ALP Battery

[Gardenman]

I had no luck with Aluratek and getting my battery fixed. I sent it to them and they said nothing was wrong with it. I am getting only about 5 hours reading time on it.
Is there any way to recondition the battery? I thought I would ask before I have to go and buy a new battery and try opening up the ALP.

[icedtea]

Is that five hours at once or spread out over several days? I have no technical advice, but I've been keeping a log of what kind of reading time I get out of each battery charge, and it does seem to vary a lot, FWIW.

The lowest I have recorded was 5 hours, 40 minutes and my highest was 17 hours of reading time, which was after 2 hard resets. Sometimes I need to recharge after 4/5 days, sometimes the battery lasts closer to 10 days.

For me, I think my reading speed may factor in (faster than average), and with the text size I use (3rd or 4th magnification), I turn the pages very frequently (usually around 3-4 turns per actual book page).

This reminds me, there is an auto page turn function I should test out. If Aluratek says your battery is fine, you're not the only one who sometimes gets low battery life.

[k9reeder]

Not to say that this is your situation, but the ALP Guide specifies that purchasers fully charge the battery before its first use -- perhaps implying that some battery capacity/longevity may otherwise be lost if one starts reading right out of the box. Don't know.

Anyway, these build-in rechargeable batteries are a nuisance. And the Guide doesn't give any guidance how to best manage/protect them. They all weaken, lose capacity and die sooner or later. but I'm pretty sure that some ways of treating a battery are better than others for preserving/extending the chemistry. Just no one seems to agree just what those best practices are (especially given that there are different types of rechargeable battery NiCd, NiMH, Li-ion to add to the confused advice).

In any case, for the ALP on what I believe is a fully charged battery, I can get about 5-6 hours straight before I lose the first of the three bars, that's with fairly frequent page turns, 2-3, similar to icedtea above. Also, and this may just be my imagination, but I think powering the device on also sucks up a chunk of juice, so I tend to leave mine running when I put it down for a reading break, rather than be constantly powering it up during a reading session).

Anyway, my battery has been holding the charge consistently so far. I've been using it daily for the past 5 or 6 months, and my practice (rightly or wrongly) has been to recharge fully every night (to never partially recharge, meaning never interrupt the recharging), and to always recharge (fully) as soon as there is only one bar remaining (I never risk draining it). I know from past experience with some other devices that if you let the battery fully drain, it may lose so much capacity permanently as to become almost useless. Yet other devices warn that if you don't use up full capacity now and then, or don't wait for full recharge each time, the device's chemical memory, the amount of charge it can hold, will shorten and shorten. Gad.

[Gardenman]

Thanks for thre info. I guess I will just keep my battery and see what happens. If it dies completely I will try to replace it.

[k9reeder]

Originally Posted by Gardenman

Thanks for thre info. I guess I will just keep my battery and see what happens. If it dies completely I will try to replace it.

I wasn't addressing your question of reconditioning, mine was more of a rant, sorry, but I'm still curious. From your other post, it seems you've lost considerable capacity and that the loss is steadily increasing. What have been your practices concerning the battery? Have you ever allowed the battery to fully drain? Do you not fully recharge every time, etc? I'd like to know what you've been doing/not doing, just in case...

[Gardenman]

I recharge when it gets to the last bar on the meter. I never have let the battery fully drain. I always let the ALP fully recharge. I have had the reader just over a year. I sent it to Aluratek just before the warrenty ran out. The problem had started a couple of months before then.

[k9reeder]

Originally Posted by Gardenman

I recharge when it gets to the last bar on the meter. I never have let the battery fully drain. I always let the ALP fully recharge.

Exact same as me! Maybe we're both doing it wrong. Thanks.

[binky]

k9reeder is spot on. The ALP specs state a Lithium-Ion Polymer battery. These guys have no 'memory' so they love to be charged. Their major enemies are heat, deep discharges, and over-voltage or charging (most modern chargers cut off the circuit so this doesn't happen). I get about 14-18 hours of from a full charge when I do a full discharge.

I'm no expert, so take what I say with a grain of salt and I guarantee nothing. Here goes, from all the 'experts' here are the tips to keeping your ALP batteries happy.

FIRST USE
Most device batteries come discharged or partially discharged for ideal storage and have never been 'formed', i.e. charged fully.

1. Charge the battery for at least 12 hours straight, if the battery stops charging before then, unplug then charger and re-plug it start the charger back up again

2. Do a full discharge at least once (some say up to 3-4 times but I think that's excessive) then recharge it for 12 hours.


CARE & MAINTENANCE
1. Charge often, these batteries have no memory and love being charged, partial charging greatly extends the number of cycles the battery will last opposed to full discharge before recharging (I keep my charger at work and plug it in when I come into the office in the morning, 1-2 hours at most and it's full again)

2. Use chargers within manufacturer's specs to charge your battery, using the incorrect (especially higher than spec) voltage may damage the battery and reduce its life

3. Do not Deep Discharge the battery, this is when power is so low the device power shuts off and it powers on then shuts off quickly or cannot be powered on

4. This is more for laptop batteries, but calibrate your battery occasionally by doing a Full Discharge (where the low battery warning comes on) then recharging it fully. This helps the charge tracking 'recalibrate' to give you accurate gauges on battery life. Personally I do this maybe once every 3-7 months. Note do not Deep Discharge the battery.


STORAGE
1. These batteries hate the heat, always store your battery in a cool place; heat is a great way to kill a battery's life quickly. Now don't go sticking your libre in a freezer...use common sense.

2. These batteries like being used. If you are not going to use a battery for a long period of time then discharge it to 40% charge before storing it in a cool location. A battery at 40% charge (recommended by manufacturers) in long term storage will suffer significantly less life capacity loss than a battery at 100% charge during long term inactivity.

[Gardenman]

Thanks for the info binky. I wish I had known about the unplug - replug thing on the first charge. I will try to rmember to charge every day.