How to charge the lithium-ion battery correctly: Instruction manual

How to properly charge a lithium-ion battery and why is it even needed? Our modern devices work thanks to the availability of autonomous power sources. And no matter what these devices are: electric drills, screwdrivers, smartphones or laptops. That is why it is so important to know the answer to the question of how to properly charge the lithium-ion battery.

A little bit about what a lithium-ion battery is

Autonomous power sources, which are used in modern smartphones and other devices, are divided into several different groups. There are a lot of them. Take the same lithium-polymer batteries. But it is in portable technology, that is, in smartphones and laptops, most commonly install lithium-ion batteries (English designation Li-Ion). The reasons that led to this, have a different nature.

The advantages of these types of batteries

First of all, it should be noted how simple and cheap is the production of these energy sources. Additional advantages are excellent performance. Self-discharge losses are very small, and this also played a role. But the reserve of cycles for charging and discharging is very, very large. Together, this makes lithium-ion batteries the leaders among other similar devices in the sphere of their application in smartphones and laptops. Although exceptions to the rules exist, they constitute about 10 percent of the total number of cases. That's why a lot of users are asking how to properly charge a lithium-ion battery.

Important and Interesting Facts

The battery for a smartphone has its own specific features. Therefore, you need to know certain rules and be familiar with the relevant instructions even before you begin to engage in the process of forced charging or discharging. It should be noted in the first place that most of the batteries of this type are specially equipped with an additional monitoring device. Its application is due to the need to keep the charge at a certain level (which is also called critical). Thus, the control device, built-in, including, in the battery for the smartphone, does not allow us to cross that fateful line, after which the battery will simply "die", as the service technicians like to express. From the point of view of physics, everything looks like this: with the reverse process (critical discharge), the voltage of the lithium-ion battery simply falls to zero. In parallel, the current is blocked.

How to properly charge digital equipment based on this source of battery life

If your smartphone is powered by a lithium-ion battery, then the device itself must be put on charge, when the battery indicator will display approximately such figures: 10-20 percent. The same is true for the tablets, and for tablet computers. This is a short answer to the question of how to properly charge a lithium-ion battery. It should be added that even when the 100% rated charge is reached, the device must be connected to the mains for another one or two hours. The fact is that the devices misinterpret charging, and 100 percent that the smartphone or tablet gives out, in fact there is not more than 70-80 percent.

Useful tips for digital equipment owners

If your device is equipped with a lithium-ion battery, you should know some of the subtleties of its operation. This will be very useful in the future, because, following them, you will be able to extend the life of not only this element, but the whole device as a whole. So, remember, once in three months you need to carry out a complete discharge of the device. This is done for preventive purposes.

But how to charge a discharged battery, we'll talk later. Now we just point out that a stationary computer and a laptop are not capable of providing a sufficiently high voltage when the mobile device is connected to these technological wonders via a USB port. Accordingly, in order to fully charge the device from these sources, more time will be required. Interestingly, the life of a lithium-ion battery can be extended by one technique. It consists in alternating charging cycles. That is, once you charge the device completely, for 100 percent, the second time - not completely (80 - 90 percent). And these two options alternate in turn. In this case, you can use a charger for lithium-ion batteries.

Terms of Use

In general, lithium-ion power sources can be called unpretentious. We have already talked on this topic and found that this characteristic, along with others, has caused such a wide distribution in computer technology. Nevertheless, even such a clever battery architecture does not give a full guarantee of their long-term performance. This time depends primarily on the person. But we do not need to do something beyond us. If five simple rules that we can remember forever, apply them successfully. In this case, the lithium-ion power supply will last you very, very long.

Rule one

It is that you do not need to discharge the battery completely. It has already been said that such a procedure should be carried out only once every three months. Modern designs of these power sources do not carry the "memory effect". Actually, therefore it is better to have time to put the device on charge before it fully "sits down". By the way, it is quite remarkable that some manufacturers of the relevant products measure the service life of the products in cycles. Products of the highest class can "survive" about six hundred cycles.

Rule two

It says that the mobile device needs a full discharge. It should be performed every three months for prevention. On the contrary, irregular and unstable charging can shift the nominal marks of the minimum and maximum charge. Thus, the device, in which this source of autonomous work is embedded, begins to get untrue information about how much energy actually remains. And this, in turn, leads to incorrect calculations of energy consumption.

Prophylactic discharge is designed to prevent this. When it happens, the control circuit will automatically reset the minimum charge value. However, there are some tricks here. For example, after a complete discharge, it is necessary to "hammer in" the power source, holding it for an additional 12 hours. In addition to the usual electrical network and wires, we do not need anything else to charge in this case. But the battery after a preventative discharge will become more stable, and you can immediately notice.

Rule Three

If you do not use your battery, you still need to monitor its condition. In this case, the temperature in the room where you store it, preferably should be no more than and not less than 15 degrees. It is clear that it is not always possible to achieve such a figure, but still, the smaller the deviation from this value, the better. It should be noted that the battery itself should be charged by 30-50 percent. Such conditions will allow to hold the power source without serious damage for a long time. Why should not it be fully recharged? But because the battery "killed down to the eye", due to physical processes, the battery loses a rather large part of its capacity. If the power supply is stored for a long time in a discharged state, it becomes practically useless. And the only place where it really comes in handy is a trash can. The only way, albeit unlikely, is the restoration of lithium-ion batteries.

Rule Four

Lithium-ion battery, the price of which falls in the interval from several hundred to several thousand rubles, should be charged only with the help of original devices. This is less true for mobile devices, since adapters are already included in their configuration (if you buy them in the official store). But in this case they only stabilize the applied voltage, and the charger, in fact, is already built into your device. Which, by the way, can not be said about video cameras and cameras. This is what we are talking about, here the use of third-party devices when charging batteries can cause significant harm.

Rule Five

Watch out for the temperature. Lithium-ion batteries can resist heat load, but overheating for them is disastrous. And low temperatures for a power source - this is not the best thing that can be. Although the greatest danger comes from the overheating process. Remember that the battery should not be exposed to direct sunlight. The range of temperatures and their allowable values starts at -40 degrees and ends at + 50 degrees Celsius.