How to prolong your battery's life

[Warner0001]

All of us want to prolong our battery's life. But without question every battery has a natural course of aging. After used for a long time, the battery get weak. This is cannot be eliminated, but we can prolong this aging course by using suitable method.

Usually if you want to prolong your battery's life ,you must pay attention to 3 steps in using battery :

1.Store battery :
Put your batteries in a cool and dry place when you store it.
Do not charge your lithum batteries too full before storage.
After using the laptop battery ,please clean up the metal terminals with a soft dry clean cloth.
Before storage, you should confirm your is not fully depleted. If empty, charge for about 30 minutes . Usually a lithium-ion battery should be stored at about 40% state-of-charge.
The suitable storage temperature for batteries is around 15°C
Please notice this: weak batteries charge faster and remain on 'ready' indicator longer than strong ones. Also it only be used for a short time.So do not buy a used battery even if it is very cheap because used battery usually means weak battery.

2.Charge battery :
Most battery can be fully charged in about 3 hours so do not leave a battery in a charger for a long time.
When you prepare to charge your battery ,make sure the temperature is around the room temperature.
Especially need to pay attention is avoid over-charging and over-discharging.
Do not charged to higher voltages than its threshold voltage ,as it would become unsafe.
Prepare a new battery for replacement if your battery get weak over time.
Please notice this: It is not very distinct to reduce the charge time by increasing the charge current .

3.Maintain battery :
Rechargeable batteries do not break suddenly but slowly get powerless over time. Right regular battery maintenance is necessary.
Most battery can be fully charged in about 3 hours so do not leave a battery in a charger for a long time.
Use soft and dry cloth to clean your battery after using it.
Store it in a cool and dry place (The suitable temperature is about 15°C).
Do not charge your battery before fully discharged .
Usually a lithium-ion battery should be stored at about 40% state-of-charge, because laptop battery's self discharge can break the battery in the storage .
If possible, reduce the times of using the battery.
Please take out the battery from your machine when it is not being used.
In the end I hope you can take better care of your batteries. You need them for your daily life.

 

[SNGX1275]

Where did you get this information? Some of it I'd agree with, others I don't. It also reads like a post you copy pasted into lots of places around the internet - however a quick googling didn't return anything.


1.Store battery :
Put your batteries in a cool and dry place when you store it.
Yes, that is generally good practice for lots of things.

Do not charge your lithum batteries too full before storage.
Ok, no prob here either, although saying that doing so can decrease overall capacity of the battery would have made it a better statement.

After using the laptop battery ,please clean up the metal terminals with a soft dry clean cloth.
So, I should take the battery out of my laptop every time I've used the laptop while not plugged in. This is not practical on some laptops and ultrabooks, nor does it seem necessary since I have never seen a corroded laptop battery.

Before storage, you should confirm your is not fully depleted. If empty, charge for about 30 minutes . Usually a lithium-ion battery should be stored at about 40% state-of-charge.
I've seen 50% thrown around, but I'll accept 40%.

The suitable storage temperature for batteries is around 15°C
Ok. Haven't heard this, but I suppose it makes sense.

Please notice this: weak batteries charge faster and remain on 'ready' indicator longer than strong ones. Also it only be used for a short time.So do not buy a used battery even if it is very cheap because used battery usually means weak battery.
This is confusing. Should define "weak". What does "remain on 'ready' indicator longer than strong ones" mean? Why would this happen? There are programs like BatteryCare for Windows and Coconut Battery for OS X that you could use to get information on a used battery before purchasing. Its possible with those tools to make an informed decision on whether or not the battery is worth the price. Simply dismissing the possibility of purchasing a used battery is lazy.


2.Charge battery :
Most battery can be fully charged in about 3 hours so do not leave a battery in a charger for a long time.
Are we still talking about laptop lithium batteries? They are intelligently charged based on circuitry in the battery pack to charge without overcharging, leaving in longer will not damage. A majority of battery chargers for NiCD, NiMH, and NiZn sold in the last 5+ years are also smart chargers and would stop charging once they sense a (typically) 0.01V decrease. Basically overcharging isn't a problem today.

When you prepare to charge your battery ,make sure the temperature is around the room temperature.
Makes sense.

Especially need to pay attention is avoid over-charging and over-discharging.
See above.

Do not charged to higher voltages than its threshold voltage ,as it would become unsafe.
As I said above, things are charged on smart chargers now, this isn't going to happen. It seems that starting with your #2 section you are mixing up laptop batteries and regular rechargable batteries like you use in a flashlight.

Prepare a new battery for replacement if your battery get weak over time.
Ok. Or you could just continue to use it, laptop batteries are expensive. If someone needed to get 5+ hours and now they can't, then of course they'll buy a replacement, don't think they need to be told to do so.

Please notice this: It is not very distinct to reduce the charge time by increasing the charge current .
What? Again, possibly talking about other types of batteries than lithium laptop batteries, but even at that I think you used a wrong word or two.


3.Maintain battery :
Rechargeable batteries do not break suddenly but slowly get powerless over time.
All? NiZn batteries have been known to "break" suddenly and not be able to be recharged. Lead Acid batteries in cars often start a car just fine, then the next attempt at starting fails. I also think "lose capacity" is a better choice of words than "get powerless", but I'll let that slide since English doesn't seem to be your naitive language.

Right regular battery maintenance is necessary.
Ok. If we are still generally on laptop batteries, the above mentioned BatteryCare for Windows will help you calibrate your battery. A similar program called Watts will do the same thing on OS X.

Most battery can be fully charged in about 3 hours so do not leave a battery in a charger for a long time.
Same as when I addressed above.

Use soft and dry cloth to clean your battery after using it.
Again, not practical on laptop batteries, and unnecessary.

Store it in a cool and dry place (The suitable temperature is about 15°C).
Covered in your first section.

Do not charge your battery before fully discharged .
Incorrect as a general statement. For lithium laptop batteries, which I think is your general focus here, there is nothing wrong with charging your battery if you only drained it down to 80%, or 40% or whatever it is at. If you continually use the AC adapter it is recommended to drain your battery until the computer shuts down once a month, then leave off for 5h and then fully charge before draining the battery again.

Usually a lithium-ion battery should be stored at about 40% state-of-charge, because laptop battery's self discharge can break the battery in the storage .
Ok.

If possible, reduce the times of using the battery.
So I can't use my device? Or are you saying just to leave it plugged in to the AC adapter whenever possible? I'd agree that if you have the opportunity to leave it plugged into the AC adapter that is better on the battery than running the laptop on battery power, but your above posts sounded like you were charging laptop batteries with a specific unregulated device that will overcharge them if left in - this doesn't happen on lithium because of the intelligent circuitry inside the battery that regulates charging.

Please take out the battery from your machine when it is not being used.
Again, I think you are mixing batteries that you are talking about. At least on a reasonable time scale you are not going to need to remove your laptop battery. If you had some alkalines and partially drained them, then left them in your flashlight for months they can corrode...

In the end I hope you can take better care of your batteries. You need them for your daily life.
Me too. Although much of what you said had no explanation, was possibly for different battery types although the only one you mention is lithium. And generally showed a fundamental lack of understanding on how the charging process for lithium batteries works.