Quick Battery Question

[JohnnyBravo1000]

I've had my Desire for good few months now and my battery has obviously had several full cycles.

My battery life is very good, and I aim to keep it this way.

At present, my battery is around the 50% mark. However, I am off to the England match this evening and don't want my battery dying on me while I am there. My phone will get a bit of use as I will probably have a browse of the internet, football news etc while I have a couple of beers on the train down.

Would it affect my battery if I put it on charge this afternoon to ensure I am armed with a full battery when I leave?

I only ask as I never usually stick my phone on charge until prompted, for fear of it having a negative effect on the battery.

Cheers.

 

[Kev23]

I only ask as I never usually stick my phone on charge until prompted, for fear of it having a negative effect on the battery.

Cheers.

Hi, actually I read here that doing that can have a negative effect on the battery.
Apart from the odd 'full cycle' it's best if you keep the battery in the 50% to 100% region (or something like that), as the battery likes to have it's *particles* kept moving (* particles/ions/warp plasma.... or whatever's in these things )

 

[JohnnyBravo1000]

Hi, actually I read here that doing that can have a negative effect on the battery.
Apart from the odd 'full cycle' it's best if you keep the battery in the 50% to 100% region (or something like that), as the battery likes to have it's *particles* kept moving (* particles/ions/warp plasma.... or whatever's in these things )

It would be sod's law that I have been harming my battery without realising it, while thinking I have been doing what's best for it!

Bloody batteries! Who would have thought they could be so confusing?

 

[d.knight99]

Kev is spot on.

Older battery technology meant you pretty much had to fully charge, drain, repeat. Now however the Li-ion batteries in the Desire actually benefit from sporadic charging. It isn't totally accurate that it's best to keep them between 50 and 100 percent but the principle is still there. Charge it for 10mins here, an hour there, drain it a bit, top it up etc etc throughout your day if you can. You should still be cycling the battery fully every once in a while - i.e. charge to 100 percent and then literally wait for the phone to die before charging up to 100 again, but for the most part you can charge it whenever you like for as long as you need to.

I'm not sure the technical reasons for this being possible but there are plenty of articles on the web on this subject. I know if you try and sporadically charge a Nickel based battery they can heat up and cause damage to themselves, but I'm sure sure why.

 

[Meph]

With these newer type of batteries I don't think it actually matters all that much. I use my desire all day and just stick it on charge when I go to sleep at night regardless of it's level of charge.

 

[anoniemouse]

With these newer type of batteries I don't think it actually matters all that much. I use my desire all day and just stick it on charge when I go to sleep at night regardless of it's level of charge.

You should allow your battery to fully discharge to the 4 - 5% level ideally once a week, or a bare minimum of once a month.
This will keep the battery in optimum condition.