Frequent Charging of battery - does it reduce the lifetime?

For starters, they are two different types of battery. In the 'phone will probably be a Nickel-Cadmium cell. In the car will be a lead-acid battery containing usually 6 cells in series.

On-line encyclopaediae are the next step on the route to discovery.

There are more then 2 kind.

Ni-Cd is one, old one. It has memory effect and should be fully discharged before recharge.

Ni-Mh is another, better. It doesn't has as strong memory effect. Still good to discharge fully once in a while.

Li-Ion is yet another, newer. No memory effect, charge them anytime you want.

Polymer is even better. Light weight, high capacity and no memory effect.

Most cell phone now should be using Li-Ion. Remove the battery and check the label to see which one it is.

I won't go into different kind of car batteries here.

Not a hands on electrician, but my understanding is, the cells of a battery are more liable to collapse if they are discharged, and when I bought new batteries for my grand sons lap tops I was told to keep them charged, or they will deteriorate, kids being kids they did not, and now the batteries are no good.

Regards JD

JRaef - Excellent explanation. I would only add caution not to completely discharge NiCad batteries, even new ones, as they could become unrechargeable.

That's when you have to buy new ones that are ununrechargeable.

You are quite correct, there is a voltage at which a battery must be considered discharged, it varies from type to type, but is generally around 1 to 1.1 volts. (Forgetting lead acid for the moment!).

Discharging a battery further will often disturb its chemicals enough to weaken it.

Discharging a multi cell battery too far will reverse polarize the first empty battery, seriously reducing its life.

Battery chargers should charge each cell individually for best performance. Never two together as some do!!!!

Nicads need discharging first to prevent memory effects, or a very good charger that only replaces what is lost, nothing more....

I have a good charger from Ansmann that actually recovers weak Nicads with a few uses......not that I have many Nicads nowadays.....I use mainly NIMH batteries for the higher capacity, but it seems to look after those as well.....

Hi,

Read the link below all your doubts will get cleared.

http://www.batterystuff.com/tutorial_battery.html#8

i use to charge my mobile phone nokia 1160, when the battery indicator displays "LOW", then i will charge. for nearly 8 - 10 days my charged batteries withstand

(this is for normal use). so to my practical experience, charge after v. low indicator.

then don't charge for prolonged period, check frequently the batterly charging level, once the level blinking stops , remove the plug from charging.

Cadmium batteries have that "memory" problem.

Nickel metal hydride batteries do not have this problem and can be charged whenever.

Lithium Ion batteries can only be charged a certain number of times. So each time you put them on the charger, you've effectively reduced their life by one charge.

Hope this helps.

With my old Nokia phone I had mains charging station into which you could place the phone plus 1 spare battery. This had a button which activated a recharging cycle which completely discharged the battery before recharging it. Nokia recommended using this feature periodically to maximise the battery life.

In a battery a chemical reaction takes place to produce current. In a lead acid battery as which is in your car. The acid when discharging is changed to salts which saturate the solution. These salts will solidify and crystallize on the lead plates. Once crystallized they are hard to get to dissolve back into the solution. Which means that there is less acid in the battery to charge and discharge. All so the lead is processed to be very porous like a sponge to increase surface area. The salts plug the pores. This will cause the memory effect.

By working the solution discharging and charging it reduces solidification. Heat increases saturation point. Charging and discharging stirs the solution. Both of these will all so help dissolve any of the salts that have formed.

I do not know much about the other types of batteries. They most likely face the same problems.

Several good posts here -- particularly from Jraef, Vermin, Pineapple and Ozzb. The link from V.I.Abraham is great (added it to my Favorites, thank you!), but it deals with car batteries rather than cell phone batteries.

Just as Pineapple said, practically all cell phone batteries (at least in the USA) are Li-Ion batteries now. But, as Vermin points out, they can only be charged a limited number of times. The good news about that is that the number is very high. More info on that is available at http://www.batteryuniversity.com/index.htm

My own experience is to recharge my LI-Ion cell phone battery every day or two, depending on usage. I try to charge before the battery goes dead, usually around 30%. So far, this has kept every battery going. I have never had to replace a cell phone battery. (Take the last comment with a grain of salt as I work for a cell service provider and am constantly changing phones -- but I keep a personal one, too, usually for a few years.)

Its best to have two batteries and a seperate charger, so that you can run it down to low, slip the empty battery in the charger and use the fresh one.

I have two mobiles that use the same battery type and 3 batteries in all, it works very well!!

Not really. However, as your mother said, you may go blind!

Only charge car baterries if they won't start ur car otherwise u risk burning ur cell! Cells should always be drained dead first use. Then forced to last as long as possible without charge like teen mins at bed time never leave on charge for longer than 15 mins if so ur baterry depends on multiple charges for long periods of time: Rule of thumbe less is better for cell phones and always drain new phones comppletely dead as in dead then wait twenty turn it back on and drain it again then recharge while watchin till reaches 100% then unplug and try to make that one charge last two days or very least that day and night then recharge next day. Second recharge only charge for like ten to fifteen longer it charges more it will take everytime stick to this and ur smartphone will be like mine I charge once every two three have had it last four but that was like just talk no internet or txt so if needed the 1st few days lay off it it will be worth it ull see when ur smart phone outlast any normal flip lol good luck try it if it isn't succesfull msg me ill tell u why to much to type on this page lol