Does waiting to recharge a battery (cell-phone, laptop, etc...)untill it's charge is fully depleted, or almost fully depleted, have any affect, beneficial or detrimental, on the battery's length of overall life or it's ability to hold a charge? Compared to recharging whenever convenient, such as overnight, even if not necessary.
2007-01-03 18:15:54 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Laptops & Notebooks
Not an Urban Myth It depends on the type of battery. If it's NiCd then you need to completely discharge it before recharging for max battery life these will develop a memory over time.
Lithium-Ion which is in most laptops,cell phones, mp3 players made today it doesn't matter when you charge it
2007-01-03 18:21:15 · answer #1 · answered by Brian 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It depends on the type of battery. Some batteries, particularly NiCad can be programmed to indicate depletion when they are as much as half charged. That is a risk of not letting the battery discharge more fully.
Lithium batteries seem to do a little better. Best advice I can give you is to see if the manufacturer of the battery or device has any instructions on charging batteries. It is a good idea to run a battery down almost fully once in a while.
2007-01-04 02:26:48 · answer #2 · answered by Warren D 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
That is a good question. I think years ago maybe it was thought it would be best to allow the battery to run completely down before charging up.
I don't think it matters anymore. On my cellphone, I don't allow it it to go completely down before I stick it on charge, either in the car or at home. I haven't had it run completely dead in over a year and that kind of leads me to conclude it doesn't matter what you do. And the batteries don't seem to care. What I mean, is, the batteries seem to hold a charge a pretty long time before actually needing a boost.
Now when we got the landline portable, the instructions said to charge 24 hrs. before use. No mention of whether or allow it to go completely dead or anything afterwards. So I presume it doesn't make any difference on it either.
As far as detrimental to the battery?? I can't see what damage it would do. Most chargers have a limiting device so it shuts off when it's done charging. So that shouldn't be an issue.
2007-01-04 02:25:43 · answer #3 · answered by Gnome 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
For all intents and purposes, you do not have to deplete a battery completely in order to maintain maximum capacity.
You can read a whole bunch on this "memory effect" in the link in my source.
2007-01-04 02:21:16 · answer #4 · answered by SLATE 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
well.. it is a fact that batteries have certain amount of use-recharge cycles... then you have to get a new battery.I think for a cellphone its something like 300,000 cycles
2007-01-04 02:19:14 · answer #5 · answered by timjyjy 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋