Taking care of the second Bionic battery.

[HorsePony]

Was one of the lucky ones that got my Bionic through Costco, affording me the nice accessories deal with the phone, including an extra battery and a battery charger.
Separately, I bought an extended battery from Verizon when they had it on sale for half off.
So, I have 3 batteries total.
Standard one I use day to day.
Extended one I use on my long marathon training runs so I don't run out of juice running Spotify and my RunKeeper app for 3 or 4 hours straight.

This leaves the extra standard battery basically unused.

My question: what do I need to do, if anything, to care for this second standard battery?
Do I need to keep it charged every few days even though I doubt I will use it anytime soon?
Is it ok to not charge it for weeks/months to a point where it shouldn't have a charge to it at all from not being charged up?

I know I'm not using it, but hey, I have it and who knows...it may come in very handy in the future.
But what's the best way to preserve it for the next year or two...?

Any battery care gurus with input are appreciated.

- HP

 

[slaya786]

Good post, id like to know this aswell

 

[clintro]

Imo.... You should rotate the stock batteries. If you should chose to store the other one you can google care for li-ion batteries, and you should fine that it should be stored at about 60% full for long term storage. But rotating would be you're best. Maybe every other week?

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk

 

[billyk]

^^ What he said.

I've always had second batteries for my phones over the years. I just rotate them every now and then. It's a great idea to have that second battery, especially when you've got this new generation of hungry 4G phones.

 

[mikespe]

Related question...I just purchased the extended battery for my Bionic & plan on using that as my primary one. Are there any "battery only" chargers on the market so I can keep the extra battery freshly charged (maybe once per week or two weeks?)...For my OG I had a dock that also had a spare battery charger built in.

 

[tbell6]

When I bought my second battery & charger for verizon it came with device that holds spare battery standing on end. It has connection for charger and male connection you plug into Droid. You can charge battery and/phone @same time.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using DroidForums

 

[jhom]

I posted a similar question on bionicforums.net. I'm in the same situation with 3 batteries, 2 standard and 1 extended. My solution is to rotate each battery weekly. Based on an article that was posted on the link, it is advised that you should use LI-ion battery every 2-3 weeks. The self life of the battery is a few years. I've conditioned the batteries by running full charge/discharge for 3 cycles. I hope this allows for maximum life of the batteries, at least for the next two years. A good sign that it may be working is that my last charge of one of the standard batteries has lasted for over 25 hours with light to moderate use.

 

[mikespe]

When I bought my second battery & charger for verizon it came with device that holds spare battery standing on end. It has connection for charger and male connection you plug into Droid. You can charge battery and/phone @same time.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using DroidForums

Could you post a link to which charger you bought? I only ordered the extended battery & I am using the charger that came with the phone to charge the phone. I would like to get the charger that takes the extra battery too. Thanks

 

[Fonzz]

Related question...I just purchased the extended battery for my Bionic & plan on using that as my primary one. Are there any "battery only" chargers on the market so I can keep the extra battery freshly charged (maybe once per week or two weeks?)...For my OG I had a dock that also had a spare battery charger built in.

Yes, the costco deal included an extra battery and a dedicated battery charger. This "battery" charger will charge the standard battery and the extended one. I suppose you can get it directly from Verizon or elsewhere if you did not get the costco deal.

 

[lithoman]

I have looked on verizons web site and cant find just a battery charger for the bionic's spare batt.
seen some universal ones online dont know if it would work with the ext batt?

 

[jayman350]

Amazon.com: Motorola 89508N Battery Dock with BW Battery and Rapid Wall Charger for DROID BIONIC - Charger - Retail Packaging - Black: Cell Phones & Accessories believe this is the one that people are talking about getting in the Costco deal. I've been tempted to grab this as well. I just got my extended battery yesterday, its nice to have the extra juice but damn does it add size and weight to it. I'm thinking about ditching the extended battery and just using two normal batteries.

With my D1 I had a battery charger that I would keep at my desk with the spare charging. When the battery in the phone got low I swapped it out w/ the one on the charger and charged the one that came out of the phone. Probably not the best for the life of the battery, but what is the point of having an extra if you are just going to let it sit around doing nothing for a majority of the time.

 

[steveninspokane]

Like a few others have said: Rotation FTW.

When one runs out, the other is already charged and waiting to be exchanged. I never even worry about my battery anymore.

 

[HorsePony]

So I guess basically what we're saying here is - use the battery, you can't save it, if you don't use it and continually charge/re-charge it, it will eventually just go bad on you in no time at all.

Correct?

I also wonder with this approach if the back cover will become "loose" after being taken off and put back on repeatedly every other day or week in order to preserve a secondary battery (that to be honest, I wasn't all that crazy about. I got the Costco deal for the "free" desk dock, car dock...the extra battery and its charger were just gravy).

 

[don_droid]

The way a Li Ion battery works does not require and in fact can be hurt by deep discharge. Never condition a new Li Ion battery like we did with the older Metal Hydrids. Plus, never leave them on the charger for several days or weeks, this will help to hurt the electrodes inside the battery and the battery will age faster.

Just use it like others have said. These batteries age so they will degrade even sitting on the shelf. Plus, they do not need to be kept cold, just cool room temp. Just store them about half charged and do not let them sit too long. Never store them almost empty, since they might go too low. When a Li Ion battery charge drops too low they can be damaged and lose lifetime.

 

[HorsePony]

Hmmm, that's helpful.
So - basically keep the batteries charged, take them off the charger, let 'em sit if I'm not using them for a day or two, and then recharge them again, right?

Follow-up question...anyone know how long a battery outside of the Bionic will hold a charge until it's essentially around 30-40% so I can estimate how many days pass before recharging it again?

I hope this ends up not being as much of a hassle in practice as it seems in my head.