Should Mobile Phone Battery Not In Use Be Charged?

Associate

Hi,

I recently bought a spare battery (3.6v Li-ion) for a spare old but good Nokia 3330 phone I have, for emergencies only in case something goes wrong with my main phone.

The Nokia 3330 already had a battery but is very old and worn.

Bearing in mind I may not use the Nokia 3330 phone for several months or longer and same applies for this new battery that I've got:

1)Should I charge this battery then store it away?

2)How long should I charge it for, I think I heard if a new battery is charged than stored away, it should be charged 40%.......how many hours is this?

3)Slightly off topic, in normal circumstances when a new battery is purchased for immediate use, how long should the first charge be for?


Thank you!

Jay

*Dusty*

Li-ion batteries are usually good for holding their charge for long periods of time. I'd be inclined to charge it, shouldn't take more than 3 hours to be honest, and make sure you give it a full discharge once every 3 months or so.

kwikbreaks

1/2 Laptops will shut down before letting their li-ion battery go flat because running flat can damage them. I can only assume that the same is true of phone batteries as they use the same technology so I'd charge it fully and check it periodically.

3 The instructions always say charge overnight or some infeasibly long time but as the chargers turn themselves off when the battery is charged I think that must be tosh

thescouselander

If its a Lipo battery its best to store it at 50% charge to maintain good battery health. Storing for long periods at 100% charge is not good. You can use the battery meter on the phone to get an idea of the charge state.

fwor

*Dusty* wrote: »

make sure you give it a full discharge once every 3 months or so.

There is no point in doing that. Neither LiIon nor LiPol have any "memory effect" - which was the reason you needed to do it with NiCads. You will just shorten its life by regularly draining it completely.