Thanks!  You are always good about answering me :).

J

Same old wifes tales.... and distorions being passed along...and they are
WRONG!! Hey... they are LI-ion batteries, *NOT* Nicads!!!!!! Different
batteries are handled differently.. Think about it, a lead acid car battery
is never treated that way (it's fully charged once, and then topped off by
the alternator whenever you start the car).. Ever wonder why you don't do
the discharge/recharge cycle with car batteries? Cause they aren't
Nicads!!!!!!!! You only do it with Ni-cads.
People pass on the same rumours about laptop computers, they *USED* to have
nicads, but now have Li-ion's!

(sorry for the ! marks, but I sell both computers and cellphones (including
cellsockets that continuosly charge the phone when in the cradle), and it
drives me nuts when folks do things exactly the wrong way cuz a "friend"
told em to do it that way!)

"Traveling Man" <none@none.com> wrote in:

Please give the *documented* reference for these claims. Frankly, I don't
believe them.

The life of the phone--and the battery--should be *well* over two years!

And if you didn't do that, your batteries would last 1-1/2 to 2 years.
Probably even longer!

Steps 1 and 4 are appropriate for cell-phone batteries.
Step 2 (along with 3) does no harm, but is unnecessary for cell phones.
Step 2 can be appropriate for calibrating "fuel-gauge" chips which may
be included in laptop-computer battery assemblies of multiple cells,
and which give their computer a "percentage" number for charge state.
Some of those chips are programmed to recalibrate themselves when
they see that uninterrupted discharge/recharge cycle.

Cell phones normally use single Li-Ion cells, and I doubt that any of them
use those fuel-gauge chips.

According to the experts who post in sci.chem.electrochem.battery,
Li-Ion cells are shipped from the manufacturer with about a 50% charge,
which is chemically the best for long-term storage.
During the first several charges, the anode material will continue to form,
and the milliamp-hour capacity of the cell will actually increase a bit.
But the deep discharge of step 2 mentioned above is unnecessary.

It isn't like I'm an electrical engineer.... wait, I am an electrical
engineer:  and here is what I tell my customers, all my customers lithium
ion or not.  Charge it up/down 3 times, if convenient; otherwise, it is just
a phone, use it anyway you like, and if the battery dies early, buy another.
No prob.  dr

Generally: Take the phone out of the box, use it as you like, don't worry if
it has a full charge or not.  Use the phone the way you want, don't change
your behavior just for a phone.  BUT: if you want the maximum amount of
life/power/capacity to your battery, 1st opportunity that is convenient do
the following:
1) try and charge it up all night, over night to a full charge
2) run the phone down to a near discharge, and then repeat to charge it up
all night.  (basically full up/down three times).

However, if this is inconvenient, enjoy the phone, and don't worry about it.
No matter what you do, expect a full 1 yr out of the battery. Less than 1
year, OUCH; More than 2 yrs, EXCELLENT.  In between is pretty normal.  In my
opinion/experience: folks that condition their battery seem to get longer
over-all life.

Worse case: conditioning has never hurt any battery.  But in case of doubt,
why not get the most out of your battery.  You'll have to charge it anyway,
why not overnight 3 times :-)