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

First battery charge time?

B

badgerman

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 9, 2008
546
1
So just thinking about d-day and planning for success I get a 16Giger sometime in the am before I head to work. How long should the first charge be without disruption for lith-ion batteries, I read mixed reports some saying that it doesnt matter any more, but others saying to be sure fully charge it over night and discharge it for optimal use and battery charge indicator accuracy.

Anyone have any thoughts, seems a shame to get up early & get it, then leave it on charge at home whilst leaving it and pretending to work and not able to play with it or to charge at work and play with it and to have to go back to work on sat to collect after an over night charge.

Or am just creating more stress for myself in addition to the current UK launch palaver!
 
badgerman said:
So just thinking about d-day and planning for success I get a 16Giger sometime in the am before I head to work. How long should the first charge be without disruption for lith-ion batteries, I read mixed reports some saying that it doesnt matter any more, but others saying to be sure fully charge it over night and discharge it for optimal use and battery charge indicator accuracy.

Anyone have any thoughts, seems a shame to get up early & get it, then leave it on charge at home whilst leaving it and pretending to work and not able to play with it or to charge at work and play with it and to have to go back to work on sat to collect after an over night charge.

Or am just creating more stress for myself in addition to the current UK launch palaver!
Click to expand...

As much as I'd like to just do a quick charge and go - I've allways had good results from doing a long initial charge, and heard bad news from people who didn't - even with Lithium-ion batteries.

Certainly, I don't think the initial charge needs to be as long as it used to be. Previously, the recommendation was somewhere in the region of 16-20 hours! No longer - Lion batteries are much more efficient, and charging circuits and intelligence has improved.

Lion batteries don't need to be discharged fully before recharging, as they don't suffer from the memory effect. In fact, it's actually much better to keep them charged up whenever you can. I've read some reports that each full discharge of a Li-on battery will reduce it's life. The life of a lion battery is often measured in charging cycles.

Some good explanations about the way charging cycles accumulate is posted up in the Apple website.

The biggest thing to avoid with any lion battery is heat - high temperatures will permanently damage the lifespan of the battery.

So, give it a good charge - but after that there's not so much need to 'baby' your battery to keep it running for long periods.
--
BG
 
He was talking about discharge cycles as well which is a thing you used to have to do with rechargables to keep them healthy (not only is this not needed any more it's actually bad for the battery).

Newer devices don't seem to have the charge for 12 hours thing any more.. it was just a hangover from the old days. As the apple site says.. you can fully charge a Lithium-ion battery in 4 hours, and have it at 80% charge in 2 hours. If you've got a reasonable size itunes library and you browse the appstore for a bit, maybe post a mini-review to macrumors.. that's probably most of your 4 hours gone already.
 
i was planning to run it down to 0% out of the box and recharging to 100% then back to 0% just to make sure the calibration is set


Apple's calibration protocol is run the device down to 0% and allow for a full charge then you are good to go
 
CRIIM44 said:
i was planning to run it down to 0% out of the box and recharging to 100% then back to 0% just to make sure the calibration is set


Apple's calibration protocol is run the device down to 0% and allow for a full charge then you are good to go
Click to expand...

Sounds like useful advice - it's important that the battery meter is accurate :cool:
 
So do they come fully charged like many phones or do you have to charge before first use?
 
mark34 said:
So do they come fully charged like many phones or do you have to charge before first use?
Click to expand...

I always find that phones come with whatever charge is left in them - I've never got one fully charged.

In fact this would be very difficult because even when a device is switched off it will be loosing charge through natural degradation.
 
Thanks for the reply. Even more specific question; will I be able to "play" with it right away and then keep playing with it when I get home and plug it in?

Ha... I sound like I am 8. (really 40 yo)
 
mark34 said:
Thanks for the reply. Even more specific question; will I be able to "play" with it right away and then keep playing with it when I get home and plug it in?

Ha... I sound like I am 8. (really 40 yo)
Click to expand...

I share your excitement but personally I'm taking it straight home and starting it charging for at least 2 hrs before I fire it up, then I'll keep it on charge whilst I do my 1st sync etc.

Think I'll then take the advice from CRIIM44 and running it to zero.
 
TonyHoyle said:
You can't run a Lithium-ion to zero anyway because it'll cut out way before then - were you able to do so you'd damage the battery.
Click to expand...

you can run the device till it does or "0%" on any apple computer if you run it completely dead the meter will read 0% when it gets plugged in at first
 
so, everything crossed that I get my 16giger by 9amish tomoz. I wont really be able to play with it or activate it at work as don't have itunes, should I

a) Activate it at home, stop the first charge after a few mins after uploaded my contacts and playlist and bring it into work and then charge it for the rest of the day at my desk for the ~7hours to sort that first charge?

b) just bring it to work and charge it unactivated for ~7 hours straight - this way it gets an unbroken initial charge

c) charge at home by usb and then sync and play with it when I get back from work (and just read about you lot playing with it), this will mostly like be ~9hours of solid charge.

This is not about playing with it ASAP, but ensuring the first charge is optimal for best life over the next 18months. Or again am I being unnecessary anal and just play with it without a massive initial charge.
 
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