Thread: Charging the battery
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Benson is offline Benson
2008-05-07 , 20:59
Posts: 4,930 | Thanked: 2,272 times | Joined on Oct 2007
#16
Originally Posted by Karel Jansens View Post
Actually... Regular deep discharges are just about the second worst thing you can do to a LiIon (second to leaving it in the blistering heat, that is. If you also count poking inside them with sharp metal objects, then it's the third worst thing). They stay much happier when topped off before reaching half discharge.
Well, depends what you mean by "deep"; I was thinking perhaps down to 30%; anything below that is just plain scary, as well as perhaps harmful... I thought that was okay, though obviously pointless.
Remember: LiIons are a completely different beastie than NiCads; the latter really craves the deep discharges.
Yes, which is why a flashlight is a valuable accessory for NiCds; I will not run any battery very deep in devices when avoidable, so I periodically throw a random pair of (semi-used, waiting for recharge) batteries in a flashlight, turn it on, and put my solar-powered watch in front of it to recharge overnight. In the morning, batteries are cleansed, and watch is full. (And atomic synced, since I do it on a windowsill.)