Charging Questions

[jefbob]

Hi All,
I've been wondering a couple things about charging options. I started with regular Volt batteries about 2 months ago and have been charging them as they die via USB on my computers. I've gotten a couple more batteries including an X2 that showed up yesterday . I realize that with Lithium Ion batteries it shouldn't matter if the batteries are fully dead or not, but by the time I get home for the day they usually are. I suppose I have a USB on my car charger so I can put them on there for a little bit when driving. Might not be a bad idea to change my habits on that one I guess. (1) Is there really zero harm in never letting a batter die or fully charge?

It is my understanding from reading the FAQ sticky that I can hook my USB Volt charger to any wall or car adapter, which is great since I'll be traveling and staying in a hotel this weekend and don't want to take a computer. I have plenty of wall adapters from cell phone and tablet purchases over the last couple years. My question here is - (2) should I expect it to charge faster than via USB? My tablet does charge faster on wall power than USB and I wondered if this applies to Volts too.

Secondly, if I'm not mistaken my X2 and PCC both came with a standard USB to Mini USB cable for charging but the FAQ says "However you must use the USB cable provided for the VOLT PCC." and "You must use the USB cable provided for the VOLT X2 to charge and for the passthough do NOT use the USB charger/dongle", so (3) can't I use the same cable to charge my PCC and X2 (or any mini USB cable for that matter)? As I said, I'll be traveling and don't want to take too much as far as accessories.

Thanks,
Jeff

 

[homeprogreen]

I use the same mini USB cable to charge my wife's pcc and my X2 battery's. I have noticed that it does seem as if the X2 battery's charge faster on wall power then computor. I use the USB apapter that came with my IPad 3. It has higher amperage then the little square iPhone charger

 

[jefbob]

Thanks homeprogreen! I didn't think I was going crazy. I didn't see any reason why what was apparently the same cable couldn't be used to charge both.

 

[jefbob]

Oh, and I'll be sure to bring one of the adapters from my Galaxy Tab as opposed to the ones from my phone....it looks like they have a higher amperage output, so I'm glad to hear that might lead to faster charging.

 

[homeprogreen]

With the lithium battery's they are good for an avg of 300 charging cycles. A cycle is from fully depleted to fully charged. The way it was explained to me by an apple rep is that if you only run them down halfway then recharge it that it counts as a half cycle so it kind of extends the life of the battery but only in as far as you can get 600 half cycles out of a battery. I've been able to use my X2 battery hooked to my iPad USB adapter as a passthru but it won't work hooked to my computers USB

 

[awsum140]

Lithium batteries, if FULLY depleted are goners, junk, no longer useable or chargeable without some extraordinary measure and luck. Letting a lithium battery drop below two volts is taking that risk. That said, Volt and most e-cig batteries will stop working when they get down around 3.2 volts or so. This is accomplished by an internal circuit inside the e-cig, not the battery itself.

They can be recharged, typically, about 300 times. There is evidence that charging them before they reach that cutoff level of 3.2 volts may actually extend their useable life somewhat. It's related to ion exchange and ions becoming "stuck" to the poles of the battery internally.

I would reconsider charging them on a PC, laptop or tablet though. A wall dongle is a relatively cheap item. The USB buss and 5.0 volt power buss inside a computer, laptop or tablet isn't very inexpensive to repair or replace at all. There have been a number of horror stories about cooked electronics when a battery fails during a charge cycle. It probably won't happen, but one never knows, do one? Keep in mind that Boeing has learned a very expensive lesson about charging lithium based batteries.

 

[charlzrocks]

As far as I am aware, to use the passthru on the X2 you should have USB 2.0, if it's an earlier version of USB, it may not work.

 

[jefbob]

Thanks guys.

And awesum, I intend to use a wall adapter from now on. I hadn't heard any of the horror stories until researching this the other day. Now that I have heard that people have had these issues, I won't be charging my batts off my USB anymore.

 

[awsum140]

Another safety comment...SI recommends that batteries are monitored while charging, as in keep an eye on them. Again, they have been know to go up in smoke. That said, I've never heard of an SI battery doing that. Also, we all leave many devices with lithium batteries in them that are left plugged in and charging unattended. There is some risk, no matter how small. Just sayin.