Conditioning the battery (how to drain fast purposely)?

[abean]

Hey all,

I keep reading posts about "conditioning" the battery by draining it to empty, charge, rinse and repeat to get better use of the battery. Is there any quick and/or easy way/app to drain the battery?

Thanks

 

[Redneck Trash]

Guess you could stream music or videos. I've always just given a new battery a full charge and let it discharge over normal usage.

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

 

[Joe Breezy]

I would say.....by heavy use....especially data usage....that always drains phones fast. Change the sleep mode so it stays on all the time.....I don't really know of a fast way....but I thought I would answer anyways.

 

[drpurp]

What I did to do quick battery drains was GPS on, 3G on, max brightness, live wallpaper, KeepScreen (market) on the launcher, and play music.

 

[hookbill]

Hey all,

I keep reading posts about "conditioning" the battery by draining it to empty, charge, rinse and repeat to get better use of the battery. Is there any quick and/or easy way/app to drain the battery?

Thanks

There is absolutely no need to do this with a lithium battery. This is false information you are getting.

You want to charge it up until it stops charging, then let it discharge. Recharge it around 15%. Do not let it completely discharge on a regular basis. It's OK occasionally.

Anyway the Droid will shut off at 5% no matter what.

 

[abean]

So is it bad to keep it plugged in most of the day? While at work, I stream pandora/slacker and keep it plugged in via USB ... is this a bad thing to be doing?

 

[Fatalis]

agree with hookbill....Some peeps seem to be getting confused with the older Ni Cad batteries that benefited from 'conditioning'

Ni Cad type conditioning to a lithium battery will do it more harm than good

 

[Humpa]

So is it bad to keep it plugged in most of the day? While at work, I stream pandora/slacker and keep it plugged in via USB ... is this a bad thing to be doing?

No, that's fine. Lithium Ion batteries can pretty much take whatever you do to them and not be affected significantly. There is one thing that they do not like though - and that is a complete drain (it can damage the cells). 5% is fine, but 0% is very bad. The only reason to drain it purposefully is to help the battery meter stay correctly calibrated. Let it go down to 15% or less every now and again just to keep it calibrated.

The three things that determine the lifespan of a LI battery are time since the manufacture date, number of charge cycles, and heat. So, leaving it plugged in is obviously creating heat, and increasing the number of cycles - but I don't think it would be all that significant. Heck, just leaving a battery on a shelf will cause it to wear out.

EDIT: Let's say after a year of normal usage, your LI battery is down to 70% of it's initial charge capacity. If over that year, you had instead abused the heck out of your battery - leave it on a charger, always topping it off, anything but let it go down enough to damage it, of course - I bet instead of down to 70% it might instead have been down to 65% (maybe?). All in all I'd call that insignificant compared to just doing what suits my needs as opposed to what I think is best for some inanimate object.

 

[Juicemane]

been said before, but ill say it again. Just dont let it die. You can charge it however often you like, just dont let it wear down to 0-5% or you risk cell damage. Charge your heart out.

 

[hookbill]

According to the manuals for lithium batteries that laptops like Apple uses I have been told that occasional full discharge is a good idea. However I've tried that and haven't seen any difference.

Like I said earlier Droid can't discharge past 5% anyway before it shuts off, but really you can charge it as much as you like. No memory or conditioning needed.

 

[WhiskeySix]

Either way, you can get a brand-spankin new battery for around 10 bucks - so it's not that big a deal if/when it does die

 

[Cee]

Is there a "right" way to charge the battery?

Is it better to run the battery down as low as possible before charging it, or, is it safe to charge it when it is at 70%, 50% etc? I don't want to ruin the battery.

Thanx in advance for any responses

 

[hookbill]

Lithium batteries do not have memories and require no conditioning. Just plug it in and charge it. Its ready to go charge it as often as you like.

 

[Cee]

Yes, I was thinking it was a NiCad battery. I knew there was another kind which didn't have a "memory". Thanx so very much for this. I tend to charge mine when it gets just a bit down, so when I go out it's full, so this makes me feel a lot better

 

[Dirty X]

Lithium batteries do not have memories and require no conditioning. Just plug it in and charge it. Its ready to go charge it as often as you like.

See I've had it programmed into my mind for so long that I need to let the battery completely drain into the red before fully charging it for so long now, that it seems so strange to be able to do this!