Came across something I randomly read and would like to share with everyone...
A) The battery/phone has a chip that prevents the batter from dropping below a certain voltage per lion/lipo cell. Say in this case 3.9v to be safe. The power is cut off at that voltage to protect the battery,
B) These batteries NEED to be cycled from full charge to full discharge to work at full potential. After a couple cycles the battery will settle out. Running your phone to 0% is not the same as running the battery to 0%. The circuitry will protect the cell by maintaining the correct minimum voltage. Provided that voltage threshold is not exceeded (and it won’t as the phone won’t let you) the battery will remain in fantastic health for a very very long time.
The batteries job is to protect itself. You are crazy to think manufacturers would leave this job to the consumer when it’s so easily and economically handled onboard the chip.
Credit goes to: Tbone
For those who appreciate reading...
» Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... «
The ‘Memory Effect’ is a phenomena exihibited primarily in NiCad & to a lesser extent, NiMh batteries. The proper term to use is ‘Crystalline Formation’. Quote from batteryuniversity.com:
“Crystalline formation occurs if a nickel-based battery is left in the charger for days or repeatedly recharged without a periodic full discharge. Since most applications fall into this user pattern, NiCd requires a periodic discharge to one volt per cell to prolong service life. A discharge/charge cycle as part of maintenance, known as exercise, should be done every one to three months.Avoid over-exercising as this wears down the battery unnecessarily.”
Now we see that Memory Effect is repeated LACK of deep discharging, causing crystalline formation in a nickel based cell.
Li-ion & Li-po’s do not suffer from this effect, in fact they suffer from quite the opposite, as Ross posited above. Quote from batteryuniversity regarding lithium based batteries:
“Similar to a mechanical device that wears out faster with heavy use, so also does the depth of discharge (DoD) determine the cycle count. The smaller the depth of discharge, the longer the battery will last. If at all possible, avoid frequent full discharges and charge more often between uses. If full discharges cannot be avoided, try utilizing a larger battery. Partial discharge on Li-ion is fine; there is no memory and the battery does not need periodic full discharge cycles other than to calibrate the fuel gauge on a smart battery.”
So we can see that with nickel based batteries, full, deep discharges are GOOD, and with Lithium based batteries, full deep discharges are BAD.
Feel free to visit batteryuniversity.com to learn more.
This post has been edited by Joey Christensen: Sep 20 2011, 10:56 AM