Conditioning Batteries

[wolstonc]

Is it better to "condition" batteries or not? I read on here that many people say to do it, while I've also read that its a myth and can actually hurt battery life. Should I do it in my nexus? What I'm talking about is where you let it fully drain and fully charge again. I've only conditioned a battery once and it was on the tbolt, and it seemed to make life a lot worse. Is it a myth or not?

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[dezymond]

From what I've read these new batteries do not need any conditioning

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[samiusmc]

At first I didn't condition mine and the battery seemed to drain fast. I then conditioned it by charging all the way then draining all the way twice in a row and my battery life is substantially improved.

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[magnus]

Yes and No.

Here are the facts as far as I know them.

Actual Battery CAPACITY

• Lithium Ion batteries do NOT require or benefit from conditioning. I have heard that draining them fully does them harm thought I cannot verify that. Your experience with the TB seems to corroborate (?) keeping them often plugged in does not do them harm.
• Older Ni-cad batteries did indeed have a 'memory' effect which was best mitigated by draining empty once in a while to keep them from 'thinking' that there was a false bottom capacity

Battery Percentage REPORTING

• The way the OS tells you how much battery life is left is done by measuring the voltage output at the terminals of the battery. As the battery runs down, so does the voltage. Unfortunately, the voltage does not reduce proportional to time so it is difficult to look at the voltage and tell immediately how much battery life is left. Hence the OS learns over time how to make a better correlation between battery voltage and battery life. Running a battery down may help the OS learn better what the actual capacity of the battery is (JUST FOR REPORTING IT OUT TO YOU). I've noticed personally the I get the Red Battery low warning, but then the phone (my OG droid, like you, I've only had my Gnex for a few days, so I'm learning its habits as it is learning mine )still seems to a last at least 6-8 hours more (I'm also a light user). There, the OS is erring on the conservative side to make sure you don't run out of juice and plug it in.
• When YOU have a new phone, you tend to play with it a lot more when it is new.....so your habits change as well as the OS is trying to learn how your phone usage affects the battery. Keep that in mind also.

Moral of the story

• You won't extend the life of the battery (Li+ ion) by running it down once in a while...But as far as I know you won't damage them either (But there are reports either ways)
• Running your battery down could possibly help the OS learn the battery a little bit better possibly giving you a more accurate reporting.

Hope this helps

 

[Newps]

Battery Percentage REPORTING

• The way the OS tells you how much battery life is left is done by measuring the voltage output at the terminals of the battery. As the battery runs down, so does the voltage. Unfortunately, the voltage does not reduce proportional to time so it is difficult to look at the voltage and tell immediately how much battery life is left.

Not correct. The only thing the phone can measure is voltage. A full battery has a certain voltage. The phone will shut down once the battery gets down to a certain voltage. That will be your zero percent. Conditioning is a myth to misdirect your attention away from the fact that we are going backwards in battery life from our first digital flip phones. It's like we all went back to the analog phones and their crappy battery life.

 

[Wonmotyme]

Except now the battery life sucks because we basically have a hand held computer.

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[Snow02]

The only conditioning you need to do is to keep a new battery on the charger for a couple hours past full to make sure you saturate the cells. Running them down all the way does speed the calibration process that normally takes place over several charge cycles, but can in fact harm the battery. Doing this rarely shouldn't be a problem though.

 

[dezymond]

Yes and No.

Here are the facts as far as I know them.

Actual Battery CAPACITY

• Lithium Ion batteries do NOT require or benefit from conditioning. I have heard that draining them fully does them harm thought I cannot verify that. Your experience with the TB seems to corroborate (?) keeping them often plugged in does not do them harm.
• Older Ni-cad batteries did indeed have a 'memory' effect which was best mitigated by draining empty once in a while to keep them from 'thinking' that there was a false bottom capacity

Battery Percentage REPORTING

• The way the OS tells you how much battery life is left is done by measuring the voltage output at the terminals of the battery. As the battery runs down, so does the voltage. Unfortunately, the voltage does not reduce proportional to time so it is difficult to look at the voltage and tell immediately how much battery life is left. Hence the OS learns over time how to make a better correlation between battery voltage and battery life. Running a battery down may help the OS learn better what the actual capacity of the battery is (JUST FOR REPORTING IT OUT TO YOU). I've noticed personally the I get the Red Battery low warning, but then the phone (my OG droid, like you, I've only had my Gnex for a few days, so I'm learning its habits as it is learning mine )still seems to a last at least 6-8 hours more (I'm also a light user). There, the OS is erring on the conservative side to make sure you don't run out of juice and plug it in.
• When YOU have a new phone, you tend to play with it a lot more when it is new.....so your habits change as well as the OS is trying to learn how your phone usage affects the battery. Keep that in mind also.

Moral of the story

• You won't extend the life of the battery (Li+ ion) by running it down once in a while...But as far as I know you won't damage them either (But there are reports either ways)
• Running your battery down could possibly help the OS learn the battery a little bit better possibly giving you a more accurate reporting.

Hope this helps

Very good writeup.
If you are interested in getting the most out of your battery I suggest you read these:
1.http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=16808932
2. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=937080