How to get years of service from your rechargeable batteries

There's a lot of voodoo written about how to take care of the rechargeable batteries inside smartphones, tablets or notebooks. While a bit of care can make all the difference, you don't need to treat the battery like a sick pet. It's been designed and built to do a job, so most of the time you can just let it get on with that job.

But with a little bit of care, a rechargeable battery can last years. How much of a difference can taking care of the battery actually make? In my experience, the answer is "a lot." I have both a second-generation iPod nano that I bought around December 2006, and a first-generation iPod touch I picked up in 2008 that still have the original battery installed, and they both work. Eventually, the batteries will wear out, but I won't be complaining that I didn't get my money's worth out of the battery!

So, how do you get the most out of Li-Ion rechargeable batteries?

Some people say that you shouldn't allow a Li-Ion battery to become fully exhausted before recharging, other people say it doesn't matter.

The truth is, with modern Li-Ion batteries it doesn't really matter because their discharge is closely regulated by on-board circuitry.

This used to be an issue with the old NiCd (Nickel Cadmium) batteries because they could discharge to such a point where they would become impossible to recharge (those batteries also didn't like being charged too often and were much more sensitive to temperature). The same goes for lead-acid batteries, which also don't take too well to being discharged too much unless they are rated for "deep cycle."

I'm a big believer in using the right charger for the right device.

It might be more convenient to pack one charger and a bunch of cables for trips, but for long-term usage you're better off using a charger designed for your device because that's delivering the right amount of power for the battery. Regularly using a charger that delivers too much or too little power will ultimately affect the longevity of the battery.

If you are going to go down the third-party charger road, then make sure they are from a reputable brand. No-name junk might look and feel like an original charger, but based on testing I've carried out I've found that what comes out of the cable can vary wildly. I've also seen cheap chargers pour out masses of acrid smoke, or even blow up while plugged in. Those aren't the sort of dramas I like to see happening at home or in the office.

Does it really make sense to hook up a $500 tablet to a cheap dime-store charger? I don't think so! While battery protection circuits built into devices do a good job of shutting off any power that could damage a battery, poor quality chargers can still do a lot of damage, causing voltage spikes and overheating.

Room temperature -- around 20°C/70°F -- is the best temperature for charging equipment. However, since we don't all live in climate-controlled rooms, we can extend this range out to 5 to 45°C/41 to 113°F. Anything to either side of this and things can get bad for the battery. This is especially true for charging the battery at temperatures below 0°C/32°F, which can permanently damage the battery.

Subjecting Li-Ion batteries to temperature extremes can also physically damage the battery, causing it to warp or crack. This, in turn, can damage the device containing the battery.

If you want to keep an eye on the temperature of the battery in your Windows or Mac laptop, there are numerous utilities that will let you do that (For Windows, Passmark BatteryMon is excellent, for Mac my choice would be TG Pro).

Drops and falls can damage batteries, causing them to leak a cocktail of corrosive chemicals, all of which are bad for electronics, not to mention your skin should you happen to get any on you.

What should you do if you plan on storing your device for an extended period? The normal instinct is to fully charge the device, but I've found that only charging it up partially -- around 50 percent -- is the best way. Storing a battery in the discharged state can push it to the point where it won't recharge, and storing a battery fully charged can shorten its life.

Long-term storage is best done as close to room temperature as possible. So avoid really cold rooms or keeping the device next to a radiator.

No matter how well you take care of a battery, eventually it will die. Fear not though, because replacing the battery inside most devices is both simple and cheap. Take a look at the great information, parts and tools over on the iFixit site.