when do you charge your battery?

[pcwe68]

Just curious, when do you charge your li-ion batteries?

Do you charge it only when its fully drain, i.e. cannot swicth on your camera or handphone?

Do you charge it when its left with maybe 25% i.e. one bar left but handphone or camera still operational?

Do you charge it everytime irregardless of strength of battery?

For myself, I will charge my nokia handphone when its down to 1 bar, so far its been working fine and lasting for more than 2 years.

However for my notebook, I charge it when it warns about low battery, but doing that causes the battery to deplete to the point its only useable for 10mins now as compared to 2hrs usage at the start.

What is the best practice for Li-ion battery? Do you overcharge it?

 

[mylau]

i charge mine as and when i like it. All my Li-ion batteries lasted more than 1 year.

 

[wacko]

for li-ion batteries, it doesn't matter when you charge the batt, there is no memory effect.

 

[SNAG]

Just some questions:

We all know that there is no memory effect for Li-ion batteries, but when you charge once, doesn't the battery lose a charge cycle?

In the long run, won't this kill the battery off indirectly?

 

[Winston]

Just some questions:

We all know that there is no memory effect for Li-ion batteries, but when you charge once, doesn't the battery lose a charge cycle?

In the long run, won't this kill the battery off indirectly?

Charge cycles for Li-ion battery are usually in the thousands. Maybe 1000 or 2000 depending on brand and type.

Assuming you charge it once a day.
It will last abt 3 years if the charge life is 1000. That's more than the warranty life of a notebook.

Then again, the 1000 is only an estimate and even if you exceed the 1000 it probably only means the battery life of the full charge is reduced.
(meaning a full charged old battery will not last as long as a full charged new battery)

 

[ST1100]

http://www.buchmann.ca/default.asp

This site provides lots of useful info on batteries.

What i can remember about Li-ions from that site is that while it has no memory effect, the battery does break down:

- Capacity is not the only factor. Different batteries are built at diff qualities. One good reason to buy expensive originals.

- Heat is one main cause. Recommended storage is cool environment. Laptop bottom is hot environment.

- Ideal storage charge is 40% charge, not full charge.

- Li-ions don't take well to full cycle (full discharge+full recharge) and should be done sparingly.

You can browse through the site to verify the above, or correct any mistakes in my memory.

 

[wacko]

- Li-ions don't take well to full cycle (full discharge+full recharge) and should be done sparingly.

i do not think this is true