Thread: Charging the battery
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Benson is offline Benson
2008-05-07 , 14:08
Posts: 4,930 | Thanked: 2,272 times | Joined on Oct 2007
#12
Originally Posted by Iceman0124 View Post
Its not a good idea to leave any l-ion battery plugged in after its fully charged, it shouldnt overcharge, but all l-ions have a finite number of charge/discharge cycles, when the battery is fully charged, while plugged in it will stop charging, it will slightly discharge, then recharge, rapidly consuming the limited number of cycles. Thats why laptop owners that spend 99% of their time with it anchored to a wall are often dismayed on that rare occasion they take it out unteathered and think they got screwed with a bad battery.
Li-ions are generally much more affected by time than by cycles; heat, as the General says, is a real killer, but it works by affecting the time rate of degradation. That's why they say to keep spare batteries in the fridge or freezer.

Also, charge state does affect the rate, so leaving it on the charger, hence always ~full, is slightly worse than cycling it down to near empty, and fully charging it; but not (substantially) because of the discharge/recharge cycles.