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Charging a lithium battery to 80% only?

electronics.stackexchange.com

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Re: Charging a lithium battery to 80% only?

#101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost nobody cares about saving batteries. Those are replaceable and cheap to replace every couple of years. Innovating more battery life and leaving 20% battery life on the table sounds extremely pointless for what costs 20-30$ a year but lets you use the device all day instead of just shutting before the end of the day.

I'm an "almost nobody". I care about saving batteries. I get all the dead disposable vapes my friends will give me so I can recycle the batteries in them. Lithium is a limited resource and one day we're not going to have more to dig up out of the ground. There are others like me out there, I just need to find them.

The lithium is not disappearing though.

At some point in the future, we can start mining old landfill.

But yes, it's easier (and more efficient) to recycle before putting them in landfill.

Re: Charging a lithium battery to 80% only?

#102
post #3

I've given up trying. If a device is willing to lie to me and only charge to 80% while saying it's charged, great, but all of this "try to stay in a range" logic flies in the face of reality. Every device I use besides my cell phone, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo 3DS has atrocious power drain when not in use. OS does not matter. Windows laptop, Linux laptop, ChromeOS laptop, Android Tablet, Amazon Tablet, you name it…

> So I just leave them plugged in Isn't that exactly why you want a device that can self-limit? It doesn't need to lie.

If you leave it plugged in all the time, battery life doesn't matter. Self-limit or don't.

I'm rarely away from a power source for very long (and when I am, I'm not on my phone much). So I just leave it plugged in all the time. I've very rarely had my battery die on me, and like OP, I leave mine plugged in all the time. At night or while working, it's charging.

Even after a few years, I don't notice much of an impact. I'll sometimes notice it's getting low (again, if I'm out of my routine), and just charge it.

Re: Charging a lithium battery to 80% only?

#103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So I just leave them plugged in Isn't that exactly why you want a device that can self-limit? It doesn't need to lie.

If you leave it plugged in all the time, battery life doesn't matter. Self-limit or don't. I'm rarely away from a power source for very long (and when I am, I'm not on my phone much). So I just leave it plugged in all the time. I've very rarely had my battery die on me, and like OP, I leave mine plugged in all the time. At night or while working, it's charging. Even after a few years, I don't notice much of an impact…

It's plugged in when not in use. A single use that takes it away from an outlet can last a good while.

Re: Charging a lithium battery to 80% only?

#104
post #47

I wish they would label it so that it shows 100% charge when it's actually charged 80%, and then give an option to 'overcharge' a configurable amount till 125% (the current 100%). That way it will make people aware that they are reducing the battery life by overcharging, and be picky when they overcharge. But this won't happen because reduced battery life is a big direct and indirect(by reducing performance like Appl…

> That way it will make people aware These are all electronic devices. You can also just put big warnings in software instead of calling it 125%. It's not any different from filling up a blender, water bottle, etc. to 80% instead of 100% to avoid creating a mess. Sooner or later people will know to avoid charging batteries to 100%. > that they are reducing the battery life by overcharging Unfortunately their capitali…

> Unfortunately their capitalist asses probably want you to reduce the battery life faster and buy a new device

This tactic would work great in a world with only one phone manufacturer.

Re: Charging a lithium battery to 80% only?

#106
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That way it will make people aware These are all electronic devices. You can also just put big warnings in software instead of calling it 125%. It's not any different from filling up a blender, water bottle, etc. to 80% instead of 100% to avoid creating a mess. Sooner or later people will know to avoid charging batteries to 100%. > that they are reducing the battery life by overcharging Unfortunately their capitali…

> Unfortunately their capitalist asses probably want you to reduce the battery life faster and buy a new device This tactic would work great in a world with only one phone manufacturer.

There's only one iPhone manufacturer, and that seems to be extremely important to many people-- even extending to limiting their dating pool, apparently.

https://www.cnet.com/culture/iphone-or-android-your-phone-ch...

https://metro.co.uk/2021/12/26/owning-an-android-is-a-major-...

https://www.vogue.com/article/breathless-couples-who-are-not...

Re: Charging a lithium battery to 80% only?

#107
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cheap for the wallet, but not the biosphere. Unless you mean to imply that people would get new phones less frequently?

It's well-established that iPhones have longer average lives than Android phones.

Really? If that is true, I wonder how much is due to the fact that the phones are more expensive so people take care of them more or delay their next purchase. It's not because the actual quality would be better.

If you pull statistics you also have to filter out the sub 150 dollar Andoid phones which may well have shorter average usage life.

Re: Charging a lithium battery to 80% only?

#108
post #3

I've given up trying. If a device is willing to lie to me and only charge to 80% while saying it's charged, great, but all of this "try to stay in a range" logic flies in the face of reality. Every device I use besides my cell phone, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo 3DS has atrocious power drain when not in use. OS does not matter. Windows laptop, Linux laptop, ChromeOS laptop, Android Tablet, Amazon Tablet, you name it…

I just picked up my 2017 iPad Pro. It was last charged Nov 15. Been sitting by the bed mostly unused since. Currently at 80% charge. I haven’t experienced what you’re describing on an Apple device since they switched the laptops away from Intel chips. In my experience, the OS does matter. I can’t believe how bad the rest of the industry is at this. Amazon’s Kindle line is incredible at this IME, but those are pretty…

I have the exact opposite experience. My 2013 MBP can keep its charge for months while suspended/hibernated. My first-gen M1 MBA will deplete the battery in a week under the same conditions.

Re: Charging a lithium battery to 80% only?

#109
post #3

I've given up trying. If a device is willing to lie to me and only charge to 80% while saying it's charged, great, but all of this "try to stay in a range" logic flies in the face of reality. Every device I use besides my cell phone, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo 3DS has atrocious power drain when not in use. OS does not matter. Windows laptop, Linux laptop, ChromeOS laptop, Android Tablet, Amazon Tablet, you name it…

I've found this to be true as well. Sample size of 1:

My Android tablet, Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra, loses something like 10%/day when on standby. I don't use it every day, so either I have to leave it plugged in the whole time, or have the foresight to charge it the day before I want to use it for something.

What /really/ annoys me is I have this really really old Android tablet. I think it's running Anrdoid 5 or 6 or something. It's only really good for light web reading and nothing else. When it's charged, it'll standby for literal months. It can lay in my drawer, forgotten, and then a month later I can pick it up and it'll be still above 60%. When in use the battery drops like a lead balloon, within the hour it's dead. But standby is fantastic. Why can't modern Android do that any more?

Re: Charging a lithium battery to 80% only?

#110

I wish they would label it so that it shows 100% charge when it's actually charged 80%, and then give an option to 'overcharge' a configurable amount till 125% (the current 100%). That way it will make people aware that they are reducing the battery life by overcharging, and be picky when they overcharge. But this won't happen because reduced battery life is a big direct and indirect(by reducing performance like Appl…

With a jailbroken iPhone you can set some things like that up iirc. I had a 5 or 10% setting that would turn the screen off and make it appear battery powered down but it was still on. That way you retain your jailbreak.

There were more limitations on cpu speed also. Could turn on the super low power mode (which above setting did), custom max cpu frequency or temperature.

Idk about max battery charge but it was nice to be able to control those things. Could make a battery last much longer and phone would not heat up too much. I considered downgrading to get the many features back.

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