Conditioning the battery (how to drain fast purposely)?

[sublro]

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.

I don't doubt you - still, here's the info straight from Verizon's website - they even seem to be talking about the specific battery model and referencing lithium ion specifically - how frustrating is that?

Battery Overview - HTC DROID Incredible ADR6300

Battery Specifications

• Up to 312 Minutes "Talk Time"
• Up to 146 Hours Stand by Time

Tips for extending battery life

• Turn off any services (WiFi, Bluetooth, etc.) that are not being used.
• Avoid exposing the battery to extreme heat and cold.
• For the first 3 charge cycles, fully charge the battery overnight and allow it to fully discharge before recharging (battery conditioning).
• Charge and re-condition a battery after an extended idle period.
• A lithium-ion battery may be damaged by extensive overcharging (continuously on a charger for more than 24 hours).

 

[Yourrid]

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.

I don't doubt you - still, here's the info straight from Verizon's website - they even seem to be talking about the specific battery model and referencing lithium ion specifically - how frustrating is that?

Battery Overview - HTC DROID Incredible ADR6300

Battery Specifications

• Up to 312 Minutes "Talk Time"
• Up to 146 Hours Stand by Time

Tips for extending battery life

• Turn off any services (WiFi, Bluetooth, etc.) that are not being used.
• Avoid exposing the battery to extreme heat and cold.
• For the first 3 charge cycles, fully charge the battery overnight and allow it to fully discharge before recharging (battery conditioning).
• Charge and re-condition a battery after an extended idle period.
• A lithium-ion battery may be damaged by extensive overcharging (continuously on a charger for more than 24 hours).

I read the exact same thing when I got my DX, and I have been conditioning it over and over again. Letting it discharge until it shuts off, and then giving it a full charge again. Each time i have noticed SIGNIFICANTLY longer "talk times" after each charge. I measured it from my work schedule. Some days it woulnt last when I worked 10-5 with very light usage. While yesterday it lasted 1-9 under EXTREMELY HEAVY USAGE and it still lasted throughout the night.

If everyone says that conditioning doesn't do anything then that's your own, misguided opinion. Works wonderful for me and I was pissed off to start with about the battery life. Now, I don't have a single complaint; it actually is a very strong battery for the amount this phone uses.dancedroid

 

[sublro]

the flip side is that looking around, I'm finding a lot of recent doc on batteries that are specifically labeled lithium ion that specifically tells you to condition it and says in so many words that this is good practice for lithium ion batteries in general. either way a large body of pretty smart sounding people has it totally wrong and I just don't know which. given that the pro-conditioning stuff seems to be coming from manufacturers and sellers, I'm giving them the slight edge. I actually know someone who's an expert and has just published an hour long course in the fundamentals of lithium ion batteries (of all things ) - i'm going to ask her. Stay tuned.

 

[Humpa]

the flip side is that looking around, I'm finding a lot of recent doc on batteries that are specifically labeled lithium ion that specifically tells you to condition it and says in so many words that this is good practice for lithium ion batteries in general. either way a large body of pretty smart sounding people has it totally wrong and I just don't know which. given that the pro-conditioning stuff seems to be coming from manufacturers and sellers, I'm giving them the slight edge. I actually know someone who's an expert and has just published an hour long course in the fundamentals of lithium ion batteries (of all things ) - i'm going to ask her. Stay tuned.

Here's the deal.
It don't matter much at all what you do to a Li Ion battery. After a year of wasting all your time thinking and worrying about the battery and charging it "just right", you'll be down to 80% of initial charge capacity. If you abused the hell out of the battery for that year instead, you would be down to 75% of initial charge capacity. So use and charge your phone as best suits your needs, not as best suits the needs of some $50 battery.

And what you do in the first 3 days will not extend the life of the battery. The battery may be at its normal/peak charge capacity after a couple days of use, but that will happen whether you use it normally or charge/discharge by some pre-set plan.

You do want to occasionally let the phone go down to under 15% just to keep the charging/metering circuitry calibrated, but aside from that it doesn't matter much what you do. Just don't let it drain down too much - Li Ion doesn't like that - but the phone shuts off at 5% anyway, so you're fine.

 

[hookbill]

I don't give a rats behind what Verizon's web site says. The current lithium battery does not require conditioning and they are absolutely wrong.

But like someone else said, you can get a new battery for actually less then 10 bucks so be my guess, treat it as you please. I've been down the road too many times on this battery thing, I know what I say is a fact.

The battery stops charging when it's full. How can being on a charger longer then 24 hours possibly hurt it?

I've got a wall plug in charger at home. The directions with that tells me not to charger it longer then two hours! The only problem with that theory is it takes the wall charger as long as 5 hours to charge the battery. So who you going to believe?

 

[coondogg97]

Motorola Droid BP6X Battery | Overstock.com

I am happy to pay the $20 and not worry about how much I am charging (or discharging) my phone.

 

[Humpa]

... and though hook and I are correct. It does no harm to let the phone run down to 5% on your first 3 charges. Feel free to do that if it makes you feel better. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, and it does zero harm. Also, there is absolutely no harm in NOT leaving the phone on a charger. So feel free to take the phone off the charger when it is done charging.

So for those who want to believe the info from VZW, please do. It isn't like they have some harmful info there or anything. You will be just fine following that advise, just as you will be just fine following our advise.

 

[sublro]

Motorola Droid BP6X Battery | Overstock.com

I am happy to pay the $20 and not worry about how much I am charging (or discharging) my phone.

i'm not worried about the life expectancy of the battery. my only interest in what's being said about conditioning is in making a charge last longer... given the incredible stock battery being so lame. would like to not have to go to the giant battery...

 

[sublro]

...

So for those who want to believe the info from VZW, please do. It isn't like they have some harmful info there or anything. You will be just fine following that advise, just as you will be just fine following our advise.

regarding VZW customer service info, it's worth mentioning that the amount and complete oposite-ness of contradictory/wrong information I got from 4 reps over a couple days investigtating and finally purchasing the Incredible would have been hilarious if it hadn't been so annoying and time-consuming. They just cannot get people all on the same page over there.... bottom line based on years of experience is that VZW "official" info is regrettably always open to doubt...

 

[coondogg97]

Motorola Droid BP6X Battery | Overstock.com

I am happy to pay the $20 and not worry about how much I am charging (or discharging) my phone.

i'm not worried about the life expectancy of the battery. my only interest in what's being said about conditioning is in making a charge last longer... given the incredible stock battery being so lame. would like to not have to go to the giant battery...

Point taken, I will keep my lame opinions to myself.

 

[Humpa]

Motorola Droid BP6X Battery | Overstock.com

I am happy to pay the $20 and not worry about how much I am charging (or discharging) my phone.

i'm not worried about the life expectancy of the battery. my only interest in what's being said about conditioning is in making a charge last longer... given the incredible stock battery being so lame. would like to not have to go to the giant battery...

Point taken, I will keep my lame opinions to myself.

Don't do that. We aren't keeping our lame opinions to ourselves.
... besides, you had even provided a link. That's worth extra.

 

[Skull One]

Lithium-Ion Battery 101....


The saga continues....


Ok, lets gets some facts on the table.

Consumer grade Lithium-Ion batteries:
1) Do not have memories.

2) Do not need to be "Conditioned".

3) Do not need to be "Deep-Cycled". (Yes I know conditioned and deep-cycle are the same thing but some people don't)

4) Need to be stored for long periods at 40% charge.

5) Need to be trickled charged for the phone to get the voltage to 4200mV.

6) Once at 4200mV you should remove the battery from the charge for longer battery life.

7) Should never be discharged below 2700mV. (Below this some battery makers force high current chargers to be used. IE you can't use standard USB ports to charge it)

8) Should never be used when the internal temp reaches 140F (due to thermal runaway)

9) Should not be used when the internal temp drops below 32F (Because you won't be able to recharge it till is above that temp)

Every one of these statements can be verified with the battery makers.


So about now some of you are yelling at the screen "BUT SKULL! WHY DO THEY SAY TO CONDITION THE BATTERY!?!?!?"

Because the Android OS stores the battery usage & discharge prediction in /data/system/batterystats.bin. And there are only 3 ways to reset the data in that file.

1) Root your phone and delete it manually.
2) Do a Factory Wipe if you don't have root.
3) Fully charge then discharge your battery.

And now you know the rest of the story...

 

[bgill55]

Well Said Skull!!!


*Thread Closed and Locked*

 

[Motorolamarketer]

Battery charging

hi, I'm totally new. Just got my X yesterday and have had to charge it twice already. Just wondering how often you can expect to charge it. Granted I'm probably using it more now because it is a novelty but just wondering how often I should count on charging. Thanks in advance for any info!

 

[stryguy]

Keeping the batteries at full charge (which is 4200 mV) causes oxidation within the battery cells and slowly decreases the maximum charge the battery can hold. In addition the "smart" part of the charging routine is in the phone itself. Yes, it won't overcharge the battery but the phone has to do something with the current it is constantly receiving. It turns this current into heat which causes additional damage (however slight) to the battery.

This oxidation and heat damage occurs over the course of months, not days. It is correct that in about a year your battery will only hold 70% of it's original capacity and it's due to this damage. I would not let this concern me and just use the phone on the charger as you like with the expectation that you're buying a new battery in a year or so.

Conditioning.. You cannot condition the Lithium Ion cells themselves but the battery reports it's voltage to the phone, the phone doesn't know the battery's voltage. So the battery is a smart battery and reports it's "State of Charge" (SOC). The battery needs to learn it's SOC and can only do so by learning it's upper limit and lower limit. Over time a phenomenon called Cumulative Error Buildup occurs and we must show the battery it's upper and lower limits again.

Now I know there's a lot of talk on this issue but may I just say that I have a PhD in Inorganic Chemistry and have worked on battery technology now for 12 years.