Best way to treat rechargeable batteries

... my experience with laptops, is they start having battery problems after about a year when they are used daily. I know a lot of people that use their laptops in bed. If you set a laptop on a bed they get very hot because of the lack of air circulation under it. I'm not sure but I think the heat can't be good for the batteries and probably helps wear them out faster.
You are quite right about it being the heat, especially in a lap top not on a hard surface that kills the battery.

I use my lap top plugged in to AC more than 95% of the time with the battery not even in it (except when thunder storm is approaching and I want to not be connected to the AC line.

It was essentially good as new after nearly five years of typical 8+ hours of daily lap top use (but without battery in the computer). Both the key board developed non-functional keys and then the hard drive died, but battery was still good.

I really wish they would standardize on one or two battery shapes for lap tops and sell new computer without battery at a discount. (I would put the five year old battery in the new computer and see if it would go another five years with it rarely even being inside the internally hot computer.
 
You are quite right about it being the heat, especially in a lap top not on a hard surface that kills the battery.

I use my lap top plugged in to AC more than 95% of the time with the battery not even in it (except when thunder storm is approaching and I want to not be connected to the AC line.

It was essentially good as new after nearly five years of typical 8+ hours of daily lap top use (but without battery in the computer). Both the key board developed non-functional keys and then the hard drive died, but battery was still good.

I really wish they would standardize on one or two battery shapes for lap tops and sell new computer without battery at a discount. (I would put the five year old battery in the new computer and see if it would go another five years with it rarely even being inside the internally hot computer.

That laptop I was talking about was a Gateway, and it wouldn't run on AC without the battery in it. Very bad design flaw, one of those things you don't become aware of until you own that piece of shit.:mad:
 
I found out the other day that those induction charger pads that seem so convenient are very hard on batteries and shorten their expected life by half. At least that's what the guy at the Verizon store told me when I asked him how well they worked.
That is not the fault of charging by induction, but of the lack of proper current limiting and decrease of current as full charge is approached circuits.

I have an induction charged electric tooth brush. It is at least 10 years old . It does seem to be slightly weaker now in use if it has not been just on the charger. (Battery self discharge rate must be increasing.) Typically during most of it life it would be off the charging stand for a few days (used in more than one bathroom) and then when getting weaker, be sent back to the bathroom where chargers stays.

I don´t know what type of battery is inside but am very impressed with it; but admit it is only with current drain less than 10 minutes/ day. Unit is a Barun, "3D action" and cost me ~$50, which was the most expensive one in the store. My dentist had recommend it specifically so despite my desire to buy one of the $35 or under units, I bought it.
 
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That is not the fault of charging by induction, but of the lack of proper current limiting and decrease of current as full charge is approached circuits.

I have an induction charged electric tooth brush. It is at least 10 years old . It does seem to be slightly weaker now in use if it has not been just on the charger. (Battery self discharge rate must be increasing.) Typically during most of it life it would be off the charging stand for a few days (used in more than one bathroom) and then when getting weaker, be sent back to the bathroom where chargers stays.

I don´t know what type of battery is inside but am very impressed with it; but admit it is only with current drain less than 10 minutes/ day. Unit is a Barun, "3D action" and cost me ~$50, which was the most expensive one in the store. My dentist had recommend it specifically so despite my desire to buy one of the $35 or under units, I bought it.

I don't doubt what you are saying. But I also don't doubt what the Verizon employee said either. One of the reasons people get those induction pads is for convenience whenever you are home you just place your phone on the pad and the batteries wear out twice as fast. Clearly the pad and phone batteries are not optimized for battery longevity. All I can say is a weak phone battery is a real pain in the ass and they are not cheap to replace.

My dentist recommended the Philips Sonicare as the new best electric toothbrush, but they cost over a $100 and you can buy a lot of cheap replaceable battery powered toothbrushes for over a $100 bucks.
 
My plan for preserving Li-ion batteries when not in use:

1. Drain to 37% charge.

2. Wrap in two layers of dry sandwich bags.

3. Stick it in the freezer.

Tentatively this applies for the other chemistries too.

I've seen a video segment where you can resurrect dead lead acids by pouring red wine into it. Has anyone actually tried it?
 
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