Quote:
Originally Posted by Pookeysgirl
I regularly leave my Kindle to charge overnight. Should I be unplugging it as soon as possible after the light goes green? I need to make sure my baby lasts as long as possible  |
I would not charge it until it tells you to (or just before taking it on a trip where you will not be able to recharge it). Too many unnecessary recharges shorten its lifespan.
Here is WHY:
Spoiler:
There is a trade-off between time between charges and total battery lifespan. The same battery can be "programmed" to use a different "full charge" voltage, depending on its application.
When lithuim batteries are used in life-critical and mission-critical applications, they are only charged to 70% of what the same battery would be charged to in a consumer application. They last a lot longer if never charged beyond 70%. They need to be charged more often this way, but they have a much longer "shelf life".
But for consumer apps, the device would probably be obsolete before the battery is at end of life when charged that way. To maximize time between charges (such as when using tiny cellphone batteries) they are charged to the full 100% charge. That maximizes the usage time before it needs recharging, but reduces the overall lifetime of that battery.
As lithium batteries age (determined by time since manufacture, storage voltage, storage temperature, total number of charge/discharge cycles, and specific chemistry), the time between charges gets shorter. The lithium in the battery that can no longer hold a charge is called its "rock content".
Lithium batteries are limited to the total number of charge cycles. Some of them are only good for as little as 300 charges. The definition of a "dead" lithium battery is when the time between recharges is too short to be useful.