Best practice for maintaining and preserving battery life?

[rickshapiro]

I am seeing so many different "best practices" on the best way to charge tablet batteries, is there really a best practice out there and if so what is it?

Regards,

Rick

 

[WaruiKoohii]

It doesn't really matter.

If you aren't going to use the tablet for a few months, charge it to ~65% and keep it in a cool, dry place.

It's also good to avoid keeping the device in a hot place, and to avoid allowing the battery to discharge to 0%.

But aside from that, just charge it whenever you need to charge it. There's no memory effect to speak of.

 

[rickshapiro]

It doesn't really matter.

If you aren't going to use the tablet for a few months, charge it to ~65% and keep it in a cool, dry place.

It's also good to avoid keeping the device in a hot place, and to avoid allowing the battery to discharge to 0%.

But aside from that, just charge it whenever you need to charge it. There's no memory effect to speak of.

How about charging when it does not need it. What I mean by that is, while I am at work or at home, as long as I am near a charger I plug it in when not in use. Even if it is 95% charged.

 

[natehoy]

In general, it doesn't matter all that much.

Your device will be more accurate at reporting battery capacity if you occasionally "calibrate" it by charging it up to 100% then discharging it until the device reads about 5% or turns itself off (but do not attempt to turn the device back on, since a battery that reaches 0% may be unrecoverable). But it won't affect actual capacity, you just won't have quite as accurate a reading of how much battery is left.

Most sources I've read have agreed that keeping the battery between 20% charge and 80% charge will retain the most capacity for the longest period of time. However, I have a 2-year-old Thunderbolt on an extended battery, I plug it in every night and charge it overnight, and it's still an all-day-strong battery after two years. There's certainly been a loss in capacity, but that's unavoidable.

Slower charges tend to be better than faster charges for battery longevity (but, again, having said that I use a 1A "fast charger" for my Thunderbolt's overnight charges and no problems after two years!)

So the real issue is never, ever, let the battery drop to 0% charge, and keep it away from heat as much as possible. Other than that, your device should give you many years of reliable service pretty much no matter how you charge your battery.

 

[natehoy]

How about charging when it does not need it. What I mean by that is, while I am at work or at home, as long as I am near a charger I plug it in when not in use. Even if it is 95% charged.

This is one practice that I would (based on what I've read) try to avoid if you can. I'd wait until the battery hits about 40%, then charge it up to somewhere around 80%, if possible.

However, if the patterns of your life are such that you may be called into a situation at any time that requires 100% battery (all-day meeting, etc), then just understand that your device may need a replacement battery a few months earlier or you may notice an accelerated loss in overall battery capacity.

It's not going to be a hugely significant difference either way. I had a BlackBerry with a fairly short battery life that I ended up charging pretty obsessively, and I never noticed a severe decrease in its capacity in the year I owned it.