Quote:
Originally Posted by Mingyar
This is probably not the best for the battery, and the BMS, as I know it on other types of devices, needs a complete discharge followed by a complete recharge from time to time for a good cell balance.
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That only applies to NiCd and to a lesser extend NiMH. It will have no effect for a Lithium Ion.
Also the Kobo and most ereaders use only a single cell.
Finally, for long term storage it's best that the charge level is 1/3 to 3/4 full in a cool place, above freezing.
Life of Lithium cells is related to purity of materials, good construction, elapsed time (even if not used) and the total current delivered, i.e. twenty discharges and charges of only 1/20th capacity is pretty much the same as one complete charge.
Any properly designed equipment using Lithium Ion / LiPoly has a circuit to:
1: Disconnect equipment if cell (or any cell in laptop pack) is too low.
2: Disconnect cell if it's too hot. (charge or discharge).
3: Disconnect charging if the cell is charged. Unlike Lead Acid or NiCd or NiMH there should not be a trickle charge. High capacity NiMH have the worst self discharge, Lead Acid the lowest, but Lithium cells are even lower.
Note NiMH or NiCd keep best in long term storage completely flat. Lead Acid store best without acid added (50 years possible) otherwise fully charged. Lithium rechargeable need stored in a cool place, never frozen at 1/3rd to 3/4 charged, however in a device they can be left fully charged as the circuit will slowly discharge it. For long storage you should put the device (ereader, tablet, phone etc) into power off rather than sleep.
Edit:
This site suggests partial discharge and recharge gives longer life on Lithium batteries than deep discharge:
https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/...ased_batteries
Which is the opposite to NiCd or NiMH. However Lead Acid, especially gel types are easily damaged by deep discharge.