Battery Problems...AGAIN!

[Fizban22]

alright so for those of you who dont know, i had a (supposedly) faulty battery, took it into verizon, and got a new one.

the battery came at about 30% charged and lasted me a good 6 hours then the phone died (and by die i just mean til the phone turned off and wouldnt turn on again). i charged it overnight, and the phone lasted me almost 24 hours (with moderate use, nothing too heavy).

i let it die again (i know i know, many of you say battery conditioning isnt needed but still, i wanna be sure) and charged it for roughly 3.5 hours and it said 100% but the battery then drained down to 40% in about 4 or 5 hours.

so... i put it on the charger and am planning it having it charge all night again, however there will be no more "killing" of the battery, only gonna charge it at night so itll (hopefully) last me through the day.

the only running widgets i have are the Weather and Toggle Widget along with a sportscenter score app. I have weatherbug elite too, but im only setting it so it updates when i click refresh. i know, thats kinda defeating the point of this megaphone but you cant use it if its dead right?

anyways, for anyone interested, ill keep you updated on the life of my battery over the next week or so. I read that it takes about a week or two for the battery to finally get calibrated right and then it should be good to go. im hoping this 5 hours nonsense of over with but well see...

 

[Fizban22]

oh and also, im charging it on the Motorola Desk Dock...

i noticed with my first battery that it would get really hot after using it for only a little bit (thats why it hought it was faulty).

is it bad to use to desk cradle? and if not, when charging for a long period of time (say, overnnight), should we turn the screen off or is it ok to keep it on? i like the large clock and easy access to the alarm clock and all, but again, i dont wanan ruin the battery or phone...

 

[reddog187]

Actually it's really bad for you to let the battery die with these types of batteries.

How to prolong lithium-based batteries

Read the simple guidelines near the bottom of the page.

Also what is the part that was getting hot? I find that the Bottom of the phone gets hot not the battery itself. Usually when that is hot is when I'm accessing a lot of data and GPS. Hope this helps

 

[stryguy]

Actually it's really bad for you to let the battery die with these types of batteries.

How to prolong lithium-based batteries

Read the simple guidelines near the bottom of the page.

Also what is the part that was getting hot? I find that the Bottom of the phone gets hot not the battery itself. Usually when that is hot is when I'm accessing a lot of data and GPS. Hope this helps

While reddog is correct, that article is very dated and refers to lithium iron phosphate cathode Lithium Ion batteries used back about 5 years ago. Today, and in the case of the Droid X, we are using manganese cobalt Lithium Ion. What you also need to know is that programming in both the batteries and the devices that use them have come a long way. The phone stops discharging the battery at 2700 mV and the battery has programming to stop power to the contacts at 2500 mV. Permanent Damage to this Lithium Cell occurs at 1500 mV. So in the phone it's more then safe to discharge the battery to the point that the device shuts off. In fact, as this article points out, you want to discharge your battery to 2700 mV at least once every 30 charges and then follow that with a complete charge to 4200 mV. This re calibrates the smart circuitry within the battery and the battery then reports the correct mV to the phone. This is important as getting this battery to full charge is a bit of a trick. It can quickly reach 4200 mV but that is not a fully charged battery. To fully charge this battery you have to hold the 4200 mV current for a significant time as due to it's design there's a lot of resistance to accepting it's full charge. The phone can prematurely give you a 90% charge reading well before it's 90% charged for example.

Leaving this battery on the cradle charger for extended periods of time is very harmful. Keeping this battery at it's top charge of 4.2v when it's optimum charge level is 3.7 means that significant corrosion is occurring the battery cells. You are also correct in that the phone heats up. The wall charger is not a smart charger and continuously sends current to the phone. Once the battery is fully charged the phone has to dissipate the excess current and does so through the creation of heat. It's not overcharging the battery but it is heating up the battery as the device isn't that large so any heat is going to affect the battery.

Undoubtedly you've seen quick chargers that accept the battery removed from the phone. These "quick chargers" basically shove 4.3 to 4.4v at the battery to overcome the resistance I previously mentioned. These quickly destroy the battery as you might expect.