Does a replacement battery need to be "broken in"?

[sonoferu]

Got a replacement battery for a Dell Latitude 830. Is there anything I need to do to start off right? I vaguely remember hearing you should drain it down and recharge it fully, a couple of times, that kind of thing

thanks

 

[wirednuts]

just give it a full charge then use it normally

 

[Lanyap]

So which battery did you decide to get?

 

[Paperlantern]

The "Double Refresh" was only necessary for NiCad batteries. Lithium Ions now a days dont need that. It's not to say its not a good idea, but really it could only be chalked up to superstition, the technology isnt subject to the same issues as NiCad and like wirednuts says, just charge it up and use it.

 

[NutBucket]

Funny. I'm in the same boat. My D830 battery crapped out a few weeks ago. So what did you end up getting?

 

[sonoferu]

Well, I happened to mention to my wife that most replacement batteries were in the $30+ range, but there was one that was over $60,

http://www.amazon.com/Gaisar-Super-Capacity-Replacement-Precision-Workstation/product-reviews/B003214YBU/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

and people reviewing it said they were getting longer life on a battery charge, that was the end of the search. I got the Gaisar. They were back ordered, so it just came.

I'm very analytical, I look at reviews and notice that there were only a handful for that battery and just 2 saying they got long life, and MANY for the other batteries, and it would occur to me that probably more unhappy people than happy people review things, and on and on. She teases me that I bring to life the idea of "all things considered" So I will put off a decision and keep poking and thinking. For her, BOOM we're done. Longer charge, lets get it.

We're still very much married after 20 years of this and many other such like bafflements

🙂

 

[kjband13oc]

I just went thru this
Directions that came with Dell battery
1.This product is controlled by the microcomputer.It has intelligent management of capacity.
2.When product is newly used,it should be recharged in the following cycle.
3.First charge battery fully.
Second discharge battery completely.
Third charge battery fully.
Fourth discharge battery fully.
Charge fully again.
4.When battery status is 100%it is continuously charged by a small amount of cuuent by the microcomputer.
It looks like the charging chip is learning the capacity so battery charges to proper level.

 

[wirednuts]

that is correct, the chips inside laptop batteries these days do hundreds of things. they control charging while logging everything the battery go through, including temperature changes, how many times its been charged and discharged, if its ever overcharged, undercharged, weak or dying cells... it all gets logged into memory for the life of the battery pack. and any major fault can trip a permanent safety switch that disables the pack forever (thats why a lot of times if you go too long without charging, the battey doesnt work at all anymore).

so i suppose dell's directions couldnt hurt, but i think its more for warranty purposes anyway. doing the initial full cycles would give the battery pack good base data, which in case of failure the service guys would have a better idea of what the battery was like when new... but really the charging is based off the voltage at any given time so i dont think it would effect the actual life of the battery.