Battery life suddenly better

[OctoPI]

So a few days ago I went to bed with my battery at about 30% and I forgot to plug in the charger. Needless to say, when I woke up the next day my phone had turned off during the night because the battery had fully drained.
I plugged it into the charger and a couple hours later it was fully charged.

The funny thing is that ever since then, my phone's been keeping its charge a helluva lot longer. Just today for instance, I unplugged it at 100% charge this morning (about 11 hours ago) and the phone is currently at 80% charge. That was after the same amount of usage that I've been doing daily since I got the phone. It used to be at about 40%-50% when I got home from work.

I don't know if it's a coincidence, but for the last two days my battery at the end of the work day has been at about twice the charge than before I FULLY drained the battery and recharged it.

Anyway, you guys might want to get it a go to see if it does anything for you. Then again, I may be imagining things

I'll keep doing some observations to see if anything reverts back to the old battery life I was getting.

 

[kafkef]

These batteries will do that. It is recommended to fully drain and charge the battery about once a month to keep it going.

 

[markouk]

The best thing I did to conserve battery life was to switch to Airplane Mode overnight. I thought if someone wanted to get hold of me desperately during the night, they could call my home number. As of right now the phone battery usage says: 1d 12h 2m 24s since unplugged and I have 55% battery remaining. Pretty good going. Not used it too much for calls but it's good regardless.

 

[Fatal Exception]

The best thing I did to conserve battery life was to switch to Airplane Mode overnight. I thought if someone wanted to get hold of me desperately during the night, they could call my home number. As of right now the phone battery usage says: 1d 12h 2m 24s since unplugged and I have 55% battery remaining. Pretty good going. Not used it too much for calls but it's good regardless.

Surely it would be better to turn your phone off than put it in aeroplane mode? That would save even more battery life

 

[markouk]

Surely it would be better to turn your phone off than put it in aeroplane mode? That would save even more battery life

Lol. Yeah but I need it for my alarm in the morning and I can't be bothered having to switch it on again in the morning...going through boot sequence and all. Although, yes you are correct. Switch it off and don't turn it on EVER will save loads of battery life. Night Night Nexy!

 

[Fatal Exception]

Ah, I didn't realise you needed the alarm.

 

[markouk]

Ah, I didn't realise you needed the alarm.

Now if I had a desktop dock, that'd be different. Actually I thought I'd seen somewhere on here people saying that constantly charging Lithium Ion batteries was a bad idea. Surely the dock will just keep charging it? Now I though about this and was wondering if the charging circuit would cut off as soon as the phone is charged. I think most devices would do that or set it to trickle charge but maybe that isn't so good for a Li-Ion battery either? This desktop dock has made me question the knowledge of the battery geeks now.

 

[Fatal Exception]

I've heard conflcting information. Some people say leaving it on charge for long periods is good for li-ion, others say it's bad. Im not sure which is true. I know for older phones it was VERY bad to do it, but newer batteries do not have the memory effect AFAIK.

 

[OctoPI]

So the phone's been unplugged for 22h 48m and the battery charge is at 62%.
I leave mine on all the time as I don't have a land line to use overnight.

So far so good

 

[Fatal Exception]

Same thing. My record was 15% at 48Hrs, that was after my second charge. I've been using lots of voice calls so mine is dropping quite fast at the moment.

 

[MartinS]

I would think that now devices and batteries are "smart" leaving the phone in the dock wouldn't be a problem.

The battery stops charging once it's at 100%, but the phone still runs on power from the charger. At least the battery is not overcharging but I guess it is topped up slightly regularly.

Anyone?

 

[oniongirl]

So the phone's been unplugged for 22h 48m and the battery charge is at 62%.
I leave mine on all the time as I don't have a land line to use overnight.

So far so good

Sorry, I'm confused (as usual!) - is this *after* employing the complete battery drain? I'm 5% away from completely dead, so we'll see what happens

edit: also, are you leaving your phone off whilst recharging to max, or keeping it on? Mine seems to boot up automatically once plugged in.

 

[OctoPI]

Sorry, I'm confused (as usual!) - is this *after* employing the complete battery drain? I'm 5% away from completely dead, so we'll see what happens

edit: also, are you leaving your phone off whilst recharging to max, or keeping it on? Mine seems to boot up automatically once plugged in.

Correct that was after I'd completely drained the battery. I completely drained the battery, turned the phone back on (it had turned off), immediately put it on the charger while it was still booting and let it charge to 100% and then took it off the charger. After 22 hours of being on and used throughout the day it was down to 62%. I always keep the phone on during the recharge process. I'd never kept it off since I got it except for that night when it fully drained itself and shut off automatically. My personal observations even today is that the charge is holding a LOT longer than before. And I've begun keeping my screen on the middle illumination setting ever since I've noticed longer battery life.

 

[Rusty]

but newer batteries do not have the memory effect AFAIK.

You're right, thankfully Li-On batteries are free from it.

 

[markouk]

I would think that now devices and batteries are "smart" leaving the phone in the dock wouldn't be a problem.

The battery stops charging once it's at 100%, but the phone still runs on power from the charger. At least the battery is not overcharging but I guess it is topped up slightly regularly.

Anyone?

The assumption I have is that it will stop charging the battery once it reaches 100%. I'm going to look at the user manual now.

 

[Rusty]

It will stop charging... lithium battery charging is more than just throwing 5v at the battery, it's a 3 stage system: Charging lithium-ion batteries

 

[oniongirl]

You can tell it stops charging because it stops being so hot. Which is a nice thing to know when you're a leave-it-plugged-in-overnight kinda person. No accidental scolding of the bedside table ;o)