[SpoR]

Hi, I work for Verizon (used to work for Cingular/At&t). Anyways Often times I will here customers come in and talk about their old phone or whatever and say "I never overcharged my phone, dunno why the battery/phone is dying".

Is it even possible to overcharge a standard Lith-Ion battery? Or does it vary from phone to phone?

I usually just tell them that standard Li-Ion battery life is 18-24 mos based on the nature of the thing before it starts to decay -or hold less of a charge.

Like my RAZR V3T I've had for about a year is starting to hold less of a charge and I am always charging it over night while I sleep. That doesn't matter right?


PS- I couldn't find a cell phone help/question forum anywhere. Did I miss it? Sorry if I did.


And another question, I've also heard this other myth that using a Car Charger (through a cigarette lighter) can cause the battery to overheat or overcharge and ruin the battery faster etc. Is that true?

Again I would assume this matters from phone to phone and car to car.

One thing I do seem to notice is that when I charge my phone with my car charger it does seem to charge faster. (might be mistaken though).

[SpoR]

PS- Sorry If there is a Help/Questions forum somewhere else, I couldn't seem to find it. If so move the thread there, thanks.

[charlyee]

Originally Posted by SpoR

Is it even possible to overcharge a standard Lith-Ion battery? Or does it vary from phone to phone?

I usually just tell them that standard Li-Ion battery life is 18-24 mos based on the nature of the thing before it starts to decay -or hold less of a charge.

Like my RAZR V3T I've had for about a year is starting to hold less of a charge and I am always charging it over night while I sleep. That doesn't matter right?

And another question, I've also heard this other myth that using a Car Charger (through a cigarette lighter) can cause the battery to overheat or overcharge and ruin the battery faster etc. Is that true?

Again I would assume this matters from phone to phone and car to car.

One thing I do seem to notice is that when I charge my phone with my car charger it does seem to charge faster. (might be mistaken though).

Hi there, it is theoritically not possible to overcharge a Li-Ion battery with an approved charger, they all have cut-offs built in. It is also ok to not let it discharge completely before recharging. Infact it is recommended that you do not let a Li-Ion or Li-Poly discharge completely.

I personally do not like to leave it on a charger unattended just in case.

The one thing you should avoid is putting it to charge when it is 75% or more full. Chargers start with full output current then trickle down as the resistance/inductance changes as it charges, so starting it at say 80% repeatedly could be detrimental.

Car chargers are rapid chargers since the car batteries are designed for high starting current not sustained draw, so quicker the better. It is probably a good idea to not always use the car charger.

You are right, batteries have a finite life not so much in time but in the number of charge/discharge cycles.

Hope this helps - sorry didn't mean to write a thesis.
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[Tony E!]

Spor, welcome to CPF:

Charlyee, excellent job on answering this one.

Here's a website that adds to what Charlyee covered in her reply, it covers all the myths and questions about cellphone batteries, i posted this website somewhere in this forum, but i'm going through a senior moment so i can't remember where exactly.


edit: wait, look what i just found:

Thanks Charlyee for reminding me of this one.


Prolonging your cellphone's battery life

[charlyee]

Tony, thank you very much.

I am glad my "where the heck is the battery information you had posted" prompted you to find it and make it into a sticky. . Thank you

[SpoR]

Thanks guys, I guess I can see how that my battery sucks balls now. I've let it die a few too many times on drunken slumbers, haha. And I've also charged it plenty of times when it was half or more than half full and left it on for hours.

I read the sticky topic on batteryUni and it was very informative as well, but it does raise another question. I saw on that show Mythbusters (or something) that putting standard electronic batteries in the fridge is better than not but its only like a 1% increase/savior or less. I wonder if Li-Ion batteries are different and by how much.

PS- Thanks for the welcome, I coulda swore I've posted on this site before a long time ago.

[Tony E!]

Originally Posted by SpoR

Thanks guys, I guess I can see how that my battery sucks balls now. I've let it die a few too many times on drunken slumbers, haha. And I've also charged it plenty of times when it was half or more than half full and left it on for hours.

I read the sticky topic on batteryUni and it was very informative as well, but it does raise another question. I saw on that show Mythbusters (or something) that putting standard electronic batteries in the fridge is better than not but its only like a 1% increase/savior or less. I wonder if Li-Ion batteries are different and by how much.

PS- Thanks for the welcome, I coulda swore I've posted on this site before a long time ago.

Deja vu my friend.....

[charlyee]

SpoR, I couldn't give you any numbers but the Li-ion batteries are manufactured for optimun performance at room temp (68-72). Being left in too high an ambient temperature will reduce the life, so from that perspective refrigeration for unused batteries is better.

PS: All batteries discharge faster at higher temperatures, so from that perspective you will also be reducing the life of the battery but charging more often. Actually 2 years is probably an average for a cell phone battery, this maybe intentional since most people change phones in two years or sooner anyway.


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[SpoR]

yea, ok. Well I have another question now, kind of off topic but a customer just came in with this:

She had just bought her phone and the battery life is rated at 3.3 hours talk time (some basic samsung phone) and a week standby. And she uses it with a plantronics headset and she said whenever she used the headset the battery seems to drain from full to nothing after like 10 minute and 3 phone calls.

A phone and a bluetooth has their own batteries so I was wondering that when you put your bluetooth power to 'on' on your phone does that make your phone use up more energy to send receive bluetooth signals (even while on standby)?

Like all things I would assume this is probably due to the lower end models of phones and it varies from make/model.

PS-
Oh yea
Also, if you charge your phone through a data cable to USB on a computer is that better/worse?

[JDMFAnatic]

I have no clue why, my phone sometimes lasts a day with no talking ,sometimes a week talking nonstop

[aolaiao]

learn more thing from here, thank you very much,

[greenblood]

by my personal experience
an internal charging circuit pushes FULL current till about 70-80% of charge, then lower down the current
once it hits 95%, the charger enters standby mode (trickle charging), to keep battery nearly full without overcharging
but one thing is right, unplug the charger when charger enters standby to save power
do this once every 1-2 months
let the battery goes down to "low battery" warning, that can re-calibrate the battery

[SpoR]

Thanks for all the tips guys. I made an FAQ but cant post the link due to my post count limitation.

[185843]

i always charge my phone through the USB.
when i compare it to charging my phone with a charger, it seems to me that the charger charges faster than the USB
i usually just leave my phone charged to my computer and i never overcharge it because it charges slower.
this does not effect the length of my battery life, so it would be ok to charge through a USB
i would say use a charger if you are in a hurry and need battery life fast