Recharging best practices?

Not bad to leave the iPhone plugged in.

http://www.apple.com/batteries/

http://www.apple.com/batteries/iphone.html

From the Apple Web site, you do not need to run the battery down and then recharge it. The iPhone / iPod / MacBook Pro all use lithium batteries. Things that use nickel batteries have to be drained before recharging.

From Apple:

"You can also recharge a lithium-ion battery whenever convenient, without the full charge or discharge cycle necessary to keep nickel-based batteries at peak performance."

As a matter of fact, with lithium ions, it is better NOT to do a full discharge. You risk damaging the battery if you do. Once you've done a calibration (which I don't even know if the iPhone requires) just put it on the charger at night to keep it peaked off.

glor

if you leave it in the cradle overnight and your computer is in sleep mode, it won't charge but drain. I didn't realize that, came into work and have only 20% charge on the phone.

I have had my iPhone since day one. Of course, I took it home and immediately activated it. I did leave it connected to the computer (and umounted) for several hours before using it. After that, I didn't pay any more attention to the battery. I charged it every night.

I then began reading articles about people complaining about the battery, especially the battery meter. They complained that some iPhones are not charging fully. They said that when the iPhone is fully charged, the battery meter (the meter you see when iPhone is connected to the USB Dock charger) should be green all the way across and should also be "glowing."

That is when I noticed that my battery was NOT fully charging. The large battery meter was green ALMOST all the way across, but not quite. There was just a little sliver of the meter that was not green. Also the meter was not "glowing" when fully charged.

The articles I read seemed to suggest that the problem was software releated and not the actual battery, so I really didn't give the problem much thought. But then, I talked to a Mac Genius buddy who insisted that I cycle the battery.

I followed his instructions which I will detail below:

1.) I ran the battery all the way down until iPhone shut itself off (this is a safety feature and will not harm the battery).

2.) I charged the battery fully (about 8 hours, although 4 would have been sufficient). I also powered the iPhone off after connecting it to the dock charger.

3.) The next morning, I took the iPhone off the charger and left it turned off. I let it sit for about 8 hours turned off in order to set the resistance level of the battery.

4.) I ran the battery all the way down again last night.

5.) I gave it a second complete charge while I slept last night. This morning, I have a fully charged battery AND the battery meter is green all the way across and is glowing!!!

The process you describe was necessary, contradicts this comment from an earlier post taken from the Apple Site:

From Apple:

"You can also recharge a lithium-ion battery whenever convenient, without the full charge or discharge cycle necessary to keep nickel-based batteries at peak performance."

It might have been necessary for you to drain the battery due a defect as it didn't fully charge otherwise. In most cases that shouldn't be necessary.

I'm leaving my iPhone in the dock, connected to my MacBook during the day as I've noticed that this improves the signal strength in my location!

What I want to know for sure is that this is OK. According to an earlier post this seems to be the case as the battery can't be overcharged.

I am earnestly reading all I can about this battery because I am very disappointed in it's "life". I now own a charger at home, in my car, and the sync in my office. If I do not keep it plugged in at all times it is dead at 5:00 PM each day. Either I have a defective battery, it's the worst I have ever owned, or I have done or am doing something wrong.

I bought the phone on opening day and it has gone completely dead on me 3 times. I leave it in a charge cradle every night, I have wi-fi off, no blue tooth etc.
I do use the web from time to time and I do check email. I seldom send email unless I have a wi-fi close by. So other than talking on the phone I do not think I use the other features enough to kill the battery.

So please give me some insight here so I can start realizing this "superb battery life" that the phone is widely advertised to have because right now it is by far the worst I have ever owned.

Shor, return your iPhone for exchange, You have a faulty battery.

You should charge your iPhone like any other phone you have used. Just leave it in the charger overnight and you are good to. Your iPhone even with wifi enable should last the entire day at a minimum.

You should, however, NOT leave your bluetooth enabled nor your wifi enabled unless you need them. They drain more power than anything else.

I was having alot of trouble with my battery holding a charge and I finally swapped it out for new one that seems much better. It shouldn't be so much work figuring out how to best hold/keep a charge. Otherwise I love the phone!

Although the unit (obviously) will boot up and operate "out of the box" the iphones remarkable capabilities and esp. the high resolution display have a very high current draw relative to less sophisticated devices. It is important to understand that this initial charge cannot be accomplished in a few hours, or even overnight, if the phone sees heavy use. Why Apple did not address this is inexplicable.

I have found the battery life to be superb!

I can easily watch a movie, listen to hours of music in the car, take a few phone calls, & still have @ least 20% of life remaining. I typically can go 2 days on one charge.

Yes, Apple went with lithium-ion (polymer?) for some good reasons.

http://www.batteryuniversity.com/partone-12.htm

Interestingly, it is claimed that "cycling" or depletion isn't necessary for lithium type rechargeables, and there is no "memory effect" common with older nickel based cells.

(Though, the software may require this periodically for accurate indication/calibration!)

It also states that "priming" or a long initial charging isn't necessary for this type of cell albeit that manufacturers typically ship this battery with a 40% charge to allow for any self-depletion. That is probably consistent with the iPhone "out of the box".

If the charge drops too low, it will not be re-chargeable by consumer type equipment.

I recently got an iphone and I found out that my battery dies before the day is over. Just like any other sixteen year old girl I like to text. Is it from texting to much or is it the battery? My other phones did not do this. What should I do?

I encountered the same problem last night: I put the phone on its dock (with the phone still on), put the computer to sleep after synching the phone, and went to bed. When I got up, the phone surprisingly had only 5% battery charge remaining.

It appears that the USB port does not supply DC power when the computer is asleep (I tried two ports on my G5 with the same result). So I guess we either have to leave the computer on, or charge the phone using the wall adapter.

This is an unexpected oversight in an otherwise spectacular product.

I seem to recall a note in the user manual indicating that battery level was likely to decrease if connected to USB when the computer is off. Page 23 in fact.

The same issue exists with all USB devices reliant on power, so it's not an iPhone thing, though there are systems which do maintain power on the USB port when the system's power is off, and powered hubs that do also.