How Long Does It Take to Charge a 9.6 Volt Airsoft Battery

Battery life screens on Android smartphones

Smartphone users — coincidental and enthusiasts alike — are forever in search of longer battery life. While fast charging keeps us topped upwardly every 24-hour interval, the absence of replaceable batteries means somewhen the lithium-ion cells enclosed in our phones are going to age and deteriorate, making it harder to maximize battery life.

If yous've held onto a phone a couple of years, yous've probably noticed the battery doesn't seem to final every bit long every bit information technology did when your handset was make new. Three years downwards the line and many phones struggle to make it through the twenty-four hours on a single accuse. Property onto a phone even longer can even spell trouble for system stability.

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Unfortunately, battery capacity inevitably declines with age. However, there are things yous can practice to prolong the life of your battery and smartphone. If you've e'er wondered what the best way to charge your battery is, hither are some scientifically proven tips to maximize battery life.

Partial charging is a healthy habit

One particularly persistent battery myth is that you need to occasionally fully discharge and recharge to erase "battery memory." This couldn't be more wrong for lithium-ion batteries. It's a leftover myth from lead-acid cells and it'southward actually quite undesirable to charge your mod smartphone in this way.

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Partial charging is just fine for lithium-ion batteries and tin actually accept some positive benefits for cell longevity. To understand why it's important to appreciate how a battery charges. When closer to empty, Li-ion batteries describe constant current and operate at a lower voltage. This voltage gradually increases as the cell charges up, leveling off at effectually a 70% accuse before the current begins to fall until the chapters is full.

Partial charging is only fine for lithium-ion batteries and even has some positive benefits.

Importantly, operating at a low voltage is proficient for a battery'due south lifespan, increasing the number of available charging cycles earlier y'all'll get-go to see a major reduction in capacity. Roughly speaking, every 0.1V decrease in cell voltage doubles the cycle life, co-ordinate to Battery University. Therefore, charging upward your phone in that 30% to eighty% range keeps the voltage lower and might slightly prolong the battery's lifespan.

Furthermore, the "depth-of-discharge" has a similar effect on the total discharge cycles earlier bombardment capacity drops off. This refers to the corporeality the bombardment used up in between charges. Smaller discharges, in the region of 60% rather than 100% between refueling can double the lifespan of your bombardment, and only using xx% tin can double the life over again.

Smaller only regular top-ups are much better for Li-ion batteries than long full charge cycles.

Using up just 20% of your battery between charges isn't practical, just topping up when you've used about half volition meet an comeback in your battery life over the long term. Especially if y'all avoid charging up to full each time too. The bottom line is that smaller, regular peak-ups are better for Li-ion batteries than long full charge cycles.

Avoid idle charging

Yootech F500 Wireless Charger with iphone and accroutements

Eric Zeman / Android Authority

Charging overnight or in a cradle during the solar day is a very common habit, simply it'southward not recommended for several reasons (the erstwhile "overcharging" myth isn't 1 of them). Beginning, continuous trickle charging of a full bombardment can cause plating of the metal lithium, which reduces stability in the long term and tin can, in rare cases, pb to system-broad malfunctions and reboots. Secondly, information technology leaves the battery at a higher stress voltage when at 100%, equally we just mentioned higher up. Third, and virtually important, it creates excess rut acquired by wasted power dissipation.

Some phones disable or slow downwards charging when nearing total capacity. Use these options.

Ideally, a device should stop charging when it reaches 100% battery capacity, only turning the charging excursion back on to top upwards the battery every now and once more — or at the very to the lowest degree reducing the charging current to very small amounts.

While some phones disable charging one time full, many keep to pull upwards to half an amp and sometimes more than from the wall outlet. Turning the smartphones off doesn't brand a difference in many cases either. While this isn't a huge amount of ability, it's going to stop your phone from cooling down as quickly and will continue to cycle through a pocket-size part of the battery, resulting in a mini-bicycle.

A last betoken worth mentioning is parasitic load. This occurs when the battery is being tuckered significantly at the same time equally being charged, such as watching a video or gaming while charging.

Parasitic loads are bad for batteries because they distort the charging cycle and can induce mini-cycles – where office of the battery continually cycles and deteriorates at a faster rate than the rest of the cell. Worse still, parasitic loads occurring when a device is fully charged also induce higher voltage stress and heat on the battery.

Gaming or watching videos while charging is bad because it distort charging cycles.

The best style to avoid parasitic loads information technology to turn your device off while charging. Simply that'due south non really realistic. Instead, it'southward best to go on the workload light while the device is plugged in, leaving it idle most of the time. Browsing the web is probably fine. Too, think to unplug it one time the battery is topped up enough.

Oestrus is the enemy of long battery life

Asus ROG Phone 5 product shot of the battery and charging logos up close

Ryan-Thomas Shaw / Android Authority

Along with all of the above, temperature is an as key correspondent to longevity and helping to maximize battery life. In fact, it's arguably the biggest killer of long-term bombardment health. Just like high voltages, high temperatures stress the battery and arrive lose capacity far more quickly than when kept at lower temperatures.

A cell kept betwixt 25 – 40 degrees Celsius (77 – 86 degrees Fahrenheit) should retain effectually 85% to 96% of its capacity after the beginning year with sensible charging cycles. Raising the temperature regularly above 40°C (104°F) and charging to 100% sees this fall to just 65% chapters subsequently the first twelvemonth, and a 60°C (140°F) battery temperature will hitting this marker in as lilliputian as three months.

The platonic temperature to maximise battery cycle life is below 40°C

A battery domicile in a total state-of-charge exposed to a high temperature is the worst of all worlds and the number one thing to avert when charging your phone. So no leaving your phone nether your pillow to charge at night or plugged in on the dashboard of your car on a hot day.

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Fast charging technologies are a contentious consequence here, equally the higher current and voltages lead to a hotter device. With capabilities exceeding 60W and pushing to 100W even in smartphones, this is speedily becoming an issue for device longevity. Fast charging is fine for a minor top-upward, simply numerous standards we've tested regularly exceed 40°C when charging for more than a few minutes. Every bit you can see in the graph below.

Leaving your phone to fast charge upwardly for 5 to 15 minutes won't lead to major overheating issues, but I certainly don't recommend using them for a total charge. Instead, yous'd be better off using a temperature-aware fast charging solution or switching to a slower charger, peculiarly if y'all plan to plug your phone in overnight.

How to maximize bombardment life long-term

Lithium-ion battery technology is well understood these days and smartphones are congenital around our use cases, but bad habits and myths nevertheless permeate the public consciousness. While most of these habits won't severely negatively impact your phone'southward battery life in the medium term, the refuse in removable phone batteries means we should take extra precautions to maximize battery life and thus our smartphone's longevity.

Broadly speaking, smaller regular accuse cycles and keeping your phone absurd are the key things to remember. Although I should bespeak out that different phone batteries will always age slightly differently depending on how nosotros treat them.

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Here's a TL;DR summary of the bombardment tips above:

What's the best way to charge your smartphone?

Avoid full cycle (0-100%) and overnight charging. Instead, height upwards your phone more than regularly with partial charges.
Catastrophe a charge at 80-xc% is better for the battery than topping all the way upwardly to completely total.
Apply fast charging technologies sparingly and when your device is cool.
Heat is the battery killer. Don't cover your phone when charging and go along it out of hot places.
Don't play intensive games, stream videos, or run other intensive workloads while charging to avoid heat and mini-cycles.