[IrishJK09]

Battery life is measured in cycles (charges). a battery can only be charged X amount of times and it will start to lose capacity. You are better to only charge the batt when it needs it, "topping off" is considered a cycle. If you charge your batt when it is not needed your are going to lose capacity faster than only charging when needed. I sell Blackberry's for a living, these are no different than a regular cell phone, charge when needed ( half empty or less ) and you will get at least 2 yrs on a battery ( unless you talk 3 or 4 thousand mins a month )

Wow.... Umm, how about no.

Topping off is NOT considered a cycle. I hate to use this particular device for my source, but check this iPhone Battery Link if you want more info. It pertains to Lithium Ion batteries in general, NOT just the iPhone. BlackBerry's use Lithium Ion batteries, so the information is applicable to both devices.

[Blacklatino]

So your saying that i shouldnt run the battery down to red and charge it all the way back up. Perhaps just plug it in before bed every other day or so?

Maximum Battery Life

From BlackBerryFAQ

"Max The Battery Life Of Your New BlackBerry

• Modern BlackBerrys come with Lithium-Ion batteries, or "Li-Ion' for short.
• Some older models used Nickel Metal Hydride batteries, or "NiMH" for short.

Li-Ion battery are best kept topped up regularly. A battery that has been left flat for a long time will benefit from being fully-charged and then fully discharged a couple of times, but there is no advantage to doing this to batteries in regular use."

[blackops]

Another LIO Battery FAQ.

The only thing I would add is that I do charge the battery fully before use. I'm not sure if it's needed with LIOs or not, but it's a force of habit with vehicle batteries. It's a completely different type of battery of course, but with car batteries, if you have it at 50% charge and stuff it in your car and drive off, that will be it's max charge from then on. So just to be safe I charge LIOs fully before using them.

[Blacklatino]

It's very simple, use it all day and charge it while you sleep. But, you do what you want.

[metreece]

Question for Marine39- Is it best to use AC charger or DC charger? Someone told me that DC charging cords hit batteries much harder and it was best to always charge with AC charger unless it is a last resort.

[Marine39]

Question for Marine39- Is it best to use AC charger or DC charger? Someone told me that DC charging cords hit batteries much harder and it was best to always charge with AC charger unless it is a last resort.

Either way is fine as long as the output voltage and amperage of the chargers are compatible. The car charger (DC) actually saves you a step because the AC charger needs to convert to DC before outputting to the device. But definitely stick with OEM chargers. Although mini-USB is a popular plug type, if the output is 5V but 1.7A instead of the 0.7A you need, you will damage your battery and maybe even you device. People complain all the time about companies using proprietary connectors for their charger, but there's the reason for it - they don't want people to fry their devices. I'd rather spend $30 on a quality charger than $300 to replace my berry!

Semper Fi,

~Marine39

[metreece]

Thanks Marine39. The DC cord supplied with my phone by my company is a Mobile Rapid charger and it has a little sticker on the cord that says "Compatible with all Mini USB Motorola and Blackberry phones". There is no indication of voltage or current on the charger. I don't think it is OEM since Verizon is not shown. The "plug" symbol goes out when the battery status reaches 100% on the Options Status screen. Does that mean that it would be OK to use this 3rd party DC charger cord?

On a separate note, would using a USB port to charge always be a safe way to charge? I don't think computer USB ports have much power capability. The "plug" symbol also goes out at 100% when using the USB sync cord to charge the phone too.

[Marine39]

Well, OEM would be from RIM as they manufacture the equipment, not Verizon - just FYI. You should be fine with that charger. I wasn't saying that all aftermarket chargers are bad, I'm just saying if you want to play it safe, stick with the OEM ones. I'm sure there are plenty of chargers out there that are as good if not better than the OEM supplied ones. The battery is the most important part... if you use an aftermarket battery it might not have a protection circuit in it which would cause it to overcharge and that would not be good!

When the plug symbol goes away, that's the protection circuit in the battery telling the phone that it's done charging. USB charging is fine as well, it will just take longer.

Semper Fi,

~Marine39

[NoMoreWindows]

As someone runs a battery factory, here are my 2 cents;

Every battery charges differently based on it's chemistry, ie what was good for Ni-cad is not applicable Lithium Ion

Every battery has a finite number of cycles, though this number is typically based on the depth of discharge. This is usually a curve, so by cutting the depth in half you may not double the number of cycles.

Charging voltage is very crucial, this is what determines how much current the battery will take. Increase the voltage and you will increase the acceptance of current to the battery and vise versa. The battery will limit how much amperage it will take based on the charging voltage. Charging a battery is very similar to filling a compressed gas tank, the pressure (voltage) must be greater from the source (charger) than the tank (battery), the flow rate (amperage) is determined by the difference in of pressure between the two.

A battery is just a storage tank for electrons.

[WJRobbins]

See lol, this is what im talking about. People are suggestiong topping the battery off and discharging/recharging the first few times. And this guy says not too at all. Who do i listen too!?! lol

In the end, it's up to you.

But Li_Ion is a far cry from Ni-Cad. Most folks still cling to the behaviors of Ni-Cad, even some battery manufactures still list the same charge behavior for Li-Ion as Ni-Cad.

The memory thing is a Ni-Cad only behavior. Almost all EE references say to charge Li-Ion frequently and avoid total discharge.

[Dante44bx]

Just charge it when you need it. When you your battery starts to crap out, guess what........You can get another..