Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Yes. There are two aspects which determine how rapidly a battery loses capacity:
1. The number of charge cycles it's gone through.
2. The age of the battery.
The two are independent, but cumulative. As far as #2 goes, the "clock starts ticking" the first time that the battery is charged after manufacture, and it can't be stopped.
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A little more on this subject.
1. The number of charge cycles is useful for NiMH batteries but not so much for Lithium Ion as Lithium Ion supports topping off. It can be topped off with almost no penalty in charge cycles. As a rule of thumb if you top off with a 10% charge it only counts as a 10% recharge instead of counting like a full recharge as it would if it were NiMH. It becomes good practice to keep your battery topped off.
2. The age of the battery is not a fixed amount beginning with the manufacture. Most manufacturers ship a battery that is not fully charged, generally about 40% charge as the storage life is increased under this condition and can take more variation in temperature cycles that may be encounter is shipping and storage. This is why you are told to fully charge a battery when you get it. Unless the battery has been stored a really long time you can begin counting time when you first charge the battery.
As battery technology evolves even the above guidelines will become obsolete.