me Lithium Ion batteries have no memory, and it is better for them to stay mostly charged, to avoid getting too low on juice. Charging from a low power state generates a great deal of heat, and is not good for the battery.
Is this concept true for the Droid? Is the best thing for it, to keep it connected to a charger?

if you are looking into a battery widget like battery left , or battery life then you must let it completely run down and completely charge it to get a accurate reading but other than that just keep it charged all the time....you are right lithiom ion does not have memory

 

[Moondonkey]

Someone in a few minutes, will probably come along and tell you about how the lithium ion batteries have a certain number of cycles and etc that they can be charged. or that its best to run them all the way down or not...

but, heres what I think,

Lithium batters are pretty tough and the Droids battery is actually pretty cheap, only $30, you will probably only have this phone for 2 years at the most, so I say use it however works best for you. Charge it according to whatever gets you through the day, don't worry about hurting it.

 

[LdaSense420]

Someone in a few minutes, will probably come along and tell you about how the lithium ion batteries have a certain number of cycles and etc that they can be charged. or that its best to run them all the way down or not...

but, heres what I think,

Lithium batters are pretty tough and the Droids battery is actually pretty cheap, only $30, you will probably only have this phone for 2 years at the most, so I say use it however works best for you. Charge it according to whatever gets you through the day, don't worry about hurting it.

im surprised a debate hasnt started already...

 

[nikkix]

Someone in a few minutes, will probably come along and tell you about how the lithium ion batteries have a certain number of cycles and etc that they can be charged. or that its best to run them all the way down or not...

but, heres what I think,

Lithium batters are pretty tough and the Droids battery is actually pretty cheap, only $30, you will probably only have this phone for 2 years at the most, so I say use it however works best for you. Charge it according to whatever gets you through the day, don't worry about hurting it.

actually making sure you correctly charge it IS important because it affects how you use the phone. 30 dollars might not be much to replace a dead battery, but it would be more irksome to replace one that doesnt hold a decent charge. if you can increase battery life per charge, then id say its something definitely worth looking into.

to OP, theres a plethora of threads on battery life if you just use the search function.

 

[FSRBIKER]

While I am rooted this should not make a difference in my observations:
If I use my Motorola home charger(the one that can you can use the cable to plug into a PC as well) my phone seems to always run at a decent temperature no matter the charging status. Now if I use my LG brand wall charger(bought at same time as my Droid through Verizon) when my battery reaches 100% charge and if I use say Pandora or surf for awhile my temps will climb to the point I need to unplug the charger(I have been to 122 degrees on the battery before)...some have pointed out our Droids are very sensitive to the voltage of the chargers. My Motorola car charger seems to be in the middle as it runs cool most of the time but occasionally if I have a few calls, running Pandora, GPS, etc usually when doing two tasks like these my temps will rise pretty high(under 110 for the most part)

As a test I bought another battery from Verizon(sucksI had to pay full retail) as I thought my battery was defective, I have not had the spikes I had before but can still hit high temps on occasion. Still doing some testing but I think the batteries have manufacturing fluctuations and the chargers do make a difference.

 

[crash0515]

Here is a good link to explain how Lithium Batteries work.
HowStuffWorks "How Lithium-ion Batteries Work"
I think it will answer a lot of questions. I use a lot of Lithium battery operated Dewalt tools and I have found it is better to leave them in the charger until I need them. Once it is charged the charger will maintain a trickle charge keeping the battery at a full charge.

 

[jsh1120]

It's perhaps worth noting that Amazon routinely sells Motorola OEM batteries for the Droid for about $10-$15. I purchased an extra about a month ago (along with a standalone battery charger for $15) and can tell no difference in performance, life, etc. compared to the original battery in the phone.

Amazon.com: NEW OEM Motorola Droid Cliq Battery Charger SPN5564: Cell Phones & Service

Amazon.com: Motorola DROID 1300mah Standard Battery: Cell Phones & Service

 

[MrTommy]

Hmmm....

Not sure if this adds to the discussion or not. I attended one of those Verizon classes on the Droid. The guy I was talking with (the store manager) said I should not leave my phone plugged in with my car charger longer than it takes to charge it. I told him I have my phone suction mounted to my windshield all night long (I'm a truck driver) and usually just leave it plugged in to avoid inadvertently running out of power mid-call, since I spend a lot of time on the phone (yes,with headset). He said the home chargers are designed to slowly charge the battery and know when to stop, while car chargers are designed to "quick charge" with no "brains".

Now, this almost sounds like so much gobbledy gook, but then again, maybe not.

Any thoughts? I know I burned up a battery in my old LG 510 this way, but I'm sure that was old battery technology. :icon_eek:

 

[crash0515]

I would suggest you may want to get a desk charger or use your wall charger with a power inverter. That is what I use instead of a car charger. I also use this for my laptop as well. I was told as long as it is 175 watt or higher I was good to go. ( I have a 450 watt ). Hope this helps...

 

[MrTommy]

Hmmm. Idea sounds good, but I've already got so much crap plugged in (satellite radio, GPS, and this phone) I don't know where I'm going to find the room. I've got a small cigarette lighter inverter that I use when camping to plug my shaver into. That might work - if I decided to try it.

Last night, to test the phone not plugged in, I left Las Vegas with a fully charged phone. I turn off everything except the Bluetooth. I check the screen from time to time, but quickly turn it off when done. When I get a phone call and it lights up, I see who it is, then turn off the screen. So, eight hours later when I got to Reno, I'd talked for at least 2 or more hours total, sent a couple videos, checked my weather pages, and have one of my widgets that keeps track of weather where I am, on the entire time. I just made sure I shut down the display quickly after doing whatever I had to do with it, and I had 60% left. So, not bad.

Oh, and I use the "Advanced Task Killer", of course, and kill EVERYTHING. :hail: