Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Best Battery Charging Practice???

iBighouse

iBighouse

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 11, 2012
664
334
Wirelessly posted

Do I wait for my battery to fully deplete before charging or can I plug it into a charger even if there is still a good percentage of battery power left?
I fully depleted the initial factory charge before recharging to 100%~ and now I am at 10% of that charge remaining. I am interested in running the most efficient battery with as long of a lifespan as possible.
 
The batteries in the iPad do not have a "memory" effect of older rechargeables so it's not necessary to let it dip to "0" before recharging. In fact, this might even give you worse battery life as time goes on. Apple does recommend letting the battery dip to "0" ones a month to keep everything calibrated. But other than that charge whenever convenient.

http://www.apple.com/batteries/ipad.html
 
It'll be a good while until you see any noticeable drop in the iPad battery, heck I haven't let me iPad 1 drop to below 50 in 8 months and it still has a good 10 hours if not more.
 
Keep topping it up, regardless of %

But best not to let it drop to 0 every time.

Fully discharge perhaps once a month all other times keep it topped up.

You are unlikely to notice an obvious degrade in battery performance in the time you own it.

I have a first gen iPad, even to this day it lasts about as long as when I first got it. iPad 2 still going strong too.
 
Apple would say it doesn't matter anymore.

If you do a full cycle on the battery occasionally it will make the percentage indicator more accurate.
 
It amazes me how many people are still applying old principle of charging to L-Ion batteries.

NiCads been gone for years but old habits do not die.
 
I plug it in nightly, whether I am at 85% or 45%. Most days I use it in some meetings at work and might go home at 85%, then I'll use it on the couch another few hours until it's in the low 80's, mid 70's.

It's a rare day that it hits as low as 45% - that meant I was a complete couch potato and read magazines and books all day (hey, even amateur triathletes need recovery days) ;)

Use it how you want it, top it off as necessary. For a lot of people it's easy just to use it all day and plug it in to charge overnight. Mine sits on my nightstand.
 
For what it's worth I do a full depletion and recharge 3 times whenever I get a new device.

While it may/may not be neccessary, it hasn't failed me yet.
 
Wide opeN said:
For what it's worth I do a full depletion and recharge 3 times whenever I get a new device.

While it may/may not be neccessary, it hasn't failed me yet.
Click to expand...

What do you mean by 'failed'? I could just as easily say "I do a full depletion and recharge 3 times whenever I get a new device, and none of my devices have exploded into a fireball yet", but that doesn't mean the action has anything to do with the result.
 
i'll recharge around 40%...don't want to run into the chance of a dead tablet if I decide to use it heavily the next day
 
IllIllIll said:
What do you mean by 'failed'? I could just as easily say "I do a full depletion and recharge 3 times whenever I get a new device, and none of my devices have exploded into a fireball yet", but that doesn't mean the action has anything to do with the result.
Click to expand...

I assumed he meant that no dragons have destroyed his town. I mean, that's what I do whenever I get new tech and hey, no dragon attacks!

On a more serious note, I charge it every night or if I'm not going to use it for a while. For example, after my shower, I grab my iPad and skim my Flipboard (pretty much become my morning paper). After I'm done, I put it back on the charger while I make lunches, check the pets' food and water, and do all my other morning stuff.
 
I do not think there is anything that you could do when you first get your iPad or any device that will greatly change or extend battery life or capacity.

Just use it and charge it when you want. I charge every 3-4 days when it get below 50% but you can charge every night, what ever!

1 out of 10 posts are from people concerned about their iPad battery, I do not understand what the big deal is. Is this your first battery operated device?

Try to get over it and relax!:)
 
Apple recommends running the battery down completely once a month, but I'm not convinced that these lithium-ion batteries actually need that treatment. Lithium-ion batteries have no memory effect and they can be charged at any point in their discharge cycle.

I tend to place mine on the charging dock when I'm not using it. That means that it's typically running down to about 50-60% before I charge it back up. If I use it a lot in the day I might get it down to 20% or so. Then I just charge it over night.

Personally, I don't worry too much about babying the battery. I've owned each of the iPads, used them as described above and have never seen any decrease in the life of the battery.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back