battery life increaser ***Huge***
 

so i normally charge my phone with the wall outlet and my phone would die by the end of the day (from like 9-9 it would die) from about 7-6ish it would die, well last night i was too lazy to plug it into the wall and just plugged it into my computer. well, i got up this morning, it was all charged went to school at 7 and had a 100% charge till about 10, then had a 90 percent till about 3 then 80% from 3 till 7. I have texted, played games, had apps open, and it is still running strong! maybe a trick?

let me know if this works for others.

Re: battery life increaser ***Huge***
 

I always thought it was opposite with the PC charging not lasting as long as a wall charge.

Re: battery life increaser ***Huge***
 

Give it more than one day of that treatment before you judge that as the cause. These phones have a habit of inconsistent battery life. With a normal charge my phone can last 'til noon and lose only 30%, or have only 30% left by noon, all with similar usage. You definitely need a test period larger than one day to even suspect this.

Re: battery life increaser ***Huge***
 

Also try resetting your phone about half a day later and see if the percentage drops dramatically. It could be giving you the wrong reading.

Re: battery life increaser ***Huge***
 

yeh this makes no sense, and there are far too many variables- mainly the inaccurate battery meter. This is like saying filling up on 92 octane gas in your v6 give you more mpg then 89, its both gas in the end no matter how the tank gets filled its full. The battery is full no matter how you charge it, its not going to lead to longer life by the manner in which you do it.

Re: battery life increaser ***Huge***
 

A slower (trickle) charge is better than a fast charge. Like if you use 2800mAh AA batteries and charge them in a normal charger (typically 5-6 hours), You will get a substantial life increase over charging them in a fast charger (1 hour or less). I have 3 DSLR's that prove this to be pretty accurate. You can't compare electronic batts to a gas tank. Yeah, full is full, but it's how WELL the cells retain the charge. Trickle charging is a low charge rate that keeps the battery from self discharging, thus maintaining a full capacity charge, cells lose power naturally at a rate of about 1% to 5% a day. So PC charging is more of a trickle charge than using the wall charger so it MIGHT possibly (depending on your average use) give you better battery performance.

Re: battery life increaser ***Huge***
 

I was under the impression that slow vs. fast charging affects the long-term performance of the battery, not how fast it discharges its current charge.

Re: battery life increaser ***Huge***
 

Is this documented to work for dry and li-ion batteries? I know this is definitely true for car/wet batteries. I may have to start doing this.

Re: battery life increaser ***Huge***
 

My battery life after its break-in period (for either the battery itself, or the meter in the phone, depending on your opinion) has improved since I started using the faster WALL charger more often, instead of the PC.

It's very subjective and I think unscientific to assume that one improves the condition of the battery depending on what you use to charge it, if all you go by is a few days of observed behavior. You usage patterns change along with so many other things, it's very tough to tell.

The only thing I know for sure is that the wall plug charges faster, and that's important to me.

Re: battery life increaser ***Huge***
 

How often should I let the battery run all the way down? I've had my TP for about 2 weeks now, and I've wondered if I should let it run down...and "refresh" the battery memory?

Re: battery life increaser ***Huge***
 

I've seen a lot of debate about this, but the most even-handed sounding things I've read on the subject state that in practical everyday use LiOn batteries really get nothing extra good from being totally discharged. They have basically no "memory effect" and unless they're treated very poorly somehow, perform steadily for people under most conditions and can't be "tricked" into doing anything miraculous.

I personally think that the people saying it's the TP's meter that gets less sensitive and more realistic, and not altogether the battery itself after the "break-in" period, are closer to the truth.

Re: battery life increaser ***Huge***
 

It does make sense, since most folks have reported on inaccurate battery meters. I, too, have witnessed my batt meter (with %) go from 99% to 91% steadily over a period of 10 seconds.

Re: battery life increaser ***Huge***
 

There may be some truth to this, I have noticed (and actually posted in another thread) that if the phone is allowed to go to sleep while charging, when the battery reaches 100% and quits charging, the battery will begin to discharge, and when removed from the charger the battery level (accurate or not) drops to 80-90%. If you plug the charger back in and let it charge to full and take it off, it stays at 98-100% (yes, I'm using the nuepower batery driver) and lasts much longer that if you did not "top off" the battery. If you leave the phone hooked to the USB port to charge, Activesync will keep the phone from sleeping and it will continue to charge/top off the battery.

Re: battery life increaser ***Huge***
 

guys.. seriously, regardless I don't think these changes will result in that big of a difference in our battery life, I'm pretty sure that we all are intelligent enough to think of several clever ways to charge our phones but regardless of the method its still going to result in pretty much the same thing. when its all said and done, it just depends on the usage we put into our Tp's

Re: battery life increaser ***Huge***
 

totally agree with you bro.. i have tried all these methods and they are alll the same it all depends on usage of the phone and what programs are running in the background

Re: battery life increaser ***Huge***
 

you are supposed to drain the battery completely after a full charge, for the first couple of charges, so the battery knows an empty to a full

Re: battery life increaser ***Huge***
 

Halfway accurate. It knows empty to full either way. It just helps kill off any of the "gunk" from the manufacturing process and ensures full life.

After that you should try to never let it die. Deep cycling regularly is bad for LiIons.

Re: battery life increaser ***Huge***
 

i can also confirm this it does last longer charging it from the usb

Re: battery life increaser ***Huge***
 

you dont have to do that with a lithion battery.. technology has swapped about 2 years ago sir.. but you can do it if it will make you feel better, but im telling you its pointless

Re: battery life increaser ***Huge***
 

I can't agree it's pointless when the manufacturers of the devices all recommend doing it. Emptying it fully every month or so, like used to be recommended, is definitely completely pointless. But when companies like HTC, the manufacturers of the third-party batteries, and manufacturers of other devices all say you won't reach your full battery life until you've drained it and fully charged it a couple of times, I kind of have to believe them. They have slightly more knowledge than I do.

Re: battery life increaser ***Huge***
 

my thing is, the ONLY reason why it takes so long to charge while connected to the usb, is because the screen is on.. and what is the biggest thing that causes our battery to drain?? <ding ding> the lcd screen.. so obviously the reason it takes longer to charge is simply because you have that lcd screen on during the process. there is no such thing as proper way to "top off" a batter, or technique of charging it. i dont think some of us are looking at this from a very logical/scientific standpoint. of course we all would like to improve our battery life.. but thinking of wild ways to charge it wont really change a thing. face it, we have a 1350 mah battery.. that is its limit. you wont be able to get a magical extra boost from it just from the way you charge it. it will depend on usage, settings, and what rom you are using. but the idea of charging it from a usb instead of a wall charger is definately not going to make a difference.

Re: battery life increaser ***Huge***
 

Here is a little info on the batteries which I have to agree with. I think a big part of the problem is the "fuel gauge" is not reading correctly. I have had my battery reading 20% then did a soft reset and had it read 60%?

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honestly.. if you took a AA energizer battery.. and you used the thing all the way till it was dead.. then you charged it back up to 100 percent- do you honestly think its going to perform any "better" than it did the first time? batteries have limits.. even though that was a harsh example, im just saying. from my experience.. ive done every trick in the book, from different batteries, to charging it while it was turned completely off, to even trying different branded chargers.. there was no change in performance whatsoever. my point is that we have to understand that what you see is what you get.

Re: battery life increaser ***Huge***
 

When I first got the phone from verizon, my battery life was about 8 hours on normal use. So what I did was let the battery go completely dead, where the phone wouldnt even turn on. I then charged it over night and now after 8 hours, i've had anywhere from 30-50% battery life left over. That seemed to work for me..

Re: battery life increaser ***Huge***
 

was you running tf3d during, or you had it off?

Re: battery life increaser ***Huge***
 

I had it running

Re: battery life increaser ***Huge***
 

Just what I was thinking. I slower charge is a better charge. A faster charge dont pack all the juice. Kinda like conditioning the batter. The more you use it the better it gets. Except that the slower you charge it.. the more it accepts efficiently.

Re: battery life increaser ***Huge***
 

The reason it takes so much longer to charge over USB is because USB ports on computers put out, at best, a third of the amount of power a wall charge outputs. This is well-known. I don't have the exact figures, but the USB ports barely put out more power than this phone USES, especially when it's actively in use. It's nearly a wash. Wall chargers and high-output car chargers do a much, much better job. So the difference here is that it's getting a slow charge which supposedly conditions the batteries better. I can't confirm if it's true, but this isn't the first time I've heard it.

They have limits, but keep in mind they're made up internally of chemicals, chambers, crystals, etc. These all are affected by all sorts of things including temperature, degradation, etc. The manufacturing process leaves certain traces of chemical build-ups that can have effects on the battery's life. It's not absurd to think that SOMETHING could break down these chemicals and allow the cells to store a bit more energy. Not saying it would be a drastic difference, but it's not impossible. These don't work like gas tanks which have absolute capacities. These are a little more complex. All I'm saying is when the manufacturer of the battery/device tells us that deep-cycling it the first few times improves it, I'm more likely to believe them than my own limited knowledge, or that people on a message board without chemistry or engineering experience. None of us here is an expert. So when we get info from the closest thing we have access to, we don't have a good reason to ignore it.

Re: battery life increaser ***Huge***
 

I have noticed an increase in battery life if I keep plugged in overnight instead of taking it off charger at 100%.

I get terrible battery life if I charge on my USB port on my pc, although I have never tried charging overnight on my pc.

The TP is such a drastic improvement over the Diamond I had that I haven't even noticed how bad it is haha. I was getting 4 hours with the diamond and I am getting about 9 to 10 heavy use with my TP.

I let my battery drain until low battery warning every single time and I have noticed that this does help my battery life.

Re: battery life increaser ***Huge***
 

That part definitely contradicts all advice by battery experts. It's bad for the life of a LiIon battery to let it drain completely.

Re: battery life increaser ***Huge***
 

a) It's bad to discharge your battery completely every time; topping off li-on batteries helps reduce cycles and will give it a longer life

b) USB ports provide a maximum of 500mA, and your wall charger likely provides something like 2000mA. The higher amperage one will charge your phone faster, but reduce the lifespan of your battery (heat, etc). Please note that's reducing the LIFESPAN, not the immediate charge.

c) If you really want to be anal, for different test conditions, you have to use the exact same programs and monitor current draw with a program such as acb Power Monitor. It's not likely that you do that, so that pretty much makes any observations invalid, as it'd be based upon your useage (programs, backlight dependant on light sensor, etc) of the day.

Re: battery life increaser ***Huge***
 

That's the point I was trying to make. The closest you could do is approximate the results by running the phone for a week one way, and carefully documenting the amount of time it was used each day and how long the battery took to reach a certain level each day, then averaging out those two figures over the entire week. Then repeat the process for another week with the other charging method. It's not precise, but hopefully the week's worth of results would put it through a wide enough variety of usage styles that it'll cancel out any unusual usage patterns that would invalidate the test.

It's the best you can do without precise tools like the ones you mentioned, not to mention a control group of multiple phones with multiple users and blinding the user from what charging method was used to prevent subconscious observations or usage patterns that could skew the results.

Re: battery life increaser ***Huge***
 

man.. like i said earlier, when its all said and done, you will find that none of these "so called tricks" will make a difference (or at least one worth bothering with anyway) in your phones life span. i keep saying how the battery has its limitations, and regardless of any way you decide to charge it, it will put out pretty much the same thing.

Re: battery life increaser ***Huge***
 

Very likely that yes, the OP's trick would not accomplish anything. Charging the battery slower won't affect the charge of the battery (although it WILL affect the lifespan of the battery, and this is known), and obviously won't affect the lifespan of the phone (the battery is a separate item). Other things you've claimed couldn't work, though, have some evidence to the contrary.

Re: battery life increaser ***Huge***
 

With my 6700, I would charge up the battery by connecting it to my mac while I was traveling and the led would eventually indicate a full charge, and the phone would say 100% battery as well - then I would make one 5 minute phone call, and drop right down to 15% it was crazy. Since then I always use the wall charger. Maybe it has something to do with the way macs handle USB. USB devices get a max of 500 mA it is true, but they should have to negotiate with the host to request that high amount of current. I've been told that windows generally doesn't follow that part of the protocol (and therefore a lot of devices don't), but macs do. Anyway I just looked at the htc wall charger, and it says the output is 1 A (1000 mA) and 5 V so it is at least twice the current.

Re: battery life increaser ***Huge***
 

Please don't use bad car analogies. A car that has a high compression and is designed for higher octane will get horrible mpg on lower octane whether it is a 4 cylinder or a v12. Most newer cars with approximately 10:1 compression ratio or higher will dummy timing to reduce pinging if a lower than recommended octane is used. Gas isn't just gas. A higher octane rating means that it takes a little more to get it fired. This keeps high compression engines from pre-detonating. You will see no gains and possibility a mpg loss is you have a low compression engine.

I hate when people say gas is gas. Anyway, back on subject...I guess.

These threads are filled with so much false information about lithium batteries that it is ridiculous. Lithium batteries themselves don't NEED drain cycles to help performance. Doing this multiple times is actually bad for a battery. Some manufactures recommend a complete drain only when you thing that the reading is off then this calibrates the battery to get better readings.

Re: battery life increaser ***Huge***
 

Yeah... what he said... about both engines and Li batteries.
Off topic again... my motorcycle (Honda ST1300) has a problem with one of the knock sensors. (btw, cars don't know what kind of gas is in the tank. They use knock sensors to detect a knock or ping and to prevent engine damage they retard the ignition timing to prevent pre-ignition). Once I am under way and at high speed (large advance) my FI system light comes on and I see drops of mileage anywhere from 6 to 10 mpg less! "Normal" mileage at 75+mph is 46 to 51 but when that little light comes on I not only see the difference, I can feel the bike let up. Honda has been working on my problem for about a year now.

Back on topic... I try not to let my battery get too low. I just purchased a car charger to help me with that.

And as they say in the car industry... your mileage may vary.
tsp

Re: battery life increaser ***Huge***
 

I have to admit I'm not as disappointed with the battery life in the Pro as I thought I might be. I was coming from an Apache with the 1800mah extended battery. The battery was 2 years old so it's life was partly used up, but my Pro lasts about as long. I don't make many calls but have moderately heavy data usage. I noticed the battery life improve (non scientifically) over the first few weeks of break in too.

Re: battery life increaser ***Huge***
 

Let's hit the inaccuracies one at a time.

1) the biggest battery drains are (in order, DOCUMENTED)
Cellular Radios--- 400-700 mA
Wifi Radios 300-400 mA
Bluetooth Radios 200-300 ma
GPS Receiver 200-300 mA
Backlight 100 mA
LCD Screen 10-20 mA

2) the charge time is slower on USB because you have HALF the charging current available (500 mA on USB, 1000 mA on the HTC Charger)

3) I am not talking about charging with the backlight since most people will not change the default for it to power down after 60 seconds of inactivity on AC power.

4) There appears to be an issue when the unit is allowed to sleep in that it does not draw additional power from the charger USB after the charge cycle is completed, and begins to discharge the battery. In my opinion losing 10-20% of your battery capacity is significant.

Re: battery life increaser ***Huge***
 

Okay, lets get a few things straight here. There seems to be a lot of stupidity in this thread, false information, guessing, whatever.

First of all, the reason you were to discharge till it shuts off every so often then charge fully has nothing to do with the battery itself, but the electronic calibration of the fuel gauge. The reason you seem to get better battery life after doing it is because the percentage it reads is more accurate after doing so. There are no mysterious chemicals in the battery or 'gunk' from manufacturing that have to be broken down.

As far as the USB port goes, USB ports top out normally around 500mA, versus the wall charger which puts out 1 amp. So it gives you half the power. However, power output doesn't mean too much, because li-ion batteries have to be charged specifically. As the battery gets fuller, the charge rate must be decreased, which is why the last 20% or so always takes the longest. A slow charge versus a fast charge doesn't really affect the battery 'conditioning' or whatever, it just pushes the battery more to its limits while charging. The only effect this has is long term usability being affected.

Lastly, these batteries are fine to "completely drain." The phone shuts off long before the battery is even close to being deeply discharged. Running it until it shuts off doesn't run the battery flat, it just runs it to the low end of its useful cycle, so there isn't much more damaged caused by a full cycle than if you only drain it half and recharge it.