[LaRZo]

I know the more you charge a battery in a cell phone, even if you plug it in for 2 minutes, the more you waste a battery cycle. I've been plugging in my phone to the CPU and into the charger at night at least twice a day, sometimes more. In doing this, am I slowly killing my full battery life every time? My battery is about 70-65% right now taken off the charger at around 145pm after making a good amount of quick calls to a lot of people (New years madness), 1 battery pull for a VZW lock up screen ( ) and some SMS texts. I'm going to be at a party in which the persons house has little to no service, and I dont know if I should plug it in and waste a cycle charging it for an hour or so. Any insight? Thanks all.


Happy New Years

Edit: Just realized I posted this in the OS/Beta discussion. I appologize. Can I request a move? Thanks mods.

[ADay8945]

The Storm battery is lithium ion. It prefers frequent and short charge cycles. Letting the battery drain completely and then recharging it should only be done once in a while.

How to prolong lithium-based batteries

Simple Guidelines

* Avoid frequent full discharges because this puts additional strain on the battery. Several partial discharges with frequent recharges are better for lithium-ion than one deep one. Recharging a partially charged lithium-ion does not cause harm because there is no memory. (In this respect, lithium-ion differs from nickel-based batteries.) Short battery life in a laptop is mainly cause by heat rather than charge / discharge patterns.

* Batteries with fuel gauge (laptops) should be calibrated by applying a deliberate full discharge once every 30 charges. Running the pack down in the equipment does this. If ignored, the fuel gauge will become increasingly less accurate and in some cases cut off the device prematurely.

* Keep the lithium-ion battery cool. Avoid a hot car. For prolonged storage, keep the battery at a 40% charge level.

* Consider removing the battery from a laptop when running on fixed power. (Some laptop manufacturers are concerned about dust and moisture accumulating inside the battery casing.)

* Avoid purchasing spare lithium-ion batteries for later use. Observe manufacturing dates. Do not buy old stock, even if sold at clearance prices.

* If you have a spare lithium-ion battery, use one to the fullest and keep the other cool by placing it in the refrigerator. Do not freeze the battery. For best results, store the battery at 40% state-of-charge.

[bigman2]

It's kind of a balancing act. Li Ion batteries don't have the memory issue older NiCad batteries did, but they still only last for about 500-1000 recharge cycles before they start to lose capacity, and they will often lose capacity very quickly once it starts.

So, you need to find some kind of system that works for you. Personally, I'd let the phone battery run down to around the 20-40% range before charging. Just charge it overnight when it gets into that general range, and of course charge it as needed if you have a period of heavy use and drain it more than usual. But I would say it's generally best if you can charge it completely every time you stick it on the charger.

[Rooster]

Interesting stuff guys. I think the full discharge/full charge is good for when breaking in a new battery.

[LaRZo]

Interesting stuff. Thanks guys. My Storm has been completely discharged/charged about 2 times now and I'm noticing today that I'm definitely getting better battery life.