Battery life help?

[BustAMove1315]

Can the way you charge your phone change how the battery works? Like letting it die the first time before you charge it? Or charging it for only a few hours at a time? Or charging when it has a certain percentage left? I am not looking for apps that will help, just specific charging methods.

 

[Ziani]

I let my phone die at least once a month otherwise just charge daily. I read somewhere charging it when it gets to about 40% is good for it not sure if that really makes any difference with these modern battereis. Maybe somebody else will comment.

 

[Perihelion]

Theoretically, current generation lithium ion batteries are not subject to memory so charging when its not completely dead should not affect the total capacity that it can hold. However, no battery lasts forever and battery life is usually measured in cycle count. (how many times its been charged). You'll often see battery ratings like "guaranteed to retain 80% of original capacity after 1000 charge cycles" or similar. With that in mind, the more times you charge it, the closer you're pushing it to end of life. That's why I almost always run it all the way down before charging it back up. I actually wait for the warning window and the indicator to turn red. Just my $0.02.

 

[Xyro]

But does recharging at 50% only count as half a charge cycle or a full cycle?

 

[Perihelion]

As far as I know, every time you plug it in (i.e. switch from discharging to charging) it counts as a cycle. You're reversing electron flow between the cathode and anode.

 

[Zbig]

As far as I know, every time you plug it in (i.e. switch from discharging to charging) it counts as a cycle. You're reversing electron flow between the cathode and anode.

I don't believe that's the case. The most recommended charging strategy for Lithium batteries just happens to quite match the most typical usage scenario, that is to recharge it any time you want to and purposely waiting for it to deplete completely isn't generally recommended. Furthermore, for Lithium battery, it's very likely that it will die because of its "age" rather than cycling (heavy duty applications like R/C models aside). The aging is very pronounced in Li(Ion/Po) batteries.

If you care for some quality reading on various battery chemistries, I recommend this site:
Welcome to Battery University

 

[Xyro]

Yeah that's what I've always heard, that Li-ion batteries are best suited to many small recharges rather than letting it get all the way down.

 

[walkinhotdog]

What ive always done is charge it to full when it is at low battery (almost dead). That strategy seems to have been working really well with all my phones. Even my razr which is 3 years old (passed down to my mom now), holds a charge just as well as when i first got it.

 

[Zbig]

What ive always done is charge it to full when it is at low battery (almost dead). That strategy seems to have been working really well with all my phones. Even my razr which is 3 years old (passed down to my mom now), holds a charge just as well as when i first got it.

And most probably it would do just as fine or better if you charged it every so often. The fact is Lithium batteries don't like to be deep-discharged and you'll find this information in every serious source of information on this type of batteries. The fact you didn't do much harm to yours most probably could be attributed to the relatively high low voltage threshold imposed by a phone's circuitry. LiPo cells get easily damaged beyond recovery when discharged below 3V underload and that's why the phone manufacturers leave some headroom, saying that the battery is dead well before it actually is. This way you won't kill your battery by letting it to discharge and then forget about it for some more time.