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How should i charge my Ipad?

Haziza

Haziza

macrumors member
Original poster
How should i charge my New Ipad, i can easily use all of my battery on one day gaming.

Is it ok charging it when its on like 20% or 40% and then use it for a while and charge again?

Or how should i charge it?

Sorry for my bad English! Swed here 😛
 
Haziza said:
How should i charge my New Ipad, i can easily use all of my battery on one day gaming.

Is it ok charging it when its on like 20% or 40% and then use it for a while and charge again?

Or how should i charge it?

Sorry for my bad English! Swed here 😛
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The lithium ion battery in your iPad loves to be charged. If you can get it on a charger at any percentage point, go ahead and do it. Its actually not too good to run a li-ion battery almost to nothing. It's better to keep it charged and charging, which keeps the electrons in the chemical moving around and thus will help prolong the life of the battery.
 
Charge it as and when you need to, won't do any harm charging it at 20 - 40 per cent but once in a while let the battery drain to less than 5 per cent then leave it on charge overnight.

I let mine die completely about once a week or so then charge it back up.

Tony
 
OneBigFatNinja said:
I let mine die completely about once a week or so then charge it back up.

Tony
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From Battery University

Over-discharging Lithium-ion

Li-ion should never be discharged too low, and there are several safeguards to prevent this from happening. The equipment cuts off when the battery discharges to about 3.0V/cell, stopping the current flow. If the discharge continues to about 2.70V/cell or lower, the battery’s protection circuit puts the battery into a sleep mode. This renders the pack unserviceable and a recharge with most chargers is not possible. To prevent a battery from falling asleep, apply a partial charge before a long storage period.
Battery manufacturers ship batteries with a 40 percent charge. The low charge state reduces aging-related stress while allowing some self-discharge during storage. To minimize the current flow for the protection circuit before the battery is sold, advanced Li-ion packs feature a sleep mode that disables the protection circuit until activated by a brief charge or discharge. Once engaged, the battery remains operational and the on state can no longer be switched back to the standby mode.
Do not recharge lithium-ion if a cell has stayed at or below 1.5V for more than a week. Copper shunts may have formed inside the cells that can lead to a partial or total electrical short. If recharged, the cells might become unstable, causing excessive heat or showing other anomalies. Li-ion packs that have been under stress are more sensitive to mechanical abuse, such as vibration, dropping and exposure to heat.
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Well you learn something everyday!!! Never done me any harm to date but then again I don't work for a university that specialises in this sorta thing. 🙂

**Goes off to put his iPad on charge as its down to 30 per cent**

Cheers
 
OneBigFatNinja said:
Well you learn something everyday!!! Never done me any harm to date but then again I don't work for a university that specialises in this sorta thing. 🙂
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As explained in the text, there are safeguards put in place. When the iPad is "completely dead", the battery is not completely drained. Ergo no harm done (unless you leave it for an extended amount of time).

But there is no point in running the iPad down so low intentionally.
 
Thanks for all the answers 🙂

I guess i will charge while eating or taking a dump 😛
 
But to add to what the others have said once in a while you should run it till the iPad powers off and fully charge for calibration reasons. Other than that plug in when you like. It's not like batteries of yesteryear that had a memory so to speak!
 
Gav2k said:
But to add to what the others have said once in a while you should run it till the iPad powers off and fully charge for calibration reasons. Other than that plug in when you like. It's not like batteries of yesteryear that had a memory so to speak!
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Correct. About every 3 months or 40 partial cycles.

Battery Calibration

The fuel gauge has the inherent drawback that it needs periodic calibration, also known as capacity re-learning. This is unfortunate, but is required to correct the tracking error that develops between the chemical and digital battery over many charge and discharge cycles.
Calibration could be omitted if the battery received a full charge followed by a full discharge at a constant current. This way, the battery would reset with each full cycle and the tracking error would be kept at less than one percent per cycle. In real life, however, a battery may be discharged for a few minutes with a load signature that is difficult to capture, then is partially recharged and stored with varying levels of self-discharge depending on temperature. These anomalies contribute to an unavoidable error. The true capacity of the battery begins to deviate from the fuel gauge readout and the battery needs to re-learn. Battery engineers say jokingly that “Li-ion got rid of memory and SMBus adds digital memory.”
Calibration occurs naturally by occasionally running the equipment down until the battery is fully depleted and “Low Battery” appears. The full discharge sets the discharge flag, and the subsequent recharge sets the charge flag. By establishing these two markers, the battery can calculate the state-of-charge by knowing the distance between the flags. Figure 1 illustrates the full-discharge and full-charge flags.

How often does a battery need calibrating? The answer depends on the application. For practical purposes, a calibration should be done once every three months or after 40 partial cycles. If the portable device applies a periodic deep discharge on its own, no additional calibration will be needed. However, if the equipment had been in constant battery power with no full-discharge interval for a period of a few months, then a deliberate discharge is recommended. This can be done in the equipment, with a charger featuring a discharge function or a battery analyzer. Avoid doing too many deep discharges for the sake of calibration because this would wear the battery down.
What happens if the battery is not calibrated regularly? Can such a battery be used with confidence? Most smart battery chargers obey the dictates of the chemical battery rather than the electronic circuit, and there are no safety issues. In spite of being out of calibration, the battery charges fully and functions normally; however, the digital readout may become increasingly more inaccurate and will eventually become a nuisance.
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SandboxGeneral said:
Correct. About every 3 months or 40 partial cycles.
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I think that even this is a waste of time and possibly battery longevity as I have NEVER full cycled the battery on any of my iPads or iPhone and never had a problem.

I know Apple is supposed to know best but if you are not having any problems, leave it along. It you calibration seems to be wrong, the by all means do it. 😎
 
I charge my iPad most night and my iPhone every night. They both get run down to zero at least once a month. I had a problem on my iPhone after about a year of charging it every night. That's when I read up and found out I was supposed to run it down to nothing every once in a while. Since then its been fine. It will be 2 years old in June and I think the battery lasts as good as when it was new.
 
itickings said:
Just make extra sure you have a working smoke detector in a suitable place if charging while sleeping. 🙂
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Why😕 I have been charging my iPad and iPhone ever night since day 1 of the original iPhone.

Are you concerned about having electronics plugged in while you sleep. if so do you just flip your main breaker before you go to bed sine the average home has dozens of device's plugged in?😱

Also everyone should have working smoke detectors in their home. Even cutting the main breaker off your home could be hit by lightning.
 
Julien said:
Why😕 I have been charging my iPad and iPhone ever night since day 1 of the original iPhone.

Are you concerned about having electronics plugged in while you sleep. if so do you just flip your main breaker before you go to bed sine the average home has dozens of device's plugged in?😱

Also everyone should have working smoke detectors in their home. Even cutting the main breaker off your home could be hit by lightning.
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Why? Modern high capacity batteries are able to store a lot of energy in a very compact area. Most other devices don't do that. Charging is messy. Good protection circuits nowadays, but still...

And yeah, one should always have smoke detectors, thats why i added "extra" in front of "sure". 🙂
 
itickings said:
Why? Modern high capacity batteries are able to store a lot of energy in a very compact area. Most other devices don't do that. Charging is messy. Good protection circuits nowadays, but still...

And yeah, one should always have smoke detectors, thats why i added "extra" in front of "sure". 🙂
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FUD: Lithium Ion batteries are statistically very safe especially compared to other home devices.

According to the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission, from 2003 to 2005 more than 300 (total) incidents (not just fires) occurred involving lithium-ion laptop and cell-phone batteries overheating or catching fire.

In 1998, toasters caused 2200 home fires, 20 deaths and 90 injuries. Over $13.3 million in residential property damage also occurred as a direct result of home fires started by toasters.
 
Last edited:
Haziza said:
snip
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Is it ok charging it when its on like 20% or 40% and then use it for a while and charge again?

yes

Or how should i charge it?

Plug it into the 10w adapter and charge you can unplug whenever you like it won't harm the battery
 
Julien said:
Why😕 I have been charging my iPad and iPhone ever night since day 1 of the original iPhone.

Are you concerned about having electronics plugged in while you sleep. if so do you just flip your main breaker before you go to bed sine the average home has dozens of device's plugged in?😱

Also everyone should have working smoke detectors in their home. Even cutting the main breaker off your home could be hit by lightning.
Click to expand...

I think he was joking. 😛
 
Julien said:
FUD: Lithium Ion batteries are statistically very safe especially compared to other home devices.

According to the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission, from 2003 to 2005 more than 300 (total) incidents (not just fires) occurred involving lithium-ion laptop and cell-phone batteries overheating or catching fire.
Click to expand...

And in most cases, I'd wager a non-authentic aftermarket battery or damaged equipment was involved.

Julien said:
In 1998, toasters caused 2200 home fires, 20 deaths and 90 injuries. Over $13.3 million in residential property damage also occurred as a direct result of home fires started by toasters.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's exactly why I strongly advise against running toasters while sleeping! 😀
 
OneBigFatNinja said:
Charge it as and when you need to, won't do any harm charging it at 20 - 40 per cent but once in a while let the battery drain to less than 5 per cent then leave it on charge overnight.

I let mine die completely about once a week or so then charge it back up.

Tony
Click to expand...

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