Batt & charger longevity question

[cruisedoc]

!st, can anyone tell me what happens when a batt is approaching it's end. Won't charge? Or just shorter time between charges? Or, does it just die? Also, anyone have a charger go bad or have to clean the contacts? Also, anyone have trouble with a car charger?I have 2 batts I alternate, for 6 months - 3 times a day each. That's about 100 charge cycles a month = 600 cycles, and still going. Sound right? Thanks for your input.

 

[sjohnson]

There's no one failure mode. All the types of failure you posted are possible.

While I didn't have a charger die, a brand-new e-cig charger used by a friend blew itself and the USB port it was plugged into on the second or third use.

I'd take a hint from what sounds like exceptionally long battery life and get a couple of new ones, just in case

 

[doots]

you might want to get some new batts like sjohnson suggested. there is no way to tell how long a batty will last but most seem to not hold a charge as long as they use to when they start to go. imo

 

[cruisedoc]

Thanks, I do have extras (4 megas stashed away), but I use these standard length Joy 510 batts daily. Mfgs. claim 500 cycles, users say BS. I'm way beyond that. Just wondered if it's my imagination that they seem to last less long. I have one charger that now only works when you play with (wiggle) the batt connection. Tried cleaning w/ q-tip = no luck. I'm retiring it since loose connections & lithium batts don't seem to be a good mix.

 

[Switched]

My experience with batteries not necessarily LI ion, they don;t hold the charge as long and take longer to charge.

 

[noo]

500 charge cycles is typical for a properly designed lithium ion battery being discharged at the proper rate. Lithium Ion is pretty resistant to short periods of high discharge, so we probably aren't beating them up too much, like some claim.

Each time the battery discharges, a small amount of the reagent becomes "locked" - that is it can no longer be used in the chemical reaction within the battery. I am not a chemist, so I am not sure what is actually taking place chemically, but I think it has something to do with impurities preventing the free flow of electrons.

Anyway, a "discharge cycle" assumes that you have charged and discharged the battery fully each time. There is a calibrated amount of reagent that becomes "locked" each time this happens, but if you do not fully discharge the battery, the effect is less with each charge. Looking at the total energy output from the battery during the course of its life, a battery which is fully recharged and discharged each cycle will discharge more energy over its lifetime, but a battery discharged only partially before being recharged will last "longer" in the context of typical use.

When a battery becomes "dead" is generally the point at which its internal resistance increases to the point that the charge can no longer supply an adequate current to charge the battery to its full cell voltage. You will notice this when it takes 5 hours to charge a battery that only lasts 2 hours. On some charges, it will just keep pumping current into the battery and the light will never turn green, as the battery just dissipates it all as heat.