Tips To Extend Lithium Battery Life

Lithium batteries seem to be everywhere these days

. We can find them in our cellphones, laptops, portable media players and etc. We all want to make our batteries last as long as possible, but some well intentioned advice from friends could be harming your lithium batterys life span.

Lets look at real-life situations and examine what stresses lithium-ion batteries encounter. Most packs last three to five years. Environmental conditions, and not cycling alone, are a key ingredient to longevity, and the worst situation is keeping a fully charged battery at elevated temperatures. This is the case when running a laptop off the power grid. Under these conditions, a battery will typically last for about two years, whether cycled or not. The pack does not die suddenly but will give lower runtimes with aging.

It doesnt take long to learn what helps preserve the current charge on the battery. Whats not well known is how to care for the battery itself. Thats just as important. Doing so allows the battery to operate efficiently. Here are a few ways to keep your lithium-ion batteries healthy.

1. Battery Memory

When I first got my new cellphone, my friend recommended to fully drain the battery before recharging it. His reasoning was connected to the idea of battery memory. Allowing the battery to fully discharge then recharging to max, supposedly gives you the complete battery capacity. Otherwise, if you simply charged from the half way point to max battery capacity, the battery would treat the half way point as the empty point, thus cutting your battery capacity in half.

2. Keep your batteries at room temperature

That means between 20 and 25 degrees C. The worst thing that can happen to a lithium-ion battery is to have a full charge and be subjected to elevated temperatures. So dont leave or charge your mobile devices battery in your car if its hot out. Heat is by far the largest factor when it comes to reducing lithium-ion battery life.

3. Battery Calibration

There are some benefits to fully discharging your lithium battery periodically, for laptops this can be especially important. If you start to notice your battery meter becoming more and more inaccurate, it may be time for some battery calibration. Allow your lithium battery completely drain, then charge until the battery is full again. This will calibrate your battery giving you more accurate readings. This should be done once every 30 charges or when you notice battery readings are off.

4. Think about getting a high-capacity lithium-ion battery, rather than carrying a spare

Batteries deteriorate over time, whether theyre being used or not. So a spare battery wont last much longer than the one in use. Its important to remember the aging characteristic when purchasing batteries. Make sure to ask for ones with the most recent manufacturing date.

5. Battery Storage

If you dont plan on using your lithium battery for prolonged periods of time, then youll want to reduce the charge level to 40% and place the battery in the fridge (not freezer). Storing the battery at 100% charge level applies unnecessary stress and can cause internal corrosion. On the other hand, if the charge is too low, the battery can become permanently unusable, due to battery self discharge. This is why manufacturers recommend storing your lithium batteries at 40% charge, rather than either extreme.

by: jackwu

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