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But if it's going on change over night, would the extreamly overcharge be bad for the battery?

No, because lithium ion batteries have circuitry to ensure that they charge properly. Apple literally tells you to leave it on the charger overnight, and that's how it was designed. No need to overthink this.
 
Quite impressed with the battery on my 42mm. With moderate use and no workouts, easily 30+ hours and that's conservative.

On a heavy day of use like today with lots of texting, a billion time checks, and 1 hour of workout, still 40% left after 12 hours off charge, which projects to 20 hours.
 
hm

That may have been true with older styles of battery, but lithium ion batteries don't really care if you discharge them before charging.

hmm, then why would apple (and others) recommend that one frequently perform complete discharges of LITHIUM ION batteries in order to maintain their maximum capacity and charge discharge cycle time?

they even put it on their websites.
 
hmm, then why would apple (and others) recommend that one frequently perform complete discharges of LITHIUM ION batteries in order to maintain their maximum capacity and charge discharge cycle time?

they even put it on their websites.

Actually, apple's battery performance website (https://www.apple.com/batteries/maximizing-performance/) doesn't mention completely discharging your battery at all, much less doing it frequently.

And on their 'why lithium ion' website (https://www.apple.com/batteries/why-lithium-ion/) it says:

Charge your Apple lithium-ion battery whenever you want. There’s no need to let it discharge 100% before recharging.
 
hmm, then why would apple (and others) recommend that one frequently perform complete discharges of LITHIUM ION batteries in order to maintain their maximum capacity and charge discharge cycle time?

they even put it on their websites.

Do they? Link? I know that they sometimes recommend doing that not for the battery itself, but to calibrate the software that manages your battery. But it's certainly not something you need to do regularly.
 
hmm, then why would apple (and others) recommend that one frequently perform complete discharges of LITHIUM ION batteries in order to maintain their maximum capacity and charge discharge cycle time?

they even put it on their websites.

If you COMPLETELY discharge a rechargeable battery, you will kill it, that is why iPhones, Apple Watches etc. switch off BEFORE the battery is empty.
 
Do they? Link? I know that they sometimes recommend doing that not for the battery itself, but to calibrate the software that manages your battery. But it's certainly not something you need to do regularly.

They don't, at least not outside of tivoboy's own little world;) See my post above, the apple web site actually says that you don't need to let it fully discharge.
 
No, because lithium ion batteries have circuitry to ensure that they charge properly. Apple literally tells you to leave it on the charger overnight, and that's how it was designed. No need to overthink this.

Well, another (more relevant) reason is that batteries have only a certain number of charges to them, and if you only do it half as often, theoretically, the battery will last twice as long.

1000 charges = 1000 days
vs
1000 charges = 2000 days

Of course - that's like 6 years, so....
 
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Well, another (more relevant) reason is that batteries have only a certain number of charges to them, and if you only do it half as often, theoretically, the battery will last twice as long.

1000 charges = 1000 days
vs
1000 charges = 2000 days

Of course - that's like 6 years, so....

Actually, this isn't true either... again from apple's 'why lithium ion' website (https://www.apple.com/batteries/why-lithium-ion/):

Apple lithium-ion batteries work in charge cycles. You complete one charge cycle when you’ve used (discharged) an amount that equals 100% of your battery’s capacity — but not necessarily all from one charge. For instance, you might use 75% of your battery’s capacity one day, then recharge it fully overnight. If you use 25% the next day, you will have discharged a total of 100%, and the two days will add up to one charge cycle. It could take several days to complete a cycle.
 
Well, another (more relevant) reason is that batteries have only a certain number of charges to them, and if you only do it half as often, theoretically, the battery will last twice as long.

1000 charges = 1000 days
vs
1000 charges = 2000 days

Of course - that's like 6 years, so....

Not correct. A charge from 50% to 100% only counts as half a charge cycle, not a full charge cycle.
 
Yep, almost all of the tips for "conditioning" batteries are from previous technologies like nicad and nickel metal hydride batteries. They no longer apply to lithium ion batteries (and some, like the advice to always drain it fully before charging can actually be harmful) but they keep getting repeated. Lithium ion batteries are really quite intelligent and convenient things. There's no need to make this so complicated -- just plug in every night and the watch will take care of everything.
 
used to

Do they? Link? I know that they sometimes recommend doing that not for the battery itself, but to calibrate the software that manages your battery. But it's certainly not something you need to do regularly.

well, as recently as last August apple was recommending monthly complete discharges and re-charges for notebook batteries (pretty certain they were Li-on then too)

http://web.archive.org/web/20140701174823/http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html


so, It's not a complete fabrication of reality, but it does appear to be old information or at least not the company line from now on.

there are several other support articles than this one which HAD recommended letting li-on batteries draw down, go to sleep, sit idle asleep are recharge again in order to both calibrate and optimize their performance.

Apparently I'm moving to a nightly plug in or so going forward. :rolleyes:
 
well, as recently as last August apple was recommending monthly complete discharges and re-charges for notebook batteries (pretty certain they were Li-on then too)

http://web.archive.org/web/20140701174823/http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html


so, It's not a complete fabrication of reality, but it does appear to be old information or at least not the company line from now on.

Well, what it says is this:

If on the other hand, you use a desktop computer at work, and save a notebook for infrequent travel, Apple recommends charging and discharging its battery at least once per month.

That's geared toward people who use a laptop mostly as a desktop computer or who use a desktop most of the time and a notebook only occasionally. You do need to actually use a battery (charging and discharging it) once in a while to keep it working properly. But they're not talking about a complete discharge, and they're also not giving this advice to people who use their laptops on battery regularly. Needless to say, I don't think many people here will be using the watch exclusively plugged in, so I don't think we need to worry. ;)
 
apple

someone should tell the apple store employees in palo alto, since they were preaching the same thing just last week. ;-)

And oddly, they informed all the apple watch owners during one of the workshops that "best practice" to maintain optimal battery life was to let it run down to 0% and run it back up to 100%..

I'm not trying to further this discussion at this point, but honestly THIS is what THEY are saying in the stores.. at least the one nearest the mothership.
 
someone should tell the apple store employees in palo alto, since they were preaching the same thing just last week. ;-)

And oddly, they informed all the apple watch owners during one of the workshops that "best practice" to maintain optimal battery life was to let it run down to 0% and run it back up to 100%..

I'm not trying to further this discussion at this point, but honestly THIS is what THEY are saying in the stores.. at least the one nearest the mothership.
I don't doubt you, but that doesn't make it true. ;) As I said earlier, there is some confusion on this point because draining the battery to zero is good to do occasionally just to calibrate the software, but it's definitely not something you should try and do every time you use it.

This doesn't contradict what he said. By "charges" he meant "cycles".
He was saying that your battery's lifespan would theoretically be doubled if instead of charging it every night at 50% remaining, you waited until it was 0% and then charged. However, this is not true with lithium ion batteries, as two charges from 50% are basically equal to one charge from 0%.
 
He was saying that your battery's lifespan would theoretically be doubled if instead of charging it every night at 50% remaining, you waited until it was 0% and then charged. However, this is not true with lithium ion batteries, as two charges from 50% are basically equal to one charge from 0%.

You're right, my bad. I skimmed his post too quickly and thought he was saying if the battery lasted 2x longer, the same 1000 charges would mean 2x longer lifespan.
 
well, as recently as last August apple was recommending monthly complete discharges and re-charges for notebook batteries (pretty certain they were Li-on then too)

http://web.archive.org/web/20140701174823/http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html


so, It's not a complete fabrication of reality, but it does appear to be old information or at least not the company line from now on.

there are several other support articles than this one which HAD recommended letting li-on batteries draw down, go to sleep, sit idle asleep are recharge again in order to both calibrate and optimize their performance.

Apparently I'm moving to a nightly plug in or so going forward. :rolleyes:

This used to be necessary. It's no longer necessary. And it was only necessary for certain types of batteries with certain charge/discharge formulations. Never for phones. And no longer for any new Apple products.

In older LiIon laptop batteries, if you never actually used the battery fully at least once ina while, the total capacity would be severely reduced. This problem is no solved by battery circuitry automatically shifting around the charge/discharge targets to the multiple cells in each battery.

You may still have issues on a device if you actually never take it off the charger ever, though. But, that would be very strange to do and I guess if you were like that, you wouldn't really care?
 
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