Help Yet another battery charging question

[pdlabey]

My first post here and I'm trying to take in as much information as quickly as I can. I did a search but couldn't find a clear and definitive answer. I apologize if it's been discussed ad nauseum...

I have been using the Siedio 1750 battery almost since the first day I got my DInc. With moderate use, I MIGHT be able to get through the day with a single battery charge, though it usually died right before bed time. I would then charge the battery in the phone overnight and bump charged it in the morning. I actually tended to bump charge is 2 or 3 times (don't know if it added any extra juice but it always stayed red for an extended amount of time and seemed to be added more power). At the recommendation of many on this board, I just purchased a pair of the 1800 mah batteries from HTCExpress with the external charger. I got them yesterday, put one in the phone and one in the charger to charge both of them overnight. This morning, I bump charged the one in the phone and used the phone moderately. After taking off the charger about 7:30 this morning, it was dead by 3:00pm. I have 3 e-mail accounts (2 with constant push and the 3rd checks every 5 minutes). I was also traveling so it was on 3G and had GPS turned on.

Anyway, my question is this. If I charge this battery with the external charger, do I need to bump charge it when I put it in the phone? Would it be just fine for me to charge battery 1 in the external charger over night and then put it directly in the phone in the morning and expect it to be at 100% or will it need a bump charge if charged in the external as it does when charged in phone?

I would really like to be able to leave my phone on at night so I can use the alarm on it rather than my annoying giant separate alarm clock. Ideally, I could leave battery 2 in the phone overnight with the phone ON while battery 1 is in the charger and will be ready for the next day's action. The following day I'd just switch.

I know this is wordy but I'm sure you guys can make sense of it.

BTW, I am not running a rooted phone - just running the regular Sense UI that came on the phone when I got it so in addition to the email accounts and syncing calendar and contacts (via MS Exchange), I have 2 twitter apps that check constantly in the background. I'm know these apps don't do any favors for battery life...

 

[SeattleYanksFan]

I'm confused. Why don't you just leave it plugged in overnight with the phone on so you can use it as an alarm, and then take it off the charger in the morning? I've been doing this for 9 months now with my Incredible and have had no issues.

As for the mediocre battery life, make sure apps you don't use aren't constantly syncing, you don't leave on GPS when not needed, and you don't have any apps running in the background that shouldn't be. I also find it helpful to turn off auto-brightness and keep brightness around 50-60%.

That said, the battery life on the phone isn't the best. Get used to it.

 

[Medion]

1. Don't bump charge the battery that was charged in the external charge. It's full. Just put it in the phone and go.

2. You have an email account poling every 5 minutes over 3G? That's going to kill any battery. If it's critical, put it at 15 minutes. Otherwise, no more frequent than one hour.

3. When you're home, if you have a wifi router, turn wifi on and stay connected. This uses less battery than 3G.

4. If running stock or a custom Sense ROM, go to settings, wireless networks, and disable always-on mobile data. Push email and anything your phone triggers will still work. Some apps (I've heard at least one music streaming app, and Google Voice) have issues with this. The vast majority of apps do not. This will save you a ton of juice.

 

[pdlabey]

Thanks for the input, guys.

@SYF: I always charge my phone at night with the power turned off. I guess I read that somewhere early on and just always stuck with it. I guess it doesn't have to be off at night if I'm going to bump charge it in the morning anyway? To your points, I have never used the auto-brightness but just keep it at a constant %, somewhere, I'd guess, between 30-40%. If I need to bump up the brightness a bit while outside, I simply use the power meter widget.

@Medion:
1.) Thank you!! That's the succinct answer I was looking for. Thank you very much.
2.) Yes, I guess I didn't realize how bad the polling was for the phone. How does polling compare to push in terms of battery life?
3.) I do connect through Wi-Fi while at home and whenever possible. I assume switching off Wi-Fi when not in use is a good idea. It would be nice if there was an app that automatically shut down Wi-Fi unless one of your known networks is available. I guess it would have to turn itself on every so often to check, wouldn't it? :-/
4.) I have apparently always had that always-on option disabled. Don't remember turning it off but I guess I did. I've read that it renders Google Voice nonworking but I'm wondering about Youmail. AFAIK, YM is supposed to check for new VM shortly after a missed call. Hopefully the missed call will wake the phone enough for it to reestablish a data connection. I've never thought to take notice before....

 

[Medion]

2.) Yes, I guess I didn't realize how bad the polling was for the phone. How does polling compare to push in terms of battery life?

You have two types, push and pull. When you're polling, you do a pull. This isn't efficient because you won't have mail every time you try to pull. A push is when your network sends it to you. This is efficient because your phone only polls when there is mail. so push is better than any pulling method in terms of battery life (unless you get thousands of emails).

3.) I do connect through Wi-Fi while at home and whenever possible. I assume switching off Wi-Fi when not in use is a good idea. It would be nice if there was an app that automatically shut down Wi-Fi unless one of your known networks is available. I guess it would have to turn itself on every so often to check, wouldn't it? :-/

Pretty much. The only way that the wifi would know to turn on in a known area would be via wifi being already on, or accurate location data. That would mean having the GPS on. I just use the power control widget and turn it on/off as I enter/leave my house.

4.) I have apparently always had that always-on option disabled. Don't remember turning it off but I guess I did. I've read that it renders Google Voice nonworking but I'm wondering about Youmail. AFAIK, YM is supposed to check for new VM shortly after a missed call. Hopefully the missed call will wake the phone enough for it to reestablish a data connection. I've never thought to take notice before....

Your data turns on automatically whenever your network requests a push or a pull. YM should work, but then in theory everything would work. So, only way to know for sure is to see if an app starts acting up when you use this.

 

[pdlabey]

Medion,

Just wanted to say a huge thanks!! I turned the polling on my manual e-mail account from every 5 minutes to every 30 minutes, lowered the frequency of FB and twitter pulls, and turned off data sync overnight. My battery up time is now at 25 hours with an awake time of 6:48 and I still have 27% left. Absolutely amazing, never had anything CLOSE to this before!! I don't know if it is due to these changes or the new HTCExpress 1800 battery but something sure is working well!!!!!

One more question, if I may. Does it hurt to just leave these batteries in the external charger until I need to switch out? It's not a big deal, obviously, to just pull it out of the charger once it is fully charged and store it away but just for keeping pieces in fewer places, it would be nice to just leave it in the charger until needed. Any problems with that?

 

[euph_22]

Medion,

Just wanted to say a huge thanks!! I turned the polling on my manual e-mail account from every 5 minutes to every 30 minutes, lowered the frequency of FB and twitter pulls, and turned off data sync overnight. My battery up time is now at 25 hours with an awake time of 6:48 and I still have 27% left. Absolutely amazing, never had anything CLOSE to this before!! I don't know if it is due to these changes or the new HTCExpress 1800 battery but something sure is working well!!!!!

One more question, if I may. Does it hurt to just leave these batteries in the external charger until I need to switch out? It's not a big deal, obviously, to just pull it out of the charger once it is fully charged and store it away but just for keeping pieces in fewer places, it would be nice to just leave it in the charger until needed. Any problems with that?

That really depends on the charger. It shouldn't, since the charger SHOULD stop charging once it's full. If it doesn't, and keeps providing voltage, that will hurt the battery. It won't ruin the battery, but will reduce it's life. If you have a name brand charger, I wouldn't worry about it. If it's a $3 ebay charger, I'd take it out when done.

 

[pdlabey]

That really depends on the charger. It shouldn't, since the charger SHOULD stop charging once it's full. If it doesn't, and keeps providing voltage, that will hurt the battery. It won't ruin the battery, but will reduce it's life. If you have a name brand charger, I wouldn't worry about it. If it's a $3 ebay charger, I'd take it out when done.

It's not a "name brand" charger, per se. It came with the batteries when I ordered from HTCExpress.

 

[Podivin]

I've been using a wall charger like that for months with no (obvious) ill effects to the battery. I always had a spare battery in the charger (which is always plugged), sometimes for weeks before I'd have a need for it.

 

[Medion]

Medion,

Just wanted to say a huge thanks!! I turned the polling on my manual e-mail account from every 5 minutes to every 30 minutes, lowered the frequency of FB and twitter pulls, and turned off data sync overnight. My battery up time is now at 25 hours with an awake time of 6:48 and I still have 27% left. Absolutely amazing, never had anything CLOSE to this before!! I don't know if it is due to these changes or the new HTCExpress 1800 battery but something sure is working well!!!!!

One more question, if I may. Does it hurt to just leave these batteries in the external charger until I need to switch out? It's not a big deal, obviously, to just pull it out of the charger once it is fully charged and store it away but just for keeping pieces in fewer places, it would be nice to just leave it in the charger until needed. Any problems with that?

You're fine with leaving it in the charger. Even a generic from Ebay won't overcharge, because the battery has a cutoff built into it to prevent overcharging.

If you plan to leave it charged in the charger for 2-3 weeks tops, you're fine. If you plan to store it longer than that, discharge it to 40-50%, and place it in a cool and dry area (room temperature is fine).

 

[SeattleYanksFan]

Just an FYI - bump charging your battery does shorten the battery's life. Probably not enough to get too worked up over, but unless it's really necessary or you don't care about the health of your battery, you shouldn't be bump charging.