Do you take care of your Lithium powered items?

Phones/torch batteries such as 18650s etc? If left unused they won't lose charge over any reasonable amount of time but for long term storage you should ideally keep them around the 80% capacity then top up before use but not essential. Don't let them run down, a full charge cycle from empty degrades the cells on a heavier scale vs keeping the capacity over say 15% - There's a reason why almost all phones recommend connecting the charger once you get to around 20% or thereabouts. I've got 18650s in the car for my torches and when I take them out the holder to charge them I find they are still full even though it' been 6+ months since I last checked.
 
I use a lithium battery at work, it gets charged when needed and so far has done 5 years with no hiccups or loss of charge despite me not caring to much about the charge it's got.
 
Depends on the device really, I make sure I charge the spare iPhone every 6 months or so, if nothing else it allows me to keep it up to date and charged in case I need it. For the 18650 devices I have I make sure they are all fully charged before going into storage then charge them again before use if I have time.

Lithium batteries don't need to be run down and in fact without the correct protection circuits doing so is dangerous. Ideally you want to charge at 20-50% up to 80% and no more.
 
Only my laptop. Everything else too much micro management.

I recently was thinking about how many lithium batteries were in my house. Kind of scary in terms of sheer volume of stuff!

Everything from my remote controls to phones to e-bike
 
Ice Tea said:
Keep them topped up , let them run down before charging or just don't care?
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Letting them run down is usually bad for lithium ion. Charging before 20% and keeping below 80% is meant to be idealni thought?

But no by and large I don't care. I'd rather everything had replaceable batteries.
 
I don't worry about it too much but a lot of heavy duty items have an advisory to charge to at least 80% every 4 months.
 
413x said:
Only my laptop. Everything else too much micro management.

I recently was thinking about how many lithium batteries were in my house. Kind of scary in terms of sheer volume of stuff!

Everything from my remote controls to phones to e-bike
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This, should really do it with my phone as iPhone batteries degrade rather fast if you just charge willy nilly.
 
Cordless lawn mower I do as soon as it cools down totally (although charger won't charge it anyway if hot) lasted a long time so far with no obvious degradation
 
moon man said:
Cordless lawn mower I do as soon as it cools down totally (although charger won't charge it anyway if hot) lasted a long time so far with no obvious degradation
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I leave that to the charger, it has a fan that blows air into the batteries cooling duct - thanks Makita!
 
I meant regular use rather than storage , some people seem to charge things at every opportunity while others wait for the low power indicator.
 
I keep my media players topped up every few months as i rarely use them now. Have an A&K player that has a built in battery so don't want that die especially.
Cameras i keep charged up and take the batteries out when not in use.
Phone, i dgaf. I'm not a phone person. They're made to not last, software wise.
 
If the battery isn't replaceable and the device is expensive, I'd probably charge it in whatever was the most efficient way. But I don't have anything that fits that description (and would avoid it if at all possible), so I don't care. I put stuff on charge when it's showing low charge or when I think about it and leave it on charge until it's showing full. Probably not the most efficient way, but this:

Feek said:
This. Battery tech is so good now that I just use devices and don't care about the charge profile. Life's too short.
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Even the £10 MP3 player I bought from Amazon(*), which obviously is as cheaply made as possible from the cheapest, lowest quality components available, is fine being treated that way.



* Yes, it's crap. But it's entirely functional and extremely convenient. I use it with some equally cheap headphones for listening to audiobooks. I don't have to care about anyone stealing either and I don't have to care much about either being lost or broken.
 
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