Truth about Battery Charging

[Scottyent]

Gusy what are we talking about here. These Phones sell like hot cakes and the batteries will probably be very cheap after a while to replace. It's a replaceable battery after all. Modern chargers do not overcharge. The phone isn't even hot when you leave it charging overnight
For the people who don't have a charger everywhere, buy a CHEAP (monoprice) micro usb cable and hook it to your usb port on your computer at work. This way it will charge when at work as well and keep it full.
Stop worrying about nothing.

We're talking about the fact that a battery is included in the price of the phone, and not everyone has the money to wait for it to die because was handled wrong and just continue to replace it, regardless of how cheap it may be. We're trying to optimize the product we purchased to get the most for what we spent, as most people try to do with generally everything.

Also, many people don't have the lifestyle of a 9-5 job in an office, nor do they want to spend the money to get chargers for every place they plan to be. Last time I heard, these phones were WIRELESS for a reason.

And lastly, regardless of where you've stashed your chargers, when it comes down to it, there are going to be lengths of time when you own this phone where you just can't get to a charger. What we are all concerned about is that when we get into those situations, that the battery will be in the best condition possible to last us through it.

Given all the misinformation and the confusion (see above, or google and read mismatching information and many posts in other forums about being confused), this is not at all an unreasonable question, and clearly the people above, and myself, have benefitted from it. It's not like anyones "worrying" themselves to death, you sound more worried about us worrying than we are about battery charging. Just let us share some knowledge that we all might not know!

 

[colnago]

More food for thought, and by that I mean more questions about batteries. Hopefully more people can give us some answers and continue to help us all out!

What about charging the phone via a cigarette USB adapter? I was told by a Verizon rep (a very rude one) that I should not charge the phone through a car charger for more than 15 minutes at a time. This didn't make much sense to me because I figured it just charged it slower. Any truth behind that advice?

Does using the phone while it's charging hurt the battery? Either while charging in the wall or charging in the car, I feel like I've read and heard on and off that if you use it while you're charging it, it will shorten the life of the battery. Lets get to the bottom of that!

Thanks everyone for your extremely helpful posts!

FWIW, I've had a Seidio extended battery (2100mA) for my Motorola Q for the past year. Per the instructions, Seido has a notice stating that the battery will need to be "re-charged" a few times before it reaches its peak longevity capability. For the past year I:

- Use the phone while being charged by USB, cigarette lighter, USB dongle on car's in-dash NAV, or wall charger

- Let the phone charge on wall power overnight

- Don't let it fully discharge everyday (only 1-2x when I initially started using), often charging it with 50% capacity or more

...and I can get 48-60 hours of "regular use" per charge

 

[josh0875]

I don't have with me what I read 3-4 years ago from Nokia phone manual supplied with new phone (using Li-Ion). It doesn't say anything about the habbits of charging but instructed to fully charge and discharge the battery for initial 20-30 days of use to optimize the battery serving life.

I always follow these steps for all my camera/phone batteries and never had a problem with those batteries again.

I agree with the view that fully discharge and recharge put strain on battery and after several days of charge recycle we should not let it go below 25%.

While talking about DROID, I must say that it's the horrible battery eater. Yesterday, I called for 40 minutes and battery ran down from 80% to 20% and I am not even using highest speaker volume, brightness is lowest, no other apps running and not multitasking.

Motorola found a way of selling car chargers to DROID users

 

[will_m68]

We're talking about the fact that a battery is included in the price of the phone, and not everyone has the money to wait for it to die because was handled wrong and just continue to replace it, regardless of how cheap it may be. We're trying to optimize the product we purchased to get the most for what we spent, as most people try to do with generally everything.

Also, many people don't have the lifestyle of a 9-5 job in an office, nor do they want to spend the money to get chargers for every place they plan to be. Last time I heard, these phones were WIRELESS for a reason.

And lastly, regardless of where you've stashed your chargers, when it comes down to it, there are going to be lengths of time when you own this phone where you just can't get to a charger. What we are all concerned about is that when we get into those situations, that the battery will be in the best condition possible to last us through it.

Given all the misinformation and the confusion (see above, or google and read mismatching information and many posts in other forums about being confused), this is not at all an unreasonable question, and clearly the people above, and myself, have benefitted from it. It's not like anyones "worrying" themselves to death, you sound more worried about us worrying than we are about battery charging. Just let us share some knowledge that we all might not know!

Great answer!

I forgot to mention that I have the car charger as well. I do find that I have times that I can't charge the phone.
This has been a great post and I have learned a lot. Thanks everybody!

 

[hiway]

Leaving in charger is fine for overnight. I would venture to say given the high power required for the day that this isn't a bad practice to start full for your day.

It's funny how old and new technology do's and don'ts get mixed up.

NO MEMORY EFFECT on new batteries.

Heck even car batteries do better if kept hooked up to a battery tender for longevity concerns.

 

[colnago]

...Yesterday, I called for 40 minutes and battery ran down from 80% to 20% and I am not even using highest speaker volume, brightness is lowest, no other apps running and not multitasking.

Motorola found a way of selling car chargers to DROID users

How was your signal at that time? My phone was completely idle (only 2 POP3 accounts polling in 1 hour and 6 hour intervals respectively) in an area where it was mostly at (0) bars for signal, and dropped from full charge to 20% in 4 hours.

 

[Scottyent]

How was your signal at that time? My phone was completely idle (only 2 POP3 accounts polling in 1 hour and 6 hour intervals respectively) in an area where it was mostly at (0) bars for signal, and dropped from full charge to 20% in 4 hours.

Very good point, I've heard and seen myself terrible reduction in battery life due to the signal that your phone has. I'm lucky enough to live in an area that pretty much has full 3G in all areas (thank you Verizon!), so it's not much of a concern for me. But back at my parents house on Long Island, my house doesn't get great signal and I found myself having to charge up more often.

full to 20 percent sounds terrible though! If it's continuously that bad and not just a signal issue as colnago said, or some crazy background app, I'd bring it and have VZ check it out. I swapped my first battery out, and was very pleased with the change. I initially thought the droid just had a terrible battery, but the second one is pretty decent!

 

[Scottyent]

As a quick side note, if you're battery is getting horrible life, you are entitled to a new battery. You paid for a phone and you should get what the average consumer gets. However, make sure you do your homework and do everything you can to make sure it's a defect. I work in tech, and one thing we deal with a lot is battery replacement. For any issue, but especially something as difficult to prove as battery failure, please make a log of your issues. Write down your battery life for 3-4 days, write down the processes you did most often. Download something like Spare Parts to show you what activities are using up the battery. If you come in with a very detailed log, it shows that A) you arent trying to scam anyone, B) you're clearly bothered enough by this to do all this work, and C) most likely if you went through basic troubleshooting like task killers and uninstalling apps, and checking partial wake battery usage, noted your usage and battery life for 3-4 days, and did your research online to find even more trouble shooting steps.... yet still have bad battery life, it's probably hardware! This just makes the rep's life easier in recognizing this, and easier for them to give you a new one. Then they can put down in their notes that you did these things, and that you were more than willing to work with them.

Sorry, just a side note so that if people stumble on this thread looking for battery life estimates because theirs is not very high, they can do some proactive things to make sure their experience, and the verizon store experience, is much smoother.

 

[Frisco]

Nice to know about the battery life. I'll keep that in mind. But this thing charges quick and you didn't address the charging over night. I also use my phone for an alarm and usually plug that hing in on my night stand. Can you "over charge" them by leaving them in overnight?

Read here carefully.. you'll find that slow charge rates at low voltages prolong the life of a LI battery:

How to prolong lithium-based batteries

Look at the provided charts, etc; it's quite an education in Lithium-Ion battery care.

 

[biggiesmalls657]

We're talking about the fact that a battery is included in the price of the phone, and not everyone has the money to wait for it to die because was handled wrong and just continue to replace it, regardless of how cheap it may be. We're trying to optimize the product we purchased to get the most for what we spent, as most people try to do with generally everything.

Also, many people don't have the lifestyle of a 9-5 job in an office, nor do they want to spend the money to get chargers for every place they plan to be. Last time I heard, these phones were WIRELESS for a reason.

And lastly, regardless of where you've stashed your chargers, when it comes down to it, there are going to be lengths of time when you own this phone where you just can't get to a charger. What we are all concerned about is that when we get into those situations, that the battery will be in the best condition possible to last us through it.

Given all the misinformation and the confusion (see above, or google and read mismatching information and many posts in other forums about being confused), this is not at all an unreasonable question, and clearly the people above, and myself, have benefitted from it. It's not like anyones "worrying" themselves to death, you sound more worried about us worrying than we are about battery charging. Just let us share some knowledge that we all might not know!

Well Said