should i wait till the battery dies to charge or can i charge it when ever i feel i need to, like if i recharge it when its like 1/2 full will that mess up the battery life like it does on cell phones....due to they dont sell condisheners like they do for cell phones
when to recharge the ego
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Just charge it regularly or whenever the performance drops. They are lithium ion batteries and don't need to be disharged fully like a ni cad.
It's probably worth pointing out that this does not apply to any cell phone on the market today, and probably not any cell phone sold in the last 5 years. They're pretty much all either Lithium Ion or Lithium Polymer, and in either case, they actually BENEFIT from being regularly topped off.
When you see things about "good for 10,000 charge cycles" that doesn't mean that every time you plug it into a charger you're rolling it's life down by one. It means that if your battery is a 650mah battery, you should be able to get about 6,500,000mah out of it through charge and discharge.
To take all that one very important step further, draining the battery completely is the absolute worst thing you can do. That will cause serious damage that can't be recovered from. Cell phones and laptops have circuitry built in that prevents you from actually draining the battery completely. I don't know if this is the case with an eGo or not, but I wouldn't test it.
i have 2 tornado (same as ego) with the bigger batts. Each one seems to last about 3 or 4 hours of concentrated vaping, say over a days time. Then the light flickers and I put it on a charger and use the other one for the last few vapes of the night and I will use that one in the morning, and finish charging the first one as I don't leave it on charger overnight. (i hear over charging is not good).
I wonder if I should start charging the thing in the middle of it's charge instead of waiting until it's fully discharged?
I wonder if I should start charging the thing in the middle of it's charge instead of waiting until it's fully discharged?
I looked this up the other day as I was wondering myself.
Lithium Ion batteries have circuitry which stops them fully discharging, and the eGo isn't an exception, the light flashes and it stops working at about 10% empty - so don't worry about that. However they do lose charge over time so if you run it all the way down and then leave it uncharged for a few months then you might end up with an unusable battery. Some laptop manuals recommend a full charge cycle now and again, but this is just to reset the battery reporting meter on your computer as it can get unsynchronised and has no effect on the battery itself.
Li-ion batteries lose max charge over time whether you use them or not, I think it's like 15% a year or something - this is due to oxidation of the materials in the battery and there's no avoiding it. Li-ion batteries apparently like to be charged little and often. So basically - just charge it whenever you need or want to and don't worry about it too much.
Lithium Ion batteries have circuitry which stops them fully discharging, and the eGo isn't an exception, the light flashes and it stops working at about 10% empty - so don't worry about that. However they do lose charge over time so if you run it all the way down and then leave it uncharged for a few months then you might end up with an unusable battery. Some laptop manuals recommend a full charge cycle now and again, but this is just to reset the battery reporting meter on your computer as it can get unsynchronised and has no effect on the battery itself.
Li-ion batteries lose max charge over time whether you use them or not, I think it's like 15% a year or something - this is due to oxidation of the materials in the battery and there's no avoiding it. Li-ion batteries apparently like to be charged little and often. So basically - just charge it whenever you need or want to and don't worry about it too much.
I'm glad you included that part. It's absolutely 100% true and correct, but frequently overlooked. People often take lines in instruction manuals about this as meaning that LiIon batts somehow improve with full discharge which is just dead wrong.
Yeah, manuals are unclear. I used to think this based on the manual that came with my iBook. Even so, on full discharges the battery lasted a good 2 or 3 years. I don't think charging behaviour affects Li-ions a great deal, they just get old really.
Thanks for explaining this. I have been wondering almost every time I top off my batts with a charge "does this mean 1 charge counting down to death of batt". lol
whoa! thanks for the tip... i hope they aren't in bad shape now.. is there any way to tell or do we just get a feel for it timewise?
I could use both throughout the day ... anyway i'll figure it out. thanks.
Like I said before, the eGo batteries stop working before fully discharging, don't worry about it.
Lithium batteries can take a lot of abuse. Well you really can't abuse them except for running them dead completely. Then they could refuse to take a charge any more.
I have had my Egos for almost 10 weeks now. I charge them daily, sometimes twice a day. Not because they are dead, but I just don't want them to run out of juice.
I've had the same battery in my cell phone for 3 years. I never let it run dead completely. I say, "Charge on". Charge to your hearts content. No harm done.
I have had my Egos for almost 10 weeks now. I charge them daily, sometimes twice a day. Not because they are dead, but I just don't want them to run out of juice.
I've had the same battery in my cell phone for 3 years. I never let it run dead completely. I say, "Charge on". Charge to your hearts content. No harm done.
Is it bad to overcharge them? I mean put it on the charger ( i use a usb super charger) and leave. I know with the ecigs i started out with, they said it was dangerous to leave them on too long (after they have charged).
Also, i just noticed that when i put my Ego on charge, not sure how low it is, but say know it's been used about an hour or less, it will read green; as if it needs to be down to a certain discharge level before it can start recharging....?
Also, i just noticed that when i put my Ego on charge, not sure how low it is, but say know it's been used about an hour or less, it will read green; as if it needs to be down to a certain discharge level before it can start recharging....?
What does fully dead mean? When the LED starts blinking on the styles with a LED? Or after that?
This has not been my experience with the iPhone 3G. In fact, the exact opposite.
Let me explain, I purchased one of those dual chargers/fm tuners so I could listen to my iPhone in the car. My car ride was only about 20-30 minutes ( depending on traffic and weather ) to work. My iPhone battery completely died within a year. When I went to the Apple store it was explained to me that by only partially charging the battery convinced it that it was fully charged even though it wasn't thus making it unable to charge at all because even though it was only at like 5% capacity, the battery "memory" thought it was fully charged. Often times, the charge indicator would read 100% and it would still shut itself down. When I rebooted it, It would say it was at 5% charge.
I do not believe that this flaw is built into e cigs. But I always let my batteries discharge completely before recharging just in case.
1. Fully discharging before charging will harm LiIon batteries. No exceptions. That's the way they work.
2. LiIon batteries do NOT have a "memory" like the old NiCad.
3. Don't be fooled by the fact that they are allowed to wear their own clothes and wear a badge that says "Genius." Mac may make good computers, but the people at Mac Stores are just as incompetent and misinformed as the people at Best Buy. They're also just as dishonest about their extended warranties.
4. Your iphone either had a defective battery, or a defective charging circuit. This is an EXTREMELY well known problem.
Your batts are your business, but every time you take them as low as they'll let you take them, you are risking destroying them permanently.
NIce thread and very informative(also check out Battery university search for the link on ECF). LiIon's are tough units if treated as stated in these posts Another issue is they are realtively cheap. So if you fry an eGo or get one that suffers an early death we are only talking $20 to be back in business. I keep 5 eGo batts in rotation and the only one I ever had an issue with was do to a faulty charger connector. There was solder flash on the contact and when screwed in it toasted the internal cicuit board on the eGo battery.
From my knowledge about Li-ION batteries of my laptop I can say a few points:
I own two Tornado batteries, each one use to last me all day. I leave discharged batteries overnight to let them be totally cold and, early in the morning, I put one battery in the charger while I use the other battery. Since I am using a multi-charger that outputs a current of 150 mA, a Tornado battery needs at least 5 hours to be charged, so I leave them for about 8-10 hours in the charger to be really sure they are really charged.
- Lithium suffers a lot when is in under-charge and over-charge.
- Li-ION batteries do not suffer from the "memory effect" but SMART Li-ION batteries suffer from the "forget effect" (or something like that). An SMART battery has a chip that cuts down current when it is near to be discharged and cuts off the charge current when it is fully charged. Both actions to prevent battery damage. The problem is that the chip "forgets" the charge. To make it remember the charge you must do a few charge/discharge cycles.
- When a batter is used, the lithium gets a bit hot and it is no good to charge the battery with the lithium in that situation (discharging heat).
- Fully charge the battery. If it has a chip to control charge (smart battery), do not mind to leave the battery in the charger overnight.
- Use the battery until it shuts down the power, do not try to get extra power from it.
- Wait at least from 30 minutes to 1 hour before placing the battery in the charger, thus the battery is cold.
- Go to point #1.
I own two Tornado batteries, each one use to last me all day. I leave discharged batteries overnight to let them be totally cold and, early in the morning, I put one battery in the charger while I use the other battery. Since I am using a multi-charger that outputs a current of 150 mA, a Tornado battery needs at least 5 hours to be charged, so I leave them for about 8-10 hours in the charger to be really sure they are really charged.
It's true there was a run of defective iPhone batteries - as in going completely dead or substantially less usable capacity within the 1 year warranty. It's also well documented that LiIon battery performance does degrade over time, and it correlates to usage, and not just on iPhones. I bought my iPhone 3g after they had that problem and the battery life tracked as expected. I classify myself as a medium to heavy phone user. After almost two years, the runtime on a full charge had decreased to about 60-70% of what it would do new. When it got inconvenient enough, I bought a new oem battery from MacPro and replaced it myself. It now works like it did when factory new, just in time to upgrade and give the 3g to my wife
Just about every LiIon powered device I've owned in the last 5 years behaves the same way. They're good for about a year or two, and time to replace when you finally see the run time shrink enough to become a hassle. Outside of some manufacturing/QA defects on these PV batteries, I'm expecting lifespan to be on the shorter side since mine are in nearly constant use and not on a charger while in use. Maybe a pass-thru setup will help with that? As-in reducing the amount of usage solely on battery power. Or maybe not, as the current draw from the atty might exceed the charge current enough to dip into the battery capacity a tiny bit on each pull. So many many very small charge cycles versus one day-long deep cycle. At twenty bucks each and no trouble so far, I'll take my chances as-is.
With a cell phone, I pick it up now and then to check email or news, and some days many hours of calls and others few. On battery power most of the time and charged at least every night. With a laptop, unless I'm totally mobile while traveling somewhere, my laptop is on a/c power. On the other hand, my PV is running non-stop and always on battery power until I recharge. Right now I'm rotating 3 batteries and will buy a couple more to spread that heavy usage out some more. I don't usually run them down to the shut off point, but I don't stress about it and they're back on a charger pretty quick.
Even with obsessive care, you're bound to get a bad one at some point that doesn't go the distance. Good reason to have a few spares.
Also, it is somehow known that a good Li-ION laptop battery only lasts about 1000 charges or 3 years. If the quality of our PV batteries is not as good as laptop batteries, we may get 500-800 charges before they die. For example, if we charge a battery 2 times in a day we get a lifetime of 300-400 days, that is less than a year. I'm not talking about experience, only theoretical calculations.
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