Mick R
12th March 2008, 11:13 PM
Evenin' all. Bit of a contentious issue (though of no great importance, admittedly), but how long do you really need to charge your brand spanking new mobile phone for when you first get it?
The manuals nearly all say nothing about a lengthy first charge.
The perceived wisdom is that the first charge should be about 14 hours, even though we are told that once the battery is fully charged, it is fully charged and nothing else will happen. We are also told that leaving a fully charged phone connected to the charger may damage the overall life of the battery...
:confused:
And, thinking that I'd seen something on the internet, I have charged mine for 16 hours yesterday, used the battery up totally today, and have left it on to charge overnight again. The reason, I have just Googled, is this:
"Initial charge
When your new mobile phone is delivered, the battery will not be fully charged. The instructions will almost certainly tell you to charge the battery for at least 14 hours continuously, or for even longer. You are well advised to do this for the second charge as well.
Yes, this is very frustrating, and will stop you trying your new purchase out, but please do follow the instructions. It can make a huge difference to the performance you'll get from the battery in the future.
Note that the phone will indicate that the battery is fully charged after an hour or two, but for the initial charge, you should ignore this."
(Source: http://www.mobileshop.org/usertech/batterycare.htm)
Why? Why, exactly, do we need to ignore this?
Apparently this is the reason:
"Why is this necessary?
A battery is made of several cells wired in series. Although good quality batteries are made with matched cells, there will be some variation between the cells in any battery.
When you charge the battery, some of the cells will be fully charged first. The charge current has to pass through all of the cells, and you have to be sure that the trickle-charging completely fills every cell, even though some of the cells are "full" and therefore the charger control circuits are cutting back the charge current. The way to ensure this is to leave the battery on charge for a long, long time for the first couple of charges."
Clear as mud to me...
Basically, my question is this: What the hell should we do for the best?? :D
The manuals nearly all say nothing about a lengthy first charge.
The perceived wisdom is that the first charge should be about 14 hours, even though we are told that once the battery is fully charged, it is fully charged and nothing else will happen. We are also told that leaving a fully charged phone connected to the charger may damage the overall life of the battery...
:confused:
And, thinking that I'd seen something on the internet, I have charged mine for 16 hours yesterday, used the battery up totally today, and have left it on to charge overnight again. The reason, I have just Googled, is this:
"Initial charge
When your new mobile phone is delivered, the battery will not be fully charged. The instructions will almost certainly tell you to charge the battery for at least 14 hours continuously, or for even longer. You are well advised to do this for the second charge as well.
Yes, this is very frustrating, and will stop you trying your new purchase out, but please do follow the instructions. It can make a huge difference to the performance you'll get from the battery in the future.
Note that the phone will indicate that the battery is fully charged after an hour or two, but for the initial charge, you should ignore this."
(Source: http://www.mobileshop.org/usertech/batterycare.htm)
Why? Why, exactly, do we need to ignore this?
Apparently this is the reason:
"Why is this necessary?
A battery is made of several cells wired in series. Although good quality batteries are made with matched cells, there will be some variation between the cells in any battery.
When you charge the battery, some of the cells will be fully charged first. The charge current has to pass through all of the cells, and you have to be sure that the trickle-charging completely fills every cell, even though some of the cells are "full" and therefore the charger control circuits are cutting back the charge current. The way to ensure this is to leave the battery on charge for a long, long time for the first couple of charges."
Clear as mud to me...
Basically, my question is this: What the hell should we do for the best?? :D