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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
Office debate (battery charging)
Wesley R. Bush, Photographer
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Murfreesboro | TN | U.S. | Posted: 10:27 AM on 09.02.10 |
->> Solve a debate we're having in the office. On one side, we've got people saying that if you overcharge a camera battery (or cell phone, etc.), you deplete the life of the battery. On the other side, we've got people saying that the chargers recognize when a battery is full and stop charging.
Some batteries around here stay on the charger 24 hours a day unless they're being used, when they're replaced by the one out of the camera, which stays on the charger for sometimes days or weeks.
Is it an old-wive's tale about overcharging or is there an appropriate way to extend the life of a battery (fully charging, letting come back down to about 20%, etc)? Does it matter what kind of battery? |
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John Korduner, Photographer
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Baton Rouge | LA | United States | Posted: 11:00 AM on 09.02.10 |
| ->> It depends on the type of battery. Old cellphone batts used to be more efficient if you depleted them before recharging. I think the newer ones are generally better off on a charger because the circuitry keeps them from overcharging. Consequently, one of the factors for battery deterioration is letting it die before charging. The walls of a depleted cell oxidize and cause crystallization, which in turn, fools the circuit into thinking it's fully charged. Eventually, you get the iPod effect where the cell won't take a charge from the USB, but it'll take the charge from an outlet...until you let it die again, and nothing rescitates it. |
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Mark Loundy, Photo Editor
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San Jose | CA | USA | Posted: 2:04 PM on 09.02.10 |
->> It also depends upon the charger. Smart chargers negate the memory effect. Also, modern batteries are far less susceptible to memory problems than the old NiCads were.
--Mark |
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Eric Canha, Photographer
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Brockton | MA | United States | Posted: 2:35 PM on 09.02.10 |
->> Wesley there as so many variables that its almost a case by case basis. For example not only does the battery chemistry matter as does the charger but in the case of 'smart' batteries the firmware on the battery's chip matters too.
Those chips keep information on a bunch of parameters. In the case of one battery in one popular GPS unit, the chip tracks how many charging cycles the battery has gone through and at 500 the battery becomes 'dead'. The kicker is that it won't advance the charge count if you plug in the GPS before the battery drops below 80% charge....
So in ***some*** cases with the new high tech batteries it is better to keep batteries topped off and only run them down when you really have to. |
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Mark Loundy, Photo Editor
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San Jose | CA | USA | Posted: 10:39 PM on 09.02.10 |
->> Eric,
Which one? I'd prefer to avoid a product that has been sabotaged by its manufacturer.
--Mark |
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