How to Extend Lithium Battery Life?

Every modern handheld device owner has to care about the gadget's battery life and the amount of the time the device runs before it needs to be recharged. Some users even find this aspect crucial when looking for a new device.

Everyone knows that battery endurance is never enough. Large resolution screens, multicore CPUs, active web-surfing rapidly exhaust battery power, confining to carrying the charger around.

Many will say the engineers should rather add extra milimeters to the battery's size to extend its endurance than care too much about the gadget's design. Until gadget engineers won't hear our prayers, we will have to keep on conserving battery power.

Nowadays, gadget manufacturers widely use lithium-ion rechargeable batteries, so let's get a closer look at them.

Lithium-ion rechargeable battery (Li-ion) - is the electrical battery of special type widely used in modern gadgets. Such batteries are commonly used in cell phones, smartphones, notebooks, digital photocameras, camcorders. The very first lithium-ion battery was produced back in 1991 by Sony Corporation. There are about 600 recharge cycles available for average lithium-ion battery before 80% of its capacity becomes depleted. Therefore, provided that the battery is recharged every day, the total battery cycle life shall last for about 2 years.

Lithium-polymer rechargeable battery (Li-pol) — is, actually, the lithium-ion battery analogue with improved design. As an electrolytic solution, lithium-polymer batteries use the polymer substance admixed with the gelatinous lithium-conductive filling agent. Lithium-polymer batteries are widely used in cell phones, smartphones and digital devices.

Well then, let's find out, first of all, what you should not do to the battery.

When you actively use your device's battery power and regularly put the device on the charger, follow this simple rule - make sure the charging completes at 100% each cycle. This is supposed to prolongue the battery's endurance. The scientists at Paul Scherrer Institute (Switzerland) found that lithium-ion batteries have "memory" effect, therefore, keeping up battery charge level with regular charging is not recommended.

Try to evaluate the time when you will be able to put the device to charging so, by the next charging, your battery runs down to 10-20% of the charge level. Also, it is not recommended to discharge the battery to the 0% level. Every battery has self-discharge rate. If you will happen to miss the moment when the battery gets discharged to the 0% mark and would not connect the charger timely, the battery would run down beyond 0% and may get discharged to the "absolute zero" level by itself. Regardless whether the device is turned off for that time. That is called "deep" discharge. Such accident shall cause the device's malfunctioning and the microcontroller, responsible for the charging, won't initiate the charging process so, wherefore, you will have to take the device to the service center in order to "launch" the battery. Under the worst case scenario, the battery may go completely out of order and, then, you will have to buy the new one.

Therefore, expecting to keep the device turned off for a long time, you should assure that the device's battery is provided with some charge in advance. For example, if the battery with 40% of power was charged at the room temperature, the battery will run down by only 4% per year, and, on the other hand, if the battery was charged up to 100% at 40°C it will loose 35% for the same time.

If you travel a lot and an electrical power supply line is out of reach, use a "Power Bank" device. This unit is, essentially, an energy backup you can carry around. Choosing Power Bank model you have to keep in mind that the Power Bank's capacity must exceed the capacity of your battery. Otherwise, you're going drain your backup before the battery gets fully charged. Note that "Power Bank" devices are the batteries themselves which charging, also, shall be conducted properly. For another thing, there are charging devices that receive power from sun.

It is worth noting, that the complete charging/discharging cycle shall be conducted at least once per month. Thus, you will be able to calibrate your battery and "give it a shake" whereafter it is supposed to work longer.

The battery life cycle also depends on the "depth" of the discharge reached before the following charging. High voltage shortens the battery life as well. Lithium-polymer and lithium-ion batteries strongly depend on the charging voltage. For example, the battery shall be depleted twice faster between the cycles if the voltage exceeds 4 %.

Keep in mind the battery components degradation as well! Unfortunately, if a lithium battery is unused for a while, its material is eventually affected by deterioration processess. For instance, in two years of time the battery may loose up to 20 % of its capacity. That means you shouldn't stock up batteries or overeconomize them.

Keep the device out of temperature extremes. The majority of electronic devices and, especially, batteries, are not prepared for high/low temperatures. For example, low temperature expedites lithium-ion battery discharging (Li-ion), as well as reduces battery life cycle. However, there are lithium-polymer (Li-pol) batteries, that are able to work continuously in the low temperatures down to -20°C. For example, well-known manufactureres always specify the battery's normal operating temperature range.

Important! The battery is expected to work normally at low temperatures, however this does not mean that the battery may be charged at low temperatures too. Low temperatures heavily affect the battery's charging sensitivity. Optimal charging temperature shall be between 20°C and 26°C.

The operating temperature range of the lithium-polymer and lithium-ion batteries predetermines their capacity.

Please note! A lithium-ion battery is not recommended to be put in the hot environment with the temperature above 60°C. Strong overheating or strong mechanical damage may instigate the battery's explosion or self ignition of its lithium component.

Do not leave the charging device plugged into power socket. For the vital safety reasons you should disconnect the charger from the power socket after the charging is complete. Anyway, this saves on your electricity bill (though not too much, but it does), as well as protects you from the short circuit fire.

Keep in mind that all devices have their service life. Batteries are no exception. In order to keep your slate "alive" as long as possible, study the manufacturer's recommendations for battery conservation.

In case your device requires the battery replacement or new charging device, you are in the right place. All Spares Store offers a wide range of batteries, chargers, as well as other accessories and spare parts for smartphones, handheld devices as well as digital audio and video units.