Charging mobiles - what's the best practice for...

GoofyGAT

...maintaining optimum battery health/efficiency?

A couple of days ago I got myself a mobile phone - a new Siemens CF62. The last time I owned a mobile was 4 years ago (long story ).

Anyway, could someone be so kind as to share what's the best charging method to adopt to keep the battery at it's optimum health? Prior to each charging session, do I completely drain the battery each time or, charge it when it's running low or, charge it at any time? The CF62 manual doesn't offer anything about this.

Many thanks, G

esuhl

It depends what kind of battery it is. The old Nickel Cadmium (Ni-Cd) batteries performed better if they were fully discharched, then fully charged etc. etc.

Most phones made in the last three or four years have either Nickel Metal Hydride (Ni-MH) or Lithium Ion (Li-Ion) batteries. Neither suffer from the so-called "memory effect", so it doesn't matter if you only partly charge them or charge them before they're fully discharged.

(The "memory effect" is where the battery "remembers" that you only half-charged it the last few times and won't allow you to charge it to full capacity subsequently)

Li-Ion is the "best" of the three main types of battery because it can produce a higher voltage per cell (and so be smaller for a fixed voltage), but best of all it is far less damaging to the environment.

If you look on the battery itself, it should tell you which type it is.

silvercar

I was told the only important time to make sure it has a full charge is when its new ie the very first time you charge it, that needs to be on the charger until it is fully charged. After that it doesn't really matter.

GoofyGAT

Thanks esuhl - simply & well-explained :T. I'm surprised you've only been thanked a few times - what an ungrateful bunch these are - that's .

Just checked - pleased to say it's a Lithium Ion, so should give me good service with the least hassle, & as a bonus, is environmentally-friendly too .

Thanks silvercar, will keep that in mind too . Fortunately, that's exactly what I did the first time of charging. G