Battery life!

[artificial]

Originally Posted by Bittybye

Then my Kobo is charged in about five minutes after it's been drained. I would like for it to be fixed in an update.

I never said you could trust the red light!

[artificial]

Anyone who's been following this mammoth thread might have seen me mention that I have been trying to extend my Kobo Reader's battery life by powering the device down between reading sessions.

A few people (sorry, I can't remember who) have offered anecdotal evidence to suggest that if you leave the device turned on all the time that the battery drains very quickly, and I decided to test this theory by turning my Kobo off when I wasn't using it (i.e. a full power down using the blue button on top of the device).

Having achieved battery life that I consider to be sub-optimal (750 page turns on my previous charge), I decided I had nothing to lose by powering down between sessions, and I have to say I have been very pleased with the results of my experiment.

On my current charge (an overnight charge), I have read 1361 pages over the course of nine days. I still have some battery life left, and I'm fairly confident I would be able to reach 1500 page turns, but I don't want my battery to die during my train ride home so I'm aborting the experiment and giving my Reader some more juice.

I realise 1500 page turns is not close the the mythical 8000, but it is a heck of a lot better than 750!

Based on my results, I feel confident in saying that (in my case, at least) turning off the device significantly increases battery life, perhaps even doubling it.

I have to admit, this result is quite the opposite of what I expected. Previously, I believed that powering the device off/on was a big drain on the battery. That may be true, but I now believe that much more power is consumed by leaving the device 'always on'.

If you are experiencing poor battery life, and currently leave you Kobo Reader turned on between reading sessions, try powering if off and see if that helps you in the same way it has helped me.

(Note: I am done with battery experiments. I will now be charging my battery regularly. Except maybe when the firmware is released. I'm sure I will be curious to know if it really does extend battery life! :P)

[asrai devin]

Originally Posted by artificial

It is a common misconception that red light is supposed to go off when the device is charged. This is not correct. In the manual it states that the red light will come ON once the device is fully charged.

Just because it says so doesn't make it true. I've had success with the wait til the red light goes off again method.

[KjellM]

My experience is that the red light is totally unreliable. I have had it come on and stay on on an overnight charge. However, it usually comes on part way into the charge, then goes out a few hours later.
I have seen both behaviors using the same AC charger.

Using a higher current charger, which I would not recommend using all the time, the red light comes on fairly early in the charge cycle and always goes out between 2 and 3 hours of charging.

[ackc]

Originally Posted by StealthyScribe

Kobo posted this on their FB page about an hour ago:



Fingers crossed.

My return kit also arrived in the mail today but I too will now wait to see if their firmware update solves anything for me before I return mine!

Let's hope that they solve ALL of the issues and not just some!

[ava0775]

Something I hadn't noticed before... I turned on my Kobo specifically to check the battery level. It seemed a little slower than usual but did go the I'm Reading screen and the display/menu for the battery indicator appeared. The battery indicator showed an E instead of any bars, presumably for Empty. Guess I checked at just the right time?

[wrenn1]

My battery indicator is just a battery shaped icon. When I charge the red light comes on after about 20 minutes and just stays on no matter how long I leave it charging.

Since I got caught with it dead (after half a book and at an inconvenient time to re-charge) I am always nervous about it now. It would be nice to know you could count on it.

[corona]

Originally Posted by ava0775

The battery indicator showed an E instead of any bars, presumably for Empty. Guess I checked at just the right time?

The last time the "E" appeared for me was a few days ago. I was really engrossed in what I was reading, so I just kept on for another hour or so. Then I turned it off and back on again, and the gauge was at half. Go figure.

[techie42]

I was reading last night when the battery when dead on me. I walked it over to the computer and left it plugged in overnight. This morning it poered on fine but it forgot my last page information. This book had no TOC so I had to button click about 200 times.

Bummer.

[the hatter]

Originally Posted by techie42

I was reading last night when the battery when dead on me. I walked it over to the computer and left it plugged in overnight. This morning it poered on fine but it forgot my last page information. This book had no TOC so I had to button click about 200 times.

Bummer.

Has this happened to other people who have completely drained their Kobo? I've only charged mine a couple of times so far, and haven't yet let it fully run out of juice. Perhaps if it doesn't power down correctly it does not remember what page you were last reading...?

[wrenn1]

What do you mean by "power down correctly"? I have had my reader forget the page I am on a couple of times but I am not sure what I did to make that happen. I would like to know what to avoid because it really is a pain to have to turn 200 pages before reading.

thanks.

[Jelbee]

Originally Posted by artificial

I have to admit, this result is quite the opposite of what I expected. Previously, I believed that powering the device off/on was a big drain on the battery. That may be true, but I now believe that much more power is consumed by leaving the device 'always on'.

I'm incredibly confused by this. I've been led to believe that the Kobo does not use energy while it is stationary on a single page/image. Thus, I don't understand how "powering down" (using the power to change the page to the cover of the book) and then "powering on" (using the power AGAIN to change the image a couple of times as it boots up) could make the battery last longer...

[wrenn1]

Jelbee, can you say that slower...as in for someone who has a hard time following tech talk? I am happy reading on this device so would like to learn all the tricks for making it work properly (something that should have been available in a user manual with the purchase in my opinion).

Can you explain simply what you meant? thanks

[leighisme]

I found that if I let the battery die completely then it didn't bookmark my last page, but it would go back to the last time I had exited the book or turned the unit off. If I recharged before it died, I never had a problem with bookmarks.

[the hatter]

Originally Posted by wrenn1

What do you mean by "power down correctly"? I have had my reader forget the page I am on a couple of times but I am not sure what I did to make that happen. I would like to know what to avoid because it really is a pain to have to turn 200 pages before reading.

thanks.

Well, but by powering down correctly, I just mean turning the device off with the power button at the top, so that the cover of the book you were last reading shows up. I'm guessing that if the battery just runs out then the Kobo isn't able to store to memory a record of the last page you were reading, and so after you charge it up, it has no idea where you were. There could of course be other issues causing your Kobo to forget your place too though...