| Not all cell phone batteries are the same. In general more cell phones are using Lithium Ion batteries because of better charging abilities.This guide will mostly focus on Lithium-based cell phone batteries. However, not all manufacturers use this battery because of costs.
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When you First Get Your Cell Phone Battery:
Run your rechargeable battery through about three full cycles of charging (all the way charged - to - all the way discharged). The reason behind this is chemical. If you look at every battery on the market the manual will always tell you to charge it fully. Never store your battery any where very cold or very hot (see your manual for exact temperatures), usually the degrees are either below 30 Degrees Fahrenheit and above 100 Degrees Fahrenheit
How to Correctly Charge Your Cell Phone Battery:
Avoid common full empty cycles (i.e. let you battery dying) because this puts additional strain on the battery. Several partial - or 50% empty cycles - with frequent recharges are better for lithium-ion than a full charge/discharge cycle. There is no memory in a lithium-ion battery so recharging a partially charged lithium-ion should not cause harm because there is no memory.
Keep Your Cell Phone Battery Healthy:
Although, lithium-based batteries have no problem with deterioration (which is fabulous) they do have a problem with remembering how to gauge the level of energy in themselves (more in next section). A lithium-ion battery provides anywhere from 300 to 500 empty/full charge cycles. Because the lithium-ion battery prefers a partial charge rather than a full charge a area of concern with lithium batteries is the memory gauge (i.e. remembering how much energy is stored). To keep your batteries memory up-to-date give your battery a full empty/full cycle which will re calibrate its memory.
High-charge voltages, excessive charge rates, and extreme load conditions will have a crucial effect and result in shortening the battery life. This also applies to high current rate lithium-ion batteries.
No Cell Phone Battery Lasts Forever:
Lithium-ion cell phone batteries carry a great charging range of 300 - 500 full cycles but this can easily be missed if care for the battery is not taken into consideration. A typical cell phone battery (lithium-based) lasts between two-three years. The main reason for deterioration is not really the energy ability but the pathways of the energy. Oxidation (the presence of oxygen, example: rust) causes increased internal resistance where the battery pack can longer delivery the energy.
Internal resistance increase is common for lithium-ion batteries that are cobalt-based (very common in cell phones, cameras, and other electronics) because of the high amount of energy capacity. The only other common "electronic" lithium-based battery type is manganese-based (i.e. "spinel") which is great with holding on oxidation pressures but the chemical decompositions is more bothersome. Manganese-based lithium-ion batteries are used allot in power tools (which is why allot of them come with two batteries).
When disposing a battery we highly recommend you recycle it. A detoirating battery (which is what happens when it stops working) is terrible for the environment.
General Information On Different Cell Phone Battery Types:
The battery prefers a partial rather than a full discharge. Frequent full discharges should be avoided when possible. Instead, charge the battery more often or use a larger battery. There is no concern of memory when applying unscheduled charges. |
