[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Ozymango

The one thing all Li-Ion batteries have in common is:

1) They perform better if kept charged, e.g. you'll get better response and life out of your li battery if you keep it mostly charged, don't let it get too low before you recharge it.

That isn't really correct. The overall life is actually better if the charge level is kept closer to the middle of the range. The maximum charge level (where the charger turns off) is a tradeoff between runtime for each recharge and overall life. The higher the charge, the shorter the overall life, but the longer the device will run. A lot of laptops had (still have?) a "battery saver mode" that was simply changing the charging to not go past 80%. There is also an absolute maximum charge level beyond which the battery will be damaged.

Similarly, there is minimum level where the battery will be damaged if you let the charge level drop below this. And the zero charge point is sufficiently above this that if the battery hits this, the device won't push it to much further down while shutting down. And that the natural self-discharge of the battery won't drop it down below the safe recharge point if you don't recharge it immediately.

2) If the voltage gets too low (i.e. if the battery is discharged below normal use, like if there's something actively draining the battery even if the device is not powered on) your battery can "sleep" to the point where it'll basically need a jump-start to get going again.

Which could be a really bad idea. If the charge level drops to low, or is charge to high, the battery could be damaged and become dangerous. And in this case, dangerous means "could explode".

So short version: It's much better to keep an Li-Ion battery charged, than to let it go too long between charges, don't worry about any memory effect, keep it charged! :-)

Well, the reason not to worry about a memory effect is that there isn't one. But, just use it and charge it when you can is a good way to use them.