Safe to recharge IMR AW batteries mid-drain?

[Beretta]

Is it safe to recharge an IMR AW battery (18490) when it's not fully depleted at 3.2-3.3v? Say I want to recharge it at 3.7v remaining. Is that harmful to the battery?

 

[speedemon]

Thats fine they don't get the dredded memory life issue like old batteries.Some say it's even better for longevity.

 

[mostlyclassics]

I'll swap out the AW IMR batteries in my Lavatube and Vamos whenever I'll be away from home or office for any significant number of hours. It doesn't matter how much or little I've drained them. I'll just snap them into the charger(s), then turn on the chargers via their power bar when I return. I've done this for close to two years now, from the time my only mod that used an AW IMR was a Reo Grande. I have yet to lose a battery or have one exhibit shortened battery life. Some of those batteries have been recharged or partially recharged upwards of 400 times.

 

[tc1]

The sooner you recharge lion batteries ... the more life cycles you generally get.

Not only is it ok, but your batteries will last longer compared to someone who drains.them all the way.

 

[speedjason86]

its better not to completely drain Li-ion battery because it can actually damage the internal. just charge whenever you like before its completely dead.

 

[Rader2146]

What is completely drained and at what point does the damage start?

 

[Baditude]

What is completely drained and at what point does the damage start?

Not sure at what point damage can occur, but most devices stop working at around 3.2 volts.

 

[Beretta]

I think the damage starts at 3.1 volts or lower, and 4.1 or higher. That's why I think my Provari stops at 3.2, and the chargers stop at 4.1. Strangely enough, my provari reports a new battery sometimes at 4.2v, but quickly drops down to 4.1v. Hopefully other mods do the same.

 

[Rader2146]

That is the essence of the question. Not many people know...but many will still tell you "don't [fill in the blank], it's bad for your battery." Those statements are usually accompanied with vague or undefined variables like: too low, sooner, completely drained, more life, etc..

So I like to ask: How low?, How soon? What is completely drained? How much more life? etc...

So to clear up a few things in this thread:

-An AW IMR's safe minimum voltage is 2.5V resting voltage. Most regulated APVs do indeed cutoff at 3.2v under load. This means that a regulated APV will never fully discharge a battery, meaning that it is completely safe to use an APV all the way down to the low voltage cutoff.

-You can recharge at any voltage you like. Early recharging will not harm the battery or the performance.

-There is little life to gain by recharging early (Yes, I have read the Battery University page, and the ECF Guide for prolonging battery life ). Nobody,except for guys in white lab coats, measures battery life by number of charge cycles. A normal person measures battery life by a unit of measure that is usually found on a calender; weeks, months, years. So if one battery is only discharged to 50% it's whole life and in turn doubles the number of charge cycles, but requires charging twice as often as a battery discharged to 100%...which one lasts longer?

-Technically, the damage starts the very first time you charge the battery. Accelerated damage occurs due to a couple different factors, but for the topic at hand; accelerated damage occurs below 2.5v and above 4.25v.

 

[Slurp812]

My charger wont change a battery that is 3.8 or above. YMMV...