First time Android owner - NOOB Battery Questions

[mikewelch5]

Hey everyone I'm a first time droid OS owner coming from a blackberry. I have read through the battery techniques and to be honest, I'm confused haha.

This isn't a rant because I absolutely love the phone and everything it does. I don't mind charging it when I get the chance. I just bought it Wednesday and of course I don't expect the battery to be the best when I am constantly on it messing around and stuff. But yesterday at work it went from 97% to 63% in 4 hours and I didn't use it one bit.

Here are my settings and apps > I have the screen set to 25%, I took the friendstream widget off one of the homescreens. My main apps I have running are twitter, facebook, foursquare, words with friends and a few others. I want to say I have facebook and twitter not to auto-sync because I have to refresh both of them when I want to check (this is what I want to improve battery life, correct?). So that goes to my questions ...

My first questions is about "bump charging" it. I decided to give this a try this morning. I guess I'm confused because I never got the light to be green. Here are the steps I did, please correct me if I'm wrong.

1. Had the phone on and plugged it in, when the light was green I unplugged it.
2. I turned the phone off, when it was off I plugged it in until the light was green, I then unplugged it again.
3. I powered the phone back on, when the "lock" screen came up, I plugged it in until it was green.
4. I repeated these steps for about 45 minutes, I think I turned it off/on 11 times during this process and the light was never green upon me plugging it in.

Am I doing that wrong?

Also just browsing through the forums I've read about the task manager and have decided not to use it. I have also read that rooting it and removing bloatware can help. I have never done anything like this so kinda scared haha but think I will also give that a try sometime next week. Also going to see if the battery improves throughout next week.

If all else fails I have thought about buying that 1600mah battery that doesn't require a different battery door.

Thanks for your help everyone. I really appreciate it.

 

[FrankXS]

You did the bump charging correctly and got successful results. Most times you'll never really achieve an instant green when you first plug the phone in. Because, it virtually always starts off in charge mode (red light) until is is able to verify that the battery is indeed full.

The goal is not to achieve instant green (although it could happen on some circuits/batteries), but the goal is to reduce the charging time until green after the bump charges. Each time you reduce it a little until it's about the best it can get. Typically that's about 2-4 times. More than that is time-wasting.

Another note, this so called "bump" charging applies to any and and all Li-ion devices, not just the ThunderBolt. Usually with normal use you will eventually do this "bump" charging without paying attention - just way everyday usages occurs. Bump charging will speed up the process.

Constant bump charging is not good. It is not good for the battery. Wears it out faster. Best bet is to do it a couple or three times then forget about it. That will calibrate your battery to your phone.

If you're into the science behind all this, here is a great link to help you understand it. Written to a much higher "grade level" than my post

[Your Smartphone is Lying to You]

-Frank

 

[Charmed Juan]

Even with all the settings you may still need to charge it during the day.
I have an extra battery with a desktop cradle charger. At the end of my work day, I change battery and am good for the rest of the day.

for the bump charge/battery reset, after you charge it and it stays green , turn it off, pull battery, keep battery out for 10+ seconds, then put it back in, wait 2 minutes, and turn it on. This is a soft reset of the phone and should reset the battery charge/full setting.