When Do You Charge Your Kindle?

[ramboky]

Originally Posted by gtriever

Actually, it does. At levels at or below 2.5VDC, the batteries can "die" and cannot be safely recharged. Most devices with Li-Poly batteries will have a protection circuit built in to prevent discharging at levels less than 2.7 - 3.0VDC. I'm assuming the Kindle has that circuit as well, so you're partially correct.

ALL consumer electronic devices running lithium polymer batteries will have low voltage protection as over discharged lipos are quickly damaged and can be a fire risk. From the users point of view when the battery reaches the low voltage limit set by the circuit it's effectively empty so no, it does not make a difference when you charge it.

Originally Posted by wvcherrybomb

For some stupid reason I was under the impression that it was best to not charge until battery was completely dead. I would much rather charge it often and keep it full but always felt guilty about doing so.

That's a very common misconception and not stupid at all. NiMH batteries which used to be much more widely used in consumer devices have a 'memory effect' which basically means if the battery doesn't reach it's full and empty points it forgets where they are meaning you have a smaller and smaller range of usable battery. Lipo batteries like those in the Kindle have no memory effect so you can safely charge them whenever it's convenient.

[ramboky]

@wolw Another electric RC enthusiast It's frightening how much you end up learning about batteries without ever intending to...

[Udri]

Originally Posted by JeremyR

This is the case for me as well. Really quite nice...

Same for me!! It's a pleasure to take the k3 for a 1 week out-of-civilization trip and don't be worried about battery diying.

[sirmaru]

I charge when the recharge message shows.

So far these are my charge cycles:

8-Sep-10 28-Sep-10 20 Days

28-Sep-10 29-Oct-10 31 Days

29-Oct-10 4-Dec-10 36 Days

4-Dec-10 23-Dec-10 19 Days

[dmalovic]

Originally Posted by sirmaru

I charge when the recharge message shows.

So far these are my charge cycles:

8-Sep-10 28-Sep-10 20 Days

28-Sep-10 29-Oct-10 31 Days

29-Oct-10 4-Dec-10 36 Days

4-Dec-10 23-Dec-10 19 Days

Why don't you read that Kindle a little man? ))))))

[jerrardm]

sort of linked to this, I have a question...recently bought a Kindle3 and noticed that contrary to Amazon's claims the battery does not last as long as I expected. I have been using for about two/three hours a day for four days and the charge is now less than half. I have the wireless switched off and for the past couple of nights I have been switching it completely off rather than going into standby.

I was just wondering how long other people's batteries last on their Kindles and whether or not I may have a duff battery on mine and should think about getting it exchanged.

cheers for your responses

[terencek]

We've had quite a few threads on this topic.

But it might be worth repeating a point that many K3 users still don't know: when you load books on your Kindle, it will spend quite a lot of time (and use quite a lot of battery juice) indexing those books. So it's not unusual with a new Kindle when you enthusiastically dump a shedload of books on it, for it to grind away for hours indexing quietly in the background, and then you suddenly think, 'Hey, where'd my nice full charge go? Maybe I've got a dud battery!'

Moral of the story: leave your Kindle plugged in after loading lotsa books. And it's better to load large numbers of books in more manageable batches. Type a period '.' at the Home screen to see whether indexing is still in progress.

[jerrardm]

good to know that. not sure if that is the cast in this instance as I loaded a lot of books on and left it plugged in/charging for quite awhile after. I will let this charge drop a bit and then recharge it again and see how long it lasts.

Is anyone getting two weeks or more out of a charge while reading for a couple of hours every day?

[janvanmaar]

Is anyone getting two weeks or more out of a charge while reading for a couple of hours every day?

Around two weeks for me with average read time somewhere between one and two hours a day, wifi mostly off but almost every day on for 5-10 minutes and heavily used (downloading news etc) during that time, adding new books only occasional (when I want to read a new one)

[sirmaru]

Originally Posted by dmalovic

Why don't you read that Kindle a little man? ))))))

I read my Kindle WiFi one to two hours per day and usually play one MP3 music file each day. I also leave the WiFi on all the time.

My battery lasts about 25 days (the mean), a little less if I play the MP3 music files and a little more if I skip them.

[desertblues]

Originally Posted by jerrardm

good to know that. not sure if that is the cast in this instance as I loaded a lot of books on and left it plugged in/charging for quite awhile after. I will let this charge drop a bit and then recharge it again and see how long it lasts.

Is anyone getting two weeks or more out of a charge while reading for a couple of hours every day?

It would be a good thing to check if your Kindle has finished indexing (by random search o.s). Sometimes it gets stuck on a book---drains battery without you realizing what's going on----Kindle might become instable in the end.
If you have such a book--delete it--reformat it again or if it is one from Amazon: call.

I think it wise to oversee indexing: not just whoosh.........load a lot of books and then let the Kindle sort it out by himself.
At least:that's my experience after loading hunderds of books.

[Doug Huffman]

See "Battery University", search for it.

LiPo batteries live three - five years from manufacture, 300 - 500 full cycles of charge/discharge (mAh) and have no memory. Devices with charge capacity indicators, 'fuel gauges', need to be calibrated occasionally by using the device to the charge warning.