Maximising the battery life

[ct2k7]

For new iPad owners, how do you suggest we maximise battery life?

I was thinking:

• Charge it to full when you get it
• Don't let the charge go below 30%
• Regularly use and excercise the battery?
• Perform calibration monthly or every two months

What else can we add?

 

[xraytech]

For new iPad owners, how do you suggest we maximise battery life?

I was thinking:

• Charge it to full when you get it
• Don't let the charge go below 30%
• Regularly use and excercise the battery?
• Perform calibration monthly or every two months

What else can we add?

Or

Don't over think it and just charge it every night.

Keep it simple dude, no need for an overly elaborate battery maintenance regimen.

 

[LEXS1411]

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/14529/the-complete-list-of-ipad-tips-tricks-and-tutorials/
There is a very good article re max battery

 

[iApples]

Technically, maximizing the battery life would mean charging it to 100% and then using it until it dies. That would be fully maximizing your battery.

As for your points. Stop worrying about the battery and enjoy the device. If it's low, simply charge it.

 

[kvizzel]

i only charge when the battery is completely dead

battery usually lasts 2-3 days for me too.

 

[DiamondGCoupe]

Battery will outlast the amount of time you'll keep it.

 

[xraytech]

i only charge when the battery is completely dead

battery usually lasts 2-3 days for me too.

That is actually bad for the battery.

Read this...

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries

Also this, read the part about "Over-Discharging"

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/charging_lithium_ion_batteries

 

[steadysignal]

That is actually bad for the battery.

down to 40% and hold - i thought i read somewhere...

 

[xraytech]

down to 40% and hold - i thought i read somewhere...

That's a good percentage to start with. But ideally you want to plug-in when you can.

 

[bld33]

That's a good percentage to start with. But ideally you want to plug-in when you can.

So your saying plug it in whenever your able and do not let the charge go down too low? What about calibrating?

 

[Pete the Geek]

I am interpreting the question to mean maximizing the service life of the battery pack.

If it is convenient, when I'm gaming I keep my iPad plugged in. This is to minimize the number of rapid, deep battery discharges that gaming produces. Since I mostly game at home, I have a little extension cord handy to plug in my iPad.

Otherwise, I don't worry about my iPad's battery life since it will last at least three or four years and by then I will be on to the latest model, the iPad 5 (which will actually be called iPad Hawthorne "to get away from numbers") and will feature a 1 Ghz deci-core AA29 processor, 1 TB flash, Retina-Plus (TM) display and 512 KB of memory. Still no USB or SD ports .

 

[xraytech]

So your saying plug it in whenever your able and do not let the charge go down too low? What about calibrating?

Once and a while everyone will forget to charge and let the battery drain to zero. Just use that opportunity to calibrate. Remember you're not calibrating the battery, you are calibrating the power management in the iPad.

Battery service life declines no matter what you do. The key is to slow that decline. And the best way to do that is to charge and charge often and once in a very very very rare blue moon calibrate.

 

[Evmanw]

I feel kinda stupid for asking, but what is callibrating the battery?

 

[Legion93]

I feel kinda stupid for asking, but what is callibrating the battery?

Read post #4

 

[bld33]

Once and a while everyone will forget to charge and let the battery drain to zero. Just use that opportunity to calibrate. Remember you're not calibrating the battery, you are calibrating the power management in the iPad.

Battery service life declines no matter what you do. The key is to slow that decline. And the best way to do that is to charge and charge often and once in a very very very rare blue moon calibrate.

Thanks. I guess I was misinformed cause I thought it was best to run the battery out as much as possible and then charge. I will begin charging every night.

 

[xraytech]

I feel kinda stupid for asking, but what is callibrating the battery?

Think of a car fuel gauge and how it relates to the capacity of the fuel tank. Over the service life of a car, the capacity of the fuel tank never changes so the fuel gauge never needs to be calibrated to the capacity of the fuel tank.

Now lets look at the relationship between the iPad battery gauge a.k.a. Power Management and the capacity of the iPad battery. Unlike a fuel tank in a car, the iPad battery does lose capacity over its service life. So the battery gauge from time to time needs to be calibrated to the present capacity of the iPad battery. So the way we do that is to charge the iPad battery to 100% capacity then run it down then charge back up to 100%.

 

[ajamacus]

Battery charging time is not great for me.

I've done USB, Wall plug and Computer. It still takes SEVERAL hours to charge my Ipad. I'm taking mine to store and having it checked. Just not normal, I don't think.

 

[xraytech]

I've done USB, Wall plug and Computer. It still takes SEVERAL hours to charge my Ipad. I'm taking mine to store and having it checked. Just not normal, I don't think.

Which wall plug are you using? Cuz if you are using the plug for the iPhone, it will take twice as long to charge an iPad.

 

[gatearray]

iPad takes about 3.5 hours to go from zero to full, the iPad 2 as well.

 

[bmwsport]

I turn location services off. By doing this I've been able to use my iPad alot longer between charges. Sometimes I go a week before recharge.

 

[maclaptop]

For best results, Apple support online, battery tips

 

[miamialley]

Straight from Apple:

http://www.apple.com/batteries/ipad.html

 

[Don Kosak]

Straight from Apple:

http://www.apple.com/batteries/ipad.html

/thread

These aren't your old fashion NiCad batteries from the 90's. There's no mystical battery memory. The batteries have a life-time energy output capacity and charging/discharging at different levels doesn't effect that maximum.

The only thing you are doing by letting it run down is resetting the 10% low battery mark, and 100% indicator on the battery. That indicator is (other than the automatic shut down at 5%) just for your information.

If you are letting the iPad sit and play movies or something for 5 hours just to run down the battery so you can "condition" it... you've just wasted 5 hours of your batteries potential life.

As others have said. Stop over thinking this. Just use the device, charge it when it gets low, and enjoy.

As Buddhist say, "When you're hungry, eat. When you're tired, sleep."

Same goes for iPad batteries.

 

[xraytech]

/thread

These aren't your old fashion NiCad batteries from the 90's. There's no mystical battery memory. The batteries have a life-time energy output capacity and charging/discharging at different levels doesn't effect that maximum.

The only thing you are doing by letting it run down is resetting the 10% low battery mark, and 100% indicator on the battery. That indicator is (other than the automatic shut down at 5%) just for your information.

If you are letting the iPad sit and play movies or something for 5 hours just to run down the battery so you can "condition" it... you've just wasted 5 hours of your batteries potential life.

As others have said. Stop over thinking this. Just use the device, charge it when it gets low, and enjoy.

As Buddhist say, "When you're hungry, eat. When you're tired, sleep."

Same goes for iPad batteries.

Preach!!!