OVER charging cell phone or laptop??

[slayer202]

Some people claim that you can charge your cell phone or laptop TOO much. As in charging a cell phone every night, or having a laptop plugged in all the time. I do not see any logic to this, but I am not expert.

So is there any truth to this?

 

[Shaftatplanetquake]

I've heard there is a zero-point sort of thing that those sorts of batteries will become unfamiliar with if you charge them to 100% and leave them charging instead of letting them discharge almost all the way down before recharging.

Deus Ex anecdote involving nanomachines + advice from former coworker in computer store environment (although he was quite the bullsh!tter, so I wouldn't necessarily put any stock in what he said)

 

[Aimster]

they are wrong

I charge my cell every night. It works great.

Now you can overcharge if the charger doesnt have a built in stopper, meaning itll keep charging even if the battery is at its capacity. You prob dont have a cheap .50 charger you got off ebay so you are fine.

 

[eakers]

My laptop stops charging once it is full no matter if it is plugged in or not (at least that is what the owners manual says). I still let it completely drain about once a week though.

I have no idea about cell phones, I never turn mine on.

 

[Shaftatplanetquake]

Originally posted by: Aimster
they are wrong

I charge my cell every night. It works great.

Now you can overcharge if the charger doesnt have a built in stopper, meaning itll keep charging even if the battery is at its capacity. You prob dont have a cheap .50 charger you got off ebay so you are fine.

Built in stopper eh? Is that a technical term?

 

[yhelothar]

It should be fine, but you have to let it completely drain once in a while. I didn't know to do that with my cell phone, and the battery life started getting really bad. It would be drained in less than a day, whereas it used to last a good 3-5 days between charges.

 

[mugs]

They're probably referring to the "memory effect" of batteries, which affects NiCd batteries but is not supposed to affect NiMh batteries I believe.

 

[Zenmervolt]

It used to be possible back when chargers simply fed electricity into batteries until you unplugged them, but modern chargers have microchips inside to monitor the batteries' status and they will stop charging the batteries once they are full.

ZV

 

[slayer202]

:thumbsup:

thanks