Lithium ion vs. Ni-Cad battery - Drain or NOT to drain ???
I understand there is a lot of confusion about the advantages of draining the
DROID battery to get maximum performance. Personal anecdotal experience
is important but I think we must investigate the facts before advising others.
Please consider the following information which I lifted from another post:
WTF, below is info pasted from wikipedia, it appears the excessive heat that the droid sometimes produces may be causing the battery to age rapidly. Of major interest is the explanation of the self discharge actually being permanent loss of capacity!
Lithium-ion batteries do not suffer from the memory effect. They also have a self-discharge rate of approximately 5-10% per month, compared with over 30% per month in common nickel metal hydride batteries, approx. 1.25% per month for Low Self-Discharge NiMH batteries and 10% per month in nickel-cadmium batteries.[31] According to one manufacturer, Li-ion cells (and, accordingly, "dumb" Li-ion batteries) do not have any self-discharge in the usual meaning of this word.[21] What looks like a self-discharge in these batteries is a permanent loss of capacity (see below). On the other hand, "smart" Li-ion batteries do self-discharge, mainly due to the small constant drain of the built-in voltage monitoring circuit.
[edit] Disadvantages of traditional Li-ion technology
[edit] Shelf life
A disadvantage of lithium-ion cells lies in their relatively poor cycle life: upon every (re)charge, deposits form inside the electrolyte that inhibit lithium ion transport, resulting in the capacity of the cell to diminish. The increase in internal resistance affects the cell's ability to deliver current, thus the problem is more pronounced in high-current than low-current applications. The increasing capacity hit means that a full charge in an older battery will not last as long as one in a new battery (although the charging time required decreases proportionally, as well).
Also, high charge levels and elevated temperatures (whether resulting from charging or being ambient) hasten permanent capacity loss for lithium-ion batteries.[32][33] The heat generated during a charge cycle is caused by the traditional carbon anode, which has been replaced with good results by lithium titanate. Lithium titanate has been experimentally shown to drastically reduce the degenerative effects associated with charging, including expansion and other factors.[34] See "Improvements of lithium-ion technology" below.
At a 100% charge level, a typical Li-ion laptop battery that is full most of the time at 25 °C or 77 °F will irreversibly lose approximately 20% capacity per year. However, a battery in a poorly ventilated laptop may be subject to a prolonged exposure to much higher temperatures, which will significantly shorten its life. Different storage temperatures produce different loss results: 6% loss at 0 °C (32 °F), 20% at 25 °C (77 °F), and 35% at 40 °C (104 °F). When stored at 40%–60% charge level, the capacity loss is reduced to 2%, 4%, 15% at 0, 25 and 40 degrees Celsius respectively.[35][citation needed]
Lithium-ion batteries should never be depleted below their minimum voltage (2.4 to 2.8 V/cell, depending on chemistry). If a lithium-ion battery is stored with too low a charge, there is a risk that the charge will drop below the low-voltage threshold, resulting in an unrecoverable dead battery.[citation needed] Usually this does not instantly damage the battery itself but a charger or device which uses that battery will refuse to charge a dead battery. The battery appears to be dead or not existent because the protection circuit disables further discharging and there is zero voltage on the battery terminals.
Lithium-ion batteries should be kept cool. Ideally they are stored in a refrigerator.[citation needed]
Aging will take its toll much faster at high temperatures.[38]
:motdroidvert: I think the problem of poor battery performance is directly
related to cell phone coverage when the phone is looking for coverage for all
the programs that are running i.e.wifi, bluetooth, gps and sometimes turning
the screen on for periods of time. Check battery usage with the app -
'Spare Parts' and use something like 'Adv Task Manager' to help shut down
some running programs and turn off wifi etc, if not using.
