Battery care

How often should you charge your devices batteries?

battery care

One way to easily spot inaccurate information is when they say nickle-based lumping NiCad and NiMH into the same group. Their characteristics are different enough that they are not the same.

Yeah, every time I visit LifeHacker it seems to be the semi-clueless leading the mostly oblivious. Maybe there's better stuff hidden away, but I haven't found it yet. Too bad, it's a great concept.

Clearly, the writer clearly doesn't have the foggiest notion about anything prior to lithium rechargeables. ("Dude, that's so 2012.")

In fairness, though, the article if focused on lithium rechargeables. The data is from Battery University, which is a credible source worth referring to. Whether that data is 100% applicable to lithium polymer batteries (vs. the lithium ion 18650s in my laptop) is a good question. The writer does not appear to have considered this. And he should have. Details matter.

EDIT: Good Lord, am I turning into one of the grumpy old guys in the Muppets' balcony??!!

The biggest issue I have with Lithium rechargeables is they are going to wear out in 3-4 years no matter how you care for them. If you try to keep them between a certain % and remove from your laptop to keep away from the heat you may prolong the life by a few days but remember they loose some of their capacity no matter what you do.

Battery University looses some credibility when they lump NiCad and NiMH together listing them as having the same disadvantages, I know they over simplified but when you over simplify to the point of giving wrong information.

You still can't get lithium-based (to over generalize as they did) batteries that will retain 90% of their capacity after a decade like NiMH yet the sites like these are always down on NiMH (or Nickle based as they put it).

I agree that BU's NiMH charging page isn't stellar. It's not far off for the old-style NiMHs. Unfortunately, it doesn't address the characteristics of low-self-discharge NiMHs, which IMO represent a sea change -- NiMH 2.0 if you will. In terms of practicality and usability, LSD NiMHs might as well be viewed as an entirely new battery technology. The BU page briefly notes the omission, but an update is sorely needed.

I love LSD NiMH batteries, but they are not really marketed differently from the old NiMH batteries, so I think the majority of consumers wouldn't even know that they should care about the difference. Go to a display for Duracell NiMH batteries in any big box store. The typical consumer has no idea whether they are the older NiMH or the newer "Duraloops" since you'll often find both types on display if there indeed Duraloops on sale at that store. And most people I know have never heard of Eneloops, let alone more niche brands of LSD batteries.