Charging Practice - Use till dead or whenever?

[IronWaffle]

I've found lots of tips and tricks, but not really the answer to what i'm looking for.

Should I be waiting until my phone is dead to charge, or simply charge when ever I want to maximize my battery life?

Thanks.

 

[mobil3gen]

This is what I know..

With OLD nickel batteries you used to have to wait until they were really low or nearly dead to charge them because of battery memory - however with lithium-ion batteries, which I think all cell phones use now, operate a little differently.

Although lithium-ion is memory-free in terms of performance deterioration, batteries with fuel gauges exhibit what engineers refer to as "digital memory". Here is the reason: Short discharges with subsequent recharges do not provide the periodic calibration needed to synchronize the fuel gauge with the battery's state-of-charge.

(Battery University)

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I dont believe the battery in our phone has a fuel gauge - so battery deterioration due to some sort of memory issue related to charging is not a concern.

I charge my phone at random times and for random lengths of time and I never see any issues with battery life becoming shorter.

Hope that helps!

 

[Deleted User]

I've found lots of tips and tricks, but not really the answer to what i'm looking for.
Should I be waiting until my phone is dead to charge, or simply charge when ever I want to maximize my battery life?
Thanks.

I concur with the other post, Li-Ion does NOT suffer from any ill effects by doing partial charges or topping up. In fact, the best thing for the life of the battery is to top it up whenever you want and as often as you want. Running it down dead is actually about the only thing that hurts them, so try to avoid killing the battery if you can.

Also, Li-Ion is not limited to a number of charges, instead it has a finite life related to the chemistry of the battery. So charge it whenever you want and use it.

 

[SUroot]

As above, Just charge when you can and don't when you can't. Just don't think about it.

 

[Deleted User]

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I dont believe the battery in our phone has a fuel gauge

Actually all devices that use 3 or 4 pin contacts have some sort of intelligent battery "fuel gauge". If it's just a power source, then it has just 2 pins (+/-), but if it has 3 or 4 then those pins are for data signals from the onboard chip inside the battery pack that regulates current flow, voltage, battery status, and temperature. The Desire uses all 4 pins and monitors this info and you can see most of it by keying in *#*#4636#*#* at the dialpad. It brings up an internal app called Testing and you can see the Battery Info and a few other aspects of the phone.

 

[IronWaffle]

Nice. Thanks for the quick reply guys.

 

[lekky]

i charge it whenever there is one about. Doesn't hurt it

 

[largebattery]

You may charge it till it is dead because phone lithium battery has little memory effect.