Full Charge/Full Discharge Battery Cycle

Tim76

Hi all,

I've read on a number of sites that it is recommended that you perform a full charge followed by a full discharge once a month to calibrate the lithium-ion battery and extend life span & performance. The rest of the time you should generally try and keep the phone within the 40-80% range.

There does however seem to be a lot of conflicting information out there and there does not seem to be any definitive tips from Apple themselves.

Anybody got any thoughts on this?

PS - Using an iPhone 6

guil

Unless the phone starts dying with over a few percent battery left, you don't need to do anything. Charge it whenever it needs it.

coylemj

Tim76 wrote: »

The rest of the time you should generally try and keep the phone within the 40-80% range.

You won't be getting the full value from the battery capacity doing that and it makes no sense for a device you're using every day. As you said, it's probably a good idea to run it down (to <10% or so) once a month.

The recommendation for keeping it within the 40-80% range applies to long-term storage of a Li-Ion battery that you don't use every day, this would be advisable with the likes of a rechargeable battery in a digital camera. I do it with my Nikon SLR battery, I get it to about 60%, take it out of the camera and it holds the charge for months on end.

Tim76

Thanks for the feedback coylemi.

There seems to be a lot of misinformation out there, some sites were specifically mentioning the 40/80% rule for iPhone. Others swearing by the full discharge each month and more again with even odder recommendations.

it would be nice of Apple to release some definitive guidelines. That's if any even apply!

kensutz

Tim76 wrote: »

it would be nice of Apple to release some definitive guidelines. That's if any even apply!

Wasn't very difficult to find: https://www.apple.com/ie/batteries/iphone.html

Tim76

kensutz wrote: »

Wasn't very difficult to find: https://www.apple.com/ie/batteries/iphone.html

Again, mentions nothing about a full discharge cycle or the the optimal zone for Li-ion batteries that are noted in a lot of websites

guil

Tim76 wrote: »

Again, mentions nothing about a full discharge cycle or the the optimal zone for Li-ion batteries that are noted in a lot of websites

Common sense would tell you then that you don't need to worry about it.

Tim76

guil wrote: »

Common sense would tell you then that you don't need to worry about it.

And the majority of manufacturers and tech sites out there would beg to differ.

guil

Tim76 wrote: »

And the majority of manufacturers and tech sites out there would beg to differ.

If you've made up your mind why bother asking?

guil

Fwiw my 5s was last plugged in about 4:30 this morning. Since then it's got about 4 hours use and I still have about 40% battery

Tim76

guil wrote: »

If you've made up your mind why bother asking?

I haven't made up my mind. The subject of this thread is that there are differing opinions and there is contradictory advice out there and that remains the same.

coylemj

Tim76 wrote: »

I haven't made up my mind. The subject of this thread is that there are differing opinions and there is contradictory advice out there and that remains the same.

Yes but the fact is that if you search long enough on the internet, you'll get 1,001 opinions on the same subject so saying that there are different opinions out there proves nothing.

Li-Ion batteries don't suffer from the 'memory effect' and my experience watching colleagues murder laptop batteries tells me that constantly topping up from 95% to 100% every day does wreck them but it's not necessary to run them down as often as the older technology such as Ni-Cd or Mi-Mh.

I have a laptop that's will be five years old next April and I still have the original battery, I run it down about once a month, never charge it unless it goes below 20% and it's in fine shape. That said, it runs on mains most of the time, I think the major factor in the lifecycle of a Li-Ion battery is the number of discharge/charge cycles.

Tim76

coylemj wrote: »

Yes but the fact is that if you search long enough on the internet, you'll get 1,001 opinions on the same subject so saying that there are different opinions out there proves nothing.

Li-Ion batteries don't suffer from the 'memory effect' and my experience watching colleagues murder laptop batteries tells me that constantly topping up from 95% to 100% every day does wreck them but it's not necessary to run them down as often as the older technology such as Ni-Cd or Mi-Mh.

I have a laptop that's will be five years old next April and I still have the original battery, I run it down about once a month, never charge it unless it goes below 20% and it's in fine shape. That said, it runs on mains most of the time, I think the major factor in the lifecycle of a Li-Ion battery is the number of discharge/charge cycles.

I'm not trying to prove anything. I'm merely asking for people's thoughts on the information that's out there. But thank you for yours, it's been the most insightful so far.