I am doing research on best practices for my lithium batteries and lifepo4 powerstation. There’s some conflicting opinions and variation for cycle numbers.
Will leaving my things plugged in at 100% hurt it more than constantly unplugging at 80% and replugging at 20%?
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Thank you for the reply. Yes I am off griding running off solar just got a bluetti eb3a to manage panel power since I’ve never done any solar before and didn’t want to mess things up. it seems pretty smart.
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I am off griding running off solar
This would have been useful to mention in the original post.
just got a bluetti eb3a to manage panel power since
We have very little control over what the solar does with “power stations”. I’d just leave the panels plugged in.
I’ve never done any solar before
This is the dilema since we use lithium batteries. And if it was truth we would be certain of it.
I believe that there is a difference, but I think it is in the range of few percents of capacity lost per year, which means you will be using 60% of the capacity. That’s capacity you get after 10+ years of use.
We all know batteries don’t last that long anyway.
All that said I do keep laptop on 80% ¯_(ツ)_/¯
since I rarely use it on battery.Afait reducing the amount of cycles is the best - my reasoning is that every cycle just slightly damages the membrane between anode/cathode.
Also I have heard that for long storage 80% is the best but it’s just something I have heard/read.
About 10 years ago, the norm was to, from time to time, drain lithium batteries to minimum and so do a full cycle, this is something my father told me but I actually don’t know the reasoning.
I believe it’s because software managing batteries needs to calibrate voltages to understand how charged a battery is. Fully power cycling allows, for example, your phone to understand what 100, 0 and everything in-between.
bout 10 years ago, the norm was to, from time to time, drain lithium batteries to minimum and so do a full cycle, this is something my father told me but I actually don’t know the reasoning.
Early rechargeable batteries such as nickel-cadmium and nickel-metal-hydride would develop “memory”. For example if you made a habit of always recharging the batteries once they hit 50%, the battery would think “I guess they don’t need the rest of the capacity, I’ll throw it in the trash” and you ended up with a battery with half it’s original capacity. So it became good practice to occasionally discharge them completely before recharging. Sort of a ‘use it or lose it’ scenario. Now lithium batteries do not have this issue but it took people a long time to break the habit.
80/20
Many modern devices have algoeithms to limit charge as well as regulate charge speeds as well.
Every charging cycle ages the battery but worrying about it really isn’t worth the hassle.
If it does battery pass through (supplying power directly from the outlet instead of using the battery as a middleman), leaving them plugged in should be fine. If it doesn’t the battery will repeatedly charge and discharge and and depending on the charge level limit that can be very degrading.
Charging the battery to 100% does do more damage than if you practice 20-80. However doing so limits the battery to 60% of its original capacity. Unless the battery is low quality or over stressed by default, it might take thousands of cycles until the gains from lower degradation outpace the losses.
I think the comfort factor is the most important tho. If you need to manually keep track of the battery and unplug it once it reaches 80% (and risk forgetting to plug it back once it gets low), just replacing the battery when it degrades might be the better option. If you can control it automatically, doing so would only be beneficial.
Lithium chargers completely stop charging when the battery is full. Even if the charger remains plugged in, the battery will not be receiving power
That said, letting a lithium battery sit at 100% indefinitely is not good for it. If you can, reprogram the charger to fill the lithium to 80% instead, otherwise just let the battery sit at 100% as usual and just replace it after a few years when the runtime no longer is long enough for your application
I believe things are different for Lifepo4 which IIRC is more accepting of a float charge when full, although not ideal.
Modern devices do this themselves, I guess through the EC (embedded controller). Best is to use an official or high quality charger with the exact fitting power.
Also if you have USB C, not every charger will have PD (power delivery) and recognize what power a device needs. For example I can charge my phone with my Thinkpad charger, but not any random cheap one
Another anecdote:
My girlfriend and I bought our phones (different makes and models, sadly) at the same time, about a year ago. I have been doing 80/20 religiously while she dgaf and does what she likes. I have not noticed any change in how much charge mine holds while she has started to complain that hers needs charging more often. Her phone cost twice as much as mine.
If this is an Android phone, go install Accubattery and do what that says. It’s designed for many different phone batteries and associated tech (e.g. overcharge circuitry).
There are so many different models and variations in the electrochemistry, general advice is usually a miss.
If you insist on generalizing lithium tech, keep it between 30-80% charge for good longevity. The extremes of full and empty are rougher on it.
If this is an Android phone, go install Accubattery
Too bad that app has 7 trackers embedded and access to the ad ID :/
The permissions look fairly reasonable to me considering it needs to run at startup and monitor other apps, and the Pro upgrade is an embedded option that would need connectivity.
I just firewall it anyway, but that requires root.
IIRC you can change your ad ID any time but that’s kinda outside the scope here.
Well the battery in my phone lasted longer than my laptop. The difference : one stayed a long time at 100% the other one is constantly pliged and unplugged with 100%-20%-80%…, but also battery tech and management would be different (maybe).
Letting the battery at 100% stresses it and does degrade it with time, charging and discharging also degrades it. But it would be better for the battery health to keep it in the 80-20%.
However if it is easier to let the device plugged in, maybe check if it can run without a battery, and if not maybe it can be changed? Tho not sure if you can find replacement in some years.
Tho maybe the battery station could also be designed to stay at high charge? It isn’t the easiest thing to know how it works and how it is designed.
None of the information you find here or on the internet in general will be correct, because most of information is either older nicad or nickle metal hydride, or when talking about lithiums people are talking LiPoly which is not your Lithium Iron Phosphate.
Your best bet is to ask the LiFeP04 manufacturer
LiFePO4 batteries like being charged up high, so you’re probably fine keeping them plugged in.
You’re right about not going under 20% often, but you’ll want to charge to 100% at least periodically to allow the cells to balance.
Edit: Please make sure you’re looking up information on Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries specifically, they behave differently from standard lithium batteries and a lot of the advice shared here won’t apply.
