BATTERIES: What We Do That Kills Our Battery Cells Gradually - Precautions To Be Taken
Hello fellow steemians, my topic today is about battery cells. Actually, i don't know about other regions, but in my region, it's very obvious that the way people use electronic gadgets and its batteries are not the way manufacturers stated it in their manual guides and this is seriously affecting our electronic devices especially cellphones, tablets, notebooks and laptops. The improper battery maintenance is not everyone tho, but to majority. Like 70%.
I do hear people complain about cellphone battery voltage drop. Saying that "when I first bought the phone, the battery lasted 22 hours but now it's not even up to 14 hours and this is just 8 months of it purchase". They will now round it up saying "oh God! This phone brand is not good". While others would say, "the phone brand is good but the battery for this model ain't good."
This is how some users talk ill about many phone brands with their ignorance of not knowing how to properly maintain a battery health. They are not to be blamed anyway, because in life everyone is ignorant of something. Nobody knows all except God. We would only understand what we are exposed to or being taught. Any other thing not being taught or exposed to, we might not get the understanding.
Those statements above are not assumptions but what many people say in my region. I have experienced lots from people about this topic.
Improper Maintenance Of Battery Cells
Usage of Unspecified charger
There are many that falls under this category. Some just thought you can use any charger for any cellphones in as much it's charging. I have seen several cases like this. But for me, I'm not always okay seeing something going inappropriate. Seeing people like this, I always ignore their ignorance, move closer to them and explain how they could properly maintained their battery's health. Most people I explain to always finds it interesting knowing the secret behind battery strength longevity.
Just always wondering, how many people would I explain this to on getting the logic of battery rules, so I decided to make this article to go on a wide range.
I have also realised that, improper maintenance of battery cells doesn't concern if you are a learned person or not. As a matter of fact, I have seen many learned persons fall victim on this category. I have seen someone use 0.3amps charger to charge battery cell of 4000mAh. This is inappropriate! I have seen someone use charger having output of 300mAh to charge battery cell of 3000 mAh. I have also seen someone working a two way charger having output of 0.3amps to charge two phones. Each phone having battery capacity of 1050mAh. This is definitely a problem for both battery cells.
If this type of battery maintenance should continue, what would happen to the battery's health in 10 months won't be funny. The battery will become weak, then deteriorate.
Possible Solution Using Wrong Chargers
Every phone brand has a specified charger for a specific model type. If a charger should get spoilt, it should be replaced immediately and not use other phone brand charger to charge, this might affect battery's health due to ratings. If a charger get spoilt and want to buy another, there are two important things to be considered.
Charger Amps (output).
mAh of cell battery to be used for.
The balancing must be well understood. Phone model A charger shouldn't be used for model B charger. If this is done, it might affect the battery's health because model A charger might be powerful or less than model B which might result to over charging or less.
Photo Credit: Pexels. License: CC0
Cellphones specified charger must be use according to the instructions from phone manufacturers because the charger that came with the phone has the correct rating. Or better still, use the third-party charger below if it's approved by your phone manufacturer.
- A battery capacity of 2000mAh should have a charger output of 0.8-1amp or 800-1000mAh. With this, the battery cell would be fully charged from 0% to 100% in 1.5 hours.
- A battery capacity of 3000mAh should have a charger output of 2amps or 2000mAh. With this, the battery cell would be fully charged from 0% to 100% in 1.5 or 2 hours.
- A battery capacity of 4000mAh should have a charger output of 2.5amps or 2500mAh. With this, the battery cell would be fully charged from 0% to 100% in 2 hours.
- A battery capacity of 5000mAh should have a charger output of 3amps or 3000mAh. With this, the battery cell would be fully charged from 0% to 100% in 2 hours.
- A battery capacity of 6020mAh should have a charger output of 3.5amps or 3500mAh. With this, the battery cell would be fully charged from 0% to 100% in 2 or 2.5 hours.
Further Improper Maintenance Of Battery Cells
Short Circuit
Most people doesn't consider this method as a problem. Meanwhile, it's one of it. People are fond of doing this to test if their is current available in the battery cell.
In a simple term, a short circuit means when a single wire is used to touch both positive and negative terminals at the same time OR a double wire from the battery, one from negative and other from positive touch each other. If this is done, it would cause extreme current flow in the power source and might destroy the battery cells.
Charging overnight
Photo Credit: Pexels. License: CC0
Majority are involve in this. Though it's not that harmful to battery cells, but it's one of its problem in a long run. If this is done continuously, it would reduce it life span very slowly and that's why it's a problem in a long run.
If this would be a problem in future why not try avoid it if you can? At least, you might have seen your phone fully charged before going to bed.
Conclusion
Proper maintenance of battery cells should be put to action always and not JUST maintain battery health as one desires but follow battery rules according to manufacturers. If all these precautions can be taken into consideration, then, every phone users would definitely enjoy their cellphones because battery is the power house of a phone no matter how fancy or expensive the phone may be.
Thank you for your time!
All Images used in this article are Linked to the respective owners
References
https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/expert-advice-on-how-to-avoid-destroying-your-phones-battery/
https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/how-to/mobile-phone/charge-phone-properly-3619623/
https://lifehacker.com/5875162/how-often-should-i-charge-my-gadgets-battery-to-prolong-its-lifespan
https://www.sciencealert.com/how-to-charge-phone-battery-to-last-longer-advice-science
If you write STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) related posts, consider joining #steemSTEM on discord here. If you are from Nigeria, you may want to include the #stemng tag in your post. You can visit this blog by @stemng for more details. You can also check this blog post by @steemstem here and this guidelines here for help on how to be a member of @steemstem. Please also check this blog post from @steemstem on proper use of images devoid of copyright issues here
This post has been voted on by the steemstem curation team and voting trail.
There is more to SteemSTEM than just writing posts, check here for some more tips on being a community member. You can also join our discord here to get to know the rest of the community!
Chaiii, i'm guilty of this ooo
Thank you for this explanatory and informative writeup
Kudos on your effort
Yea @teemike. The phone model charger has the correct rating. If get spoilt, same charger should be looked for. Will always be available.
Thanks for coming around brov!
I'd like to point out a few things:
Charging batteries overnight is not an issue if you are using a smart charger. Unless you are using a "dumb" charger that keeps charging the batteries even when its full. The only issue you may have with charging overnight is that you may increase your energy consumption by some watts. Smart charger automatically cuts off charge once the phone/device is full.
Charging a battery with a low current will not damage the battery if the battery gets to be fully charged. The danger, to a battery, lies in charging with a high current or voltage. It is even recommended to use a low current charger as you can charge your batteries so that it won't heat it up. Slow charging is the best for most batteries, only some batteries can take fast charging at high current without deterioration. That is possible with the use of Quick Charge charging system with up to 5A charging current-only very specific phone hardware and chipset support these high current charging features.
In your first point, you've used a clause "if". The word "if you are using a smart charger" is not meant for all. So to some, it would be a problem and to others using a smart charger it won't but IN A LONG RUN it would be according to Battery University and Science Alert
I already said this in the article. The word in a long run means months, years. Very slowly in action that no one will never get noticed until many months or years.
As your second point, you are right and I'm not also supporting of charging battery with high current, but only with a normal voltage (moderate).
On using low current to charge won't affect the battery truly but u gatto be ready to spend more hours charging ur phone especially if it's a battery capacity like 5000 - 6000mAh.
And mind you, low current differs. Not every low current can power a charger. Every charger are expected to have at least input of 100 - 240v(50/60Hz, 0.3A, 0.6A, 0.9A etc depending on manufacturers ratings). If you have a current below 100v you know what that means.
Thanks for your contribution @greenrun
I've read the battery university link you dropped, I still did not see anywhere where it said charging with a smart charger is detrimental to a battery health. I'd ran a real-life tests with variety of batteries for more than eight years, in my experience I've never seen where a smart charger destroyed a battery simply because it was plugged in.
What do you mean by above?
The low current I'm talking about is not one given out by charger as a result of voltage drop. I'm talking about chargers outputting specified charging voltage and current as made by a manufacturer. Also the DC voltage output is the required nominal voltage value required by the said battery.
Nice write up @misterufem
My question: Does charging with a power bank, laptop and car charger have any negative effect on the batteries?
If the powerbank and laptop output is the specified voltage range for the battery being charged, then you have no problem. You can buy a portable USB tester meter like this one off Amazon for less than $15 or at less than N3000 in Nigeria at Konga
The image in the left (4.93V and 0.98A) is when I was charging via my PC's USB port. The image on the right (5.14V @ 1.15A) is when I'm using a wall charger. You can see the wall charger has a greater charging current and voltage and hence will charge my battery faster. But the laptop port will do the same job too albeit at a slower pace.
Thanks for the explanation @greenrun
As for power bank, no negative effect.
But for laptop, there would be a super slow charge no matter USB cable u may use. This is due to USB port output. The output is less than 1amp and also the USB cable. (Most USB cables and ports have four wires in them. A positive and negative for power, and a positive and negative for data.)
And you will also realise even if the battery managed to get full, it would drop in few hours. That will happen to any battery if get charged with low output. If this is done continuously, the battery won't properly get charged and it might result creating a memory effect on the battery in a long run
As for car, the USB port in your vehicle probably provides less electricity than your phone really needs to charge. By plugging your phone into a low-power USB port like the one in your car, you allow the device to swallow up power at a rate that's much too fast for the port's capabilities. As a result, your phone might stall while it charges, or worse. That reminds me when I wanted to charge my tablet, 15%, then someone came with a car. I put in my tablet to charge, then I remembered the output would be super low.
I removed it in a second. After, the 15% on my tab started counting down till zero. It wasn't funny that day.
Phone charging using car shouldn't be a thing of daily basis. Phone charger is the best to a phone without any hassle
Thanks @mr-sakariyau for your time and contribution
Thanks for the detailed response
Whaoooo, this write up deserve an accolade
Wow...this is enlightening!
I am a biologist but I do love chemistry.
So my question... What is the chemistry behind the balance between charger amps and mAh of battery cell... Or better still whats the formula to check if I have got the right charger for the right battery cell? So I will be able to calculate anytime the need arise.
Thanks!!!
Fantastic question @herbayomi.
In a nutshell, if you charge ur battery cell with a specified charger, let's just say a Li-ion battery, the positively charged lithium ions will move faster (not too fast, but moderately) from one electrode, which is cathode to another electrode, anode through an electrolyte solution on the battery cell.
So, during charging, the chemistry within the battery cell alongside with the right charger is perfectly OK. But if it's a charger that is below the battery volt, there would be a slow in action. The positive charge ions will move slowly to anode. It won't affect the b3 though, but it might in a long run.
It's like someone being thirsty for water, and was offered water using a teaspoon instead of a cup. If he take that water using glass cup, he would be satisfied quickly and be happy. Compare with using a spoon to take water, such person won't be happy and it would take much time before he gets satisfied. The same is our battery cells.
When you charge with appropriate charger, everything is cool, if low charger, the charging slows and if high rating charger than the battery voltage, this will result to a super fast charging making charged ions move faster from cathode to anode. This is not balance, if your battery get full and u refuse to remove it, it would affect the battery if using a dumb charger.
Thanks for coming around
Now this is CHEMISTRY!
I understand better now. Next time I am gonna get a charger, who ever is going to sell should anticipate some level of drama, as I am sure we that read your post have been equipped with the right knowledge.
Big thanks for this detailed answer...
Are you on the #steemstem and #stemng discord channel?
You are welcome brov! Thanks for the compliment.
Of course i am! Gracias!
Hi @misterufem!
Your post was upvoted by utopian.io in cooperation with steemstem - supporting knowledge, innovation and technological advancement on the Steem Blockchain.
Contribute to Open Source with utopian.io
Learn how to contribute on our website and join the new open source economy.
Want to chat? Join the Utopian Community on Discord https://discord.gg/h52nFrV
Sincerely most of us just plug in our charger and leave it. as soon as the charger gets spoilt, we head to the market and buy a new one they told us is original and the cycle continues.
Nicely written write up i must say.
Any view on using devices while charging?
Yes! Firstly, if u are using a specified charger that has correct rating for ur b3, u can use it while charging. And the b3 percentage will increase like you are not even using it.
Secondly, if your charger rating is below the capacity of ur ba3 cell, then u can't try that. Cos u might not get a +1% for hours because u are using it. In some cases, instead of the charging % to increase, it would decrease or stand still.
Thanks for coming around @rharphelle