Droid Maxx HD -- battery fading after 1 year

[djlewis]

I got the Droid Maxx HD for its awesome battery life. And at first, it was terrific -- went two days or more between charges (I am a moderate user -- phone, mail, map, calendar, light banking, not much video or audio).

A year later, it isn't so awesome. I was out today for 3-4 hours and it declined from 55% to about 15%. IOW, it now won't last out the day. I quit iPhone in part because of the crummy battery life, and now it is coming back on my Maxx HD a year after purchase.

At this rate, it won't last another year until my next subsidized phone!

I initially conditioned the battery as directed -- let it run down to zero 3-4 times -- correct? I haven't done that since -- do I need to? Any other care-and-feeding needed to keep battery life somewhere decent? I don't do any demanding apps to speak of, and now am in the habit of closing apps when not in use. but not much help.

Thanks. --David.

 

[Rukbat]

Conditioning is a one time thing. It can't hurt, but if that battery was sitting on the shelf 12 months after it was made before you got it, it sure helps.

Your usage pattern (55% to 15%) tells the story, though. Longest battery life is achieved by charging the battery when it gets down to 50%. You don't have to be a fnatic about it. If it's at 75% and you're ging to be out for a really long day tomorrow, charge it tonight. If you being it down to 15% occasionally, don't have a panic attack. But try to charge it at the 50% point as often as possible. Look at the second chart (Table 2 - and read the text above it) at [ur;=http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries]this page[/url]. 50% seems to be about the ideal charge point. ("Seems to be" because this is done by testing - there are too many variables in the electrical-to-chemical-to-electrical conversion process to waste supercompter time getting a slightly better chart.)

A well-treated battery can last 2-3 years before it reaches the point that you can't put up with the short time it takes to discharge it. But a battery that has been deeply discharged its entire life won't last very long.

 

[djlewis]

Thanks!

Your usage pattern (55% to 15%) tells the story

That's not my normal pattern -- I had to run errands before it got a full charge. Usually I've been recharging from 30-40% back up to 100%. I see from the chart and text, as you point out, that I should have set that at 50% instead. To some extent, I was following the advice of a Verizon rep who said to minimize recharge cycles, but I now see that was wrong.

A well-treated battery can last 2-3 years before it reaches the point that you can't put up with the short time it takes to discharge it. But a battery that has been deeply discharged its entire life won't last very long.

Well, seems to me that my pattern is not so far off the optimal one that it should have lost about half its life after one year of moderate use. I will switch to the 50% criterion from now on, but I still feel a bit cheated.

Is it possible that Motorola achieved the superb initial battery life by using technology that would deteriorate faster. I know nothing technical about this stuff, but that kind of tradeoff seems plausible.

Are a lot of folks finding this pattern on the Maxx HD? If so, I wonder if I can lean on Verizon to give me a new subsidy before the full two years are up, or a new battery free or cheap.

Thanks. --David

 

[IHateMyTreo]

Have you tried a factory reset? And disabled apps that we believe eat battery, such as Google Plus? There is a also thread in this forum about optimizing battery.

 

[djlewis]

Have you tried a factory reset? And disabled apps that we believe eat battery, such as Google Plus? There is a also thread in this forum about optimizing battery.

The battery life has been progressively deteriorating. When I first got got it, it would last two days or more without a recharge. Now a year later it's down to less than a day. That seems to me to be excessive deterioration, but perhaps I am wrong. In any case, the awesome battery life is now down to iPhone territory.

I don't think I have changed my usage patterns much if at all, certainly not enough to account for that much degradation. But now that it is worse, I do close inactive apps fairly regularly to conserve power.

BTW, when I had an iPhone, it stayed at its initial (already mediocre) level for over two years before any significant degradation. That's what makes me think Moto made a devil's bargain -- super battery life to start (and advertize) but at the cost of much faster deterioration.

Thanks. --David.

 

[tanware]

I guess I am low usage, I get 7 plus days with 30% or more left on charge. With my low usage though I find even where I leave it in the house can affect the charge as I think it searches for various services or connections. I have found even with low usage a couple of times where only 2 days of battery were there. This usually was because of an update that hung etc. reboots there usually fixed everything.

 

[PowrDroid]

Run the battery down to 10%-15% then turn your phone off. Do a hard shutdown, not just a simple soft "off". Charge the phone uninterrupted until fully charged (for me this takes about 2 1/2 hours.) This technique is supposed to recalibrate the phone's battery meter with the actual charge level of the battery. In other words, if it's out of calibration your phone's battery meter may show you only have 15% charge remaining but you could actually have 30%, 40%, or more.

 

[kmf]

What's a "hard shutdown?"

 

[PowrDroid]

What's a "hard shutdown?"

Press and hold the power button for 2-3 seconds. A window will pop up giving you the option to Power Off or Airplane Mode. Press Power Off and device will completely shut off.

 

[kmf]

Got it. Thanks.