Best way to treat an unused phone.

More specifically the battery, my 6210 won't be getting used for a
couple of month and I'm just wondering what would be less damaging to
the Li-ion battery?

Should I drain, recharge as normal (could be a PITA to remember
though), fully charge and keep powered down, or drain it completely and
forget about it?

Any suggestions welcome.

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Wildfire
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In article <[email protected]>,
Wildfire <[email protected]> wrote:
>More specifically the battery, my 6210 won't be getting used for a
>couple of month and I'm just wondering what would be less damaging to
>the Li-ion battery?
>
>Should I drain, recharge as normal (could be a PITA to remember
>though), fully charge and keep powered down, or drain it completely and
>forget about it?

A battery engineer who posts a lot in the sci.chem.electrochem.battery
newsgroup has stated that LiIon batteries are "most stable" for long term
storage when they are about 50% charged. This is why manufacturers ship
LiIon cells at approximately this level. There are various reasons why
capacity is lost more quickly if they are stored fully charged of fully
discharged.

On Mon, 20 Oct 2003 18:39:34 GMT: Mike S. scribbled in
alt.cellular.nokia

> LiIon batteries are "most stable" for long term storage when they are
> about 50% charged

Cheers Mike

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Wildfire
Proud to be an Arab
Remove only "ThE" & "ObViOuS." to reply

"Mike S." <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> A battery engineer who posts a lot in the sci.chem.electrochem.battery
> newsgroup has stated that LiIon batteries are "most stable" for long term
> storage when they are about 50% charged. This is why manufacturers ship
> LiIon cells at approximately this level.

True to an extent, but it's acutally the residual charge left after they
test them. The batteries are not deliberately charged to around 50% for
transport, in fact the charge left over is a lot less than this, although it
may well show up as 50% full on the phone this is inaccurate data.

> There are various reasons why
> capacity is lost more quickly if they are stored fully charged of fully
> discharged.

LiIon and LiPol batteries are mildly damaged every time they are
*completely* discharged. When translated to Nokia phone usage, it's best to
charge a LiIon/Pol battery as soon as possible when the battery low warning
is given, and before the phone actually turns off. The exception to this
rule is the first 3 to 5 times of charging - they should be completely
charged (and then left on charge for a few more hours) then completely
discharged until the phone switches off, then repeated 2 to 4 more times.

If you plan to leave your phone for a long time without charging it would be
an idea to remove the battery from it to prevent the phone slowly
discharging the battery. You will lose the settings in your phone eventually
so make a backup if it's important - or plug the charger into it after the
battery is removed and that may power the phone as well - but to you want to
leave something plugged in for months at a time?

I've never heard of any problems storing LiIon/Pol batteries fully charged
in all my experience (which is quite a lot when it comes to batteries). But
that doesn't mean to say you're wrong - I've in fact never looked into it.
Any idea of the reasoning behind not storing them fully charged? I'm
interested...

Adam

On Mon, 20 Oct 2003 20:37:10 GMT: Adam Greatrix scribbled in
alt.cellular.nokia

> If you plan to leave your phone for a long time without charging
> it would be an idea to remove the battery from it to prevent the
> phone slowly discharging the battery.

Points taken, either way it seems reasonable to leave it charged to
around 50% and then remove the battery.

> You will lose the settings in your phone eventually so make a
> backup if it's important

Already done, thanks anyway

> but to you want to leave something plugged in for months at a time?

The backup seems the more reasonable course of action :-)



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Wildfire
Proud to be an Arab
Remove only "ThE" & "ObViOuS." to reply

In article <[email protected]>,
Adam Greatrix <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>I've never heard of any problems storing LiIon/Pol batteries fully charged
>in all my experience (which is quite a lot when it comes to batteries). But
>that doesn't mean to say you're wrong - I've in fact never looked into it.
>Any idea of the reasoning behind not storing them fully charged? I'm
>interested...

The engineer who posts on the battery newsgroup on this rather often is
named Evgenij Barsukov. He works for some battery manufacturer in Korea
if I remember correctly.

He said something like "accelerated decomposition of electrolyte" is the
reason for capacity loss when stored at 100% charge.

With extended storage at 100% discharge, the cell loses capacity because
of dissolution of the protective layer on the anode, which is regenerated
when the cell is charged - consuming materials that then reduce the reactive
elements used to produce electricity.