Our lives are already inseparable from electronic devices, and electronic devices are inseparable from the batteries that provide them with energy.
There are many "tips for extending battery life" on the Internet, such as "newly bought electronic devices, drain the power before charging for the first time", "the laptop has been plugged in to protect the battery", "long-term unused electronic devices should be fully charged and stored"...
Which of these batteries' "life extension" claims are reliable and which are not? Today I will explain it to you all at once.
01, the battery can only be charged 500 times?
Fake.
There are some sayings on the Internet that "the mobile phone battery can only be charged 500 times, and then it will die", so try to minimize the number of times the battery is charged.
This statement is a misconception. A paper published in 2015 pointed out that the service life of lithium batteries is not determined by the number of charges, but by the total amount of charge migrated.
This statement may be more abstract, and we can understand it through an example.
For example, for Apple batteries, Apple batteries promise to go through 500 "charging cycles", after which the upper limit of the battery can still reach more than 80% of the factory state.
Apple's official website also gives a clear explanation for the "charging cycle", which can be simply understood as: whenever you use 100% of the power, even if you do a charging cycle (it has nothing to do with how much you use each time, whether it is charged in the middle).
For example, if 60% of the electricity is used today, it is full at night, and 40% is used the next day, which counts as a charging cycle.
In addition, after the charge cycle reaches 500 times, it does not mean that the battery directly dies, but the maximum power is affected. For example, Apple's battery will drop to 80% of the initial charge, and the batteries of other manufacturers will also drop to a certain percentage, which is not completely unusable.
Therefore, the statement that "the battery cannot be used after 500 charges" is not reliable.
02, don't wait until the battery is almost dead before charging?
It's true.
When the battery power is too low, some changes will occur inside the battery, such as for lithium cobalt oxide batteries, excessive discharge will cause a part of lithium cobalt oxide to become lithium oxide that cannot participate in charging and discharging, thereby reducing the service life of the battery.
When the lithium iron phosphate battery is discharged, the lattice size of the lithium iron phosphate will change, and excessive discharge will also adversely affect the battery.
Therefore, it is true to wait until the battery is too low to charge it again, which is really bad for the battery.
As for the "optimal charge" of battery charging, different research conclusions are not consistent (ranging from 40% ~ 60%, 25% ~ 75%), but one thing is certain, do not wait until the mobile phone is dead to charge, the power can be considered for charging at about 50%.
03, new electronic devices to use up electricity to charge and charge for 12 hours?
Fake.
This claim is derived from early atomic nickel-cadmium rechargeable batteries as well as nickel-metal hydride rechargeable batteries. Especially nickel-cadmium rechargeable batteries, which have a clear memory effect, when charged without being fully discharged many times, nickel-cadmium batteries will remember low power, so that the battery capacity is reduced.
Although some studies have found that lithium batteries also have a certain memory effect [2], they are much smaller than nickel-cadmium batteries, which can be ignored in the case of normal use of electronic equipment, and considering the previous content, if the electricity is really discharged and recharged, the damage to the battery is greater.
Also, it is not necessary for a new battery to be fully charged for 12 hours.
Overcharging can also hurt the battery, and today's batteries and original chargers generally have anti-overcharge protection, and it is completely unnecessary to wait 12 hours after the battery is fully charged.
04, Will the mobile phone hurt the battery while charging while playing?
Not necessarily.
First of all, while charging, using the mobile phone itself will not cause any damage to the battery. It just slows down charging (after all, you're charging while consuming power). However, problems may occur when playing more power-hungry apps while charging, such as playing games.
I believe you must have such experience, when charging the mobile phone, the mobile phone often has some heat. When playing some more battery-hungry games, the phone will also heat up. Then if you play such a game while charging, it may make the phone hot.
The mobile phone battery has the most suitable operating temperature, for example, the following figure is the appropriate temperature information provided on Apple's official website.
When the phone becomes hot, the temperature of the mobile phone exceeds 35 degrees, in which case charging the battery will cause damage to the battery.
Therefore, when charging the mobile phone, sending and receiving some messages normally and brushing the moments of friends will not have any impact on the battery, but if charging to play games or watch videos makes the mobile phone hot, it may damage the mobile phone battery.
05, Will the mobile phone charger be damaged by plugging in the battery overnight?
Not necessarily.
Mobile phone batteries and original chargers generally have overcharge protection, which will stop charging after charging to 100%, or only provide a very weak current to make up for the battery's own consumption, in which case there will be no damage to the battery.
However, it should be noted that if the charging head produced by an informal manufacturer is used, there may be a risk of overcharge protection failure and damage to the battery.
In addition, if the phone is in a place where it is not easy to dissipate heat when charging, such as under a pillow, in a quilt or with a mobile phone case that is not easy to dissipate heat, the battery may be overheated, which may cause damage to the battery.
Therefore, using the charging head produced by a regular manufacturer, putting the mobile phone in an environment that can dissipate heat normally, there is no problem with the charger plugged in overnight (after all, no one wants to set an alarm clock to get up early in the morning to unplug the charger).
06, can the laptop be plugged in all the time?
It's true.
Like mobile phone batteries, today's laptop batteries are also protected from overcharge, so there is no need to worry about overcharging your computer battery.
And in the state of plugged in, the power supply can directly supply power to the computer without going through the battery "changing hands", so the case of plugging in the power supply is equivalent to not using the battery.
Although the power supply will automatically fully charge the battery after the battery power is naturally depleted, this occupies a very small battery cycle life, compared to unplugging the power supply after full and using the battery directly, which is almost negligible.
Therefore, there is no need to deliberately unplug the power when using the laptop.
It should be noted that although it is not the ideal state to fully charge the laptop battery for a long time, it will not cause too much damage to the battery compared to unplugging the power supply and using the battery every time it is fully charged.
07, long-term unused electronic equipment to charge and store?
That's right.
Some electronic devices may not be used as frequently as mobile phones, such as idle tablets, or cameras that are occasionally taken out to take pictures.
If these electronic devices are not used for a long time when the power is exhausted, it will indeed affect the service life and maximum capacity of the battery.
Therefore, before storing these devices, you need to charge them somewhat, but the fuller the charging power, the better.
For example, HP's official website recommends charging to 80%~90% and then storing it for a long time, and checking every 3 months to replenish the battery.
Apple's official website recommends long-term storage to charge to about 50% and replenish it every 6 months.
Therefore, different electronic devices are recommended to charge different amounts when stored, but it is certain that the battery should not be stored in a depleted state, otherwise the maximum power of the battery may be affected.
Hopefully, the above can help your battery "prolong life".