Anyone else a compulsive battery charger like me?

Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share (MPSIMS)
#1

So, I’m an electrical engineer, been through grad school at that. I know the why’s and rules of charging batteries. But for some reason, I’m insane about charging devices if they are even a sliver under 100% charged.

I truly do not know why I’m like this.

Right now I’m looking at my iTouch and it’s at like 75% charged. I’m fighting my internal desire to charge it up right now. I’ve always been like this. If I have something that is rechargable I get all jittery if I don’t get it on the charger. Somehow, over the course of my life, I’ve convinced myself that the one time I DON’T charge something up I will need it in a LIFE AND DEATH SITUATION and it will run out of juice and someone will say “Shoulda charged dat shit when you had da chance son!”.

My wife is the opposite of me. She will let a battery discharge all the way to the point of the thing shutting off before she will charge things. She will use her laptop NOT PLUGGED IN for DAYS before she will charge. Whereas I will pretty much only use mine unplugged if absolutely neccessary. She will run her cell phone all the way down, only charging it like ONCE A WEEK!! Mine is ALWAYS on the charger.

I know this is unhealthy and makes no sense whatsoever. It’s a compulsion. As a EE I should, and DO, know better, but I continue to do this.

I can’t be alone here. Anyone else like me in this regard?

#2

I’m another EE and compulsive charger, but I can at least explain why.

When I’m not doing the day job, I’m a first responder. When I was much more lax in my charging obsession, we had a major forest fire. My pager and radio ran out of gas before the day was out, and that put a major crimp in my job(s). Ergo, I make sure everything now goes in their respective cradles every night.

FWIW, I have yet to notice a degradation in charge life, and that’s for 4 devices with various battery styles.

#3

Well, at least you’re not being punished for it with LiIon, like you were with NiCad’s…that memory effect was a bitch.

I got a new iPhone and the first thing I noticed was how fast it’d discharge if, you know, you actually USED it. (33% in about 90 minutes using bluetooth headphones, 3G, and surfing like a demon.)

I have a secondary battery sittin under the tree with my name on it. Hope that’s enough. My biggest fear is getting stuck at an exceptionally boring conference with no phone to futz with.

I’ve got a netbook with a 9 cell battery, and a newer MBP with the huge built-in battery, they’re a GODSEND to soothing those fears. I’ve had the netbook run for most of the time I’m at my desk (say, six hours), I’ll see the battery icon go red and think ‘hey, I need to charge!’ only to mouse over and see it’s still got nearly 2.5 hours of battery left.

I keep hoping our kids will have devices that you charge once a week (one a month? dare I dream?) but the industry keeps upping the things you cna do over the same period of time, rather than improving ultimate battery life.

#4

I’m glad someone brought this up. It used to be if you recharged too often, the battery wasn’t worth a crap after a little while. Think camcorders. For devices like the ipod and cell phones, should I recharge at every opportunity or should I let them get discharged before charging?

#5

It doesn’t really matter anymore. Say a battery has a 10 charge life. That is 10 full charges, or 30 1/3 charges, or 20 half charges.

The think LiIon doesn’t like is being stored full or empty. For ‘Long Term’ storage, it’s recommended to keep 'em at 50%. Long term is in quotes as LiIon batteries really aren’t something you want to sit on, they start to gradually decay in ability from the moment they’re manufactured.

#6

I’ve always got my iPhone on charge. At home it’s always being charged. I have a spare cable for work and keep my phone charged there too. Furthermore, my iPhone is always enclosed in a JuicePack Air, so even if I’m on the go and need a charge I can switch the battery on and charge that way. (I don’t keep the battery always on though because the iPhone pulls more power when it’s charging so I’ll run down the external battery faster.)

As was said it’s not a problem anymore with LiIon/LiPoly batteries. If anything they’re happier when they’re charged frequently, so I make sure they are. At the very least I’m never out of juice. Plus, I have a long train ride coming up Christmas so I’ll be happy for the extra power. Although the train has plugs for charging devices so I’ll probably make use of them. :slight_smile: