Quote:
Originally Posted by sirmaru
Some folks here say Lithium rechargeable batteries only last 2 to 3 years of shelf life. I've had some Lithium rechargeable powered devices already last 10 years without any sign of wear.
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Li-ion batteries do not keep charge well when stored, so on shelf they indeed do not last long. Their lifetime is mostly affected by capacity loss, which is unavoidable, but can vary greatly - when used at extremely low or high capacity and at higher temperatures, it can lose over 20% of capacity per year (which means over half after three years). This is the case in laptops and when "sitting on shelf". However when used "carefully", the loss can be as low as 2% and the battery may indeed last 10 years without any noticeable loss (since it's gradual and low).
Also Li-Ion batteries are not all the same - there is enough room for variations between different manufacturer's batteries. There are even Lithium-Polymer batteries and other such types for further confusion
As for the mentioned "memory effect" and "reseting" batteries on certain mobile phones - the Li-ion battery does not have any memory effect. However the devices that use it may (after enough cycles) get "out of sync" with their correct capacity - thus incorrectly shutting down early or reporting charged status when it's not true. "Resets" (=full cycles) are done to prevent this - they do not in fact make the battery better, they just "sync" the phone with the real status. They are only usefull on devices with frequent charging and discharging, like smartphones, laptops and such. I doubt it will have any real effect on Kindle...