Whether your favourite gadget is a mobile phone, tablet or notebook, sooner or later you're going to have to recharge its batteries. But you can only charge them so long until they're full. Anything extra won't help at all and keeping it fully charged all the time might actually cut the battery's lifespan. Read further for some tips about how to make your battery live as long as possible.
"The lifespan depends on the cell chemistry of the battery you use and the way you use it," explains Juergen Ripperger of Germany's Association for Electrical, Electronic and Information Technologies.
Most of today's smartphones and tablets rely on lithium ion batteries, which are usually built to survive about three years, or 500 to 1,000 charging cycles. A lot of older mobiles or cordless telephones use nickel metal hydride batteries.
Regardless what type you have "the manufacturers of the device have included instructions and thorough information for safe and long-lived use of the included battery," says Ripperger.
So, what can go wrong when charging a battery?
"There are three factors in battery use that will have a negative impact on its lifespan: temperature, the rate of charging and the level of charge," says Jens Tuebke, head of applied electrochemistry at the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology.
"The ideal operating temperature is between 10 and 35 degrees Celsius," says Ripperger. It's also important to keep an eye on the rate at which the battery charges up in relation to its capacity. Quick charging functions can sometimes be unadvisable.
But the level to which you charge is also key.
"You should try to keep it in a range of between 40 and 85 per cent," advises Tuebke. A lithium ion battery doesn't always have to be charged to the brim. On the contrary, being fully charged on a regular basis can be bad for its longevity and durability.
To take best care of your mobile devices, always keep an eye on its energy consumption.
"You can extend the battery life over the course of a day if you turn off features you don't need, like bright display illumination, wi-fi searches or Bluetooth," says Ralf Trautmann of German telecommunications website Teltarif.de.
For the same reason, be sure to unplug unnecessary drives or devices and shut down programmes you aren't using.
When storing batteries or devices with rechargeable power sources, keep an eye on the power levels and ambient temperature.
"You should keep it in a temperature range of between 15 and 25 degrees Celsius and have it charged at between 40 and 60 per cent," advises Tuebke. That's why it's best to keep batteries out of direct sunlight and to not leave a smartphone in the car during the hot summer months.
Batteries can also suffer damage if a laptop or a smartphone is regularly plugged in, since it can lead to overheating, which shortens the battery's lifespan.
But you don't have to go to the opposite extreme and completely run down the charge. Indeed, using the battery regularly when it's on extremely low charge can also shorten its lifespan says Trautmann.
However, a lot of gadgets have a battery management system that protects them from running too long on a low charge.
"Users should be able to recognise this, for example with smartphones that turn themselves off at a certain low charge level."
Even if they don't seem particularly harmful, lithium ion batteries do also have the potential to be fire dangers. One should never try to short-circuit their power connections or try to tamper with them, for fear of creating a fire hazard. At the same time, modern lithium ion batteries no longer suffer from the dreaded memory effect, which had old batteries only charge up to a certain level, not their full capacity if they weren't fully depowered before recharging. However, some makers still recommend that users completely power down and recharge batteries once or twice before regular use, even if that doesn't seem entirely necessary any more.
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