More Bad Press for Lithium Batteries

[GAP]

I whipper snipped (Australian term for a line trimmer) and mowed the lawn today then cleaned up by using a leaf blower, not very exciting so far.
Then I recharged the batteries on the whipper snipper and the blower, still nothing exciting about that task either just bunged them in their chargers.
I then noticed that the 2 Lithium batteries I had used in the gardening tools had charged from near on flat to full charge in under 30 minutes.
Now these are 5.0AHr batteries and I bunged them into their respective chargers without a second thought of what disasters would befall my shed if something went wrong.
The charge rate for these batteries is from my calculations is about twice the C of the batteries ie 5AHr / 0.5Hr = 10 A so it looks like my charging my Lithium batteries at 20%C or 1/5th ie 5AHr at 1 Amp over 5 hours should be OK.
Surely the engineers at the manufacturer would have calculated a safe charge rate or else the company (a reputable Japanese power tool manufacturing company) wants a huge law suit.
So from that I have deduced that my charging my Lithium batteries at 20%C or even higher should be OK and that my Lithium batteries are relatively safe as long as I do not abuse them.

 

[PhilP]

Now we are clearly into thread drift, can I ask Phil where I can buy a coal-fired mobile phone (post #6)? Sounds like my kinda thing! But then I have no eyebrows or finger prints and my trousers frequently catch fire!

Well.... Logically.... Until a few years ago.....
As most Power stations in the UK were coal-fired.. The elektickery, for the charger, for the mobile-phone, came from coal!

Keep Calm, and bury your phone in 1cwt. of best nutty-slack!

 

[PhilP]

So from that I have deduced that my charging my Lithium batteries at 20%C or even higher should be OK and that my Lithium batteries are relatively safe as long as I do not abuse them.

Exactly!

(ALL batteries are relatively safe as long as we do not abuse them).

 

[GAP]

Exactly!

(ALL batteries are relatively safe as long as we do not abuse them).

Further to this I was charging some NiMH batteries while I was writing my last post and one cell became white hot i.e. I could not pick it up; it did not catch fire but did slightly melt the plastic holder.
Read into that whatever you will, but it had been in a storage box for over 9 months along with the other 50.

 

[PhilP]

But you were obviously keeping an eye on things..

How many people reading this, leave mobile phones, iPad's, and the like, on-charge overnight? - Just a thought..

 

[Paul M]

coal-fired mobile phone (post #6)? Sounds like my kinda thing!

Ah yes, the old steam phones of yore

 

[Rhinochugger]

Ah yes, the old steam phones of yore

................. that were developed into today's 'high speed' broadband

 

[PhilP]

And the telephone system still provides Central Battery, but many exchanges no longer support Loop-Disconnect dialling..

Oh, and they tend to be a lot quieter, these days..

 

[GAP]

But you were obviously keeping an eye on things..

How many people reading this, leave mobile phones, iPad's, and the like, on-charge overnight? - Just a thought..

Guilty as charged your honour; my laptop has been plugged into the mains since I bought it nearly 10 years ago and it has a Lithium battery in it.

 

[Greg Elmassian]

At least that proves the quality level of the charger, clearly it is not overcharging if it has lasted 10 years.

Greg

 

[Paul M]

At least that proves the quality level of the charger, clearly it is not overcharging if it has lasted 10 years.

Greg

If the laptop is never turned off, the battery has probably long finished , and the computer is now effectively mains only (perhaps)

 

[The Shed]

If the laptop is never turned off, the battery has probably long finished , and the computer is now effectively mains only (perhaps)

Would agree with your observation Paul, have an ageing Laptop, which when disconnected from the mains, the existing battery life can be measured in minutes.

Good old sturdy RM Machine (ex education surplus), as long as it keeps going, have no intention of replacing it with a piece of modern up to date junk!

 

[Rhinochugger]

Back in the days when I was working, the mantra was that you should charge your laptop battery, then use it until fully discharged before re-charging. I used to do this fairly religiously, and was usually the last person in the office to have to order a replacement battery (our firm having a 4-year replacement policy on IT kit). Usually, one replacement was enough

 

[Paul M]

Back in the days when I was working, the mantra was that you should charge your laptop battery, then use it until fully discharged before re-charging. I used to do this fairly religiously, and was usually the last person in the office to have to order a replacement battery (our firm having a 4-year replacement policy on IT kit). Usually, one replacement was enough

When I suggested that at work, everyone laughed

 

[PhilP]

Ah! But if it was 'back in the day'.. They were probably still NiMH or (shock-horror!) NiCad's?

 

[Greg Elmassian]

Right, and due to the lack of sophistication in many of the nicad and nimh chargers the regimen of fully discharging in some cases helped reduce the formation of internal shorts in the batteries. Nicads and to a lesser extent nimh batteries can tolerate deeper discharge.

(also there is a good business in replacement laptop batteries, enough said)

 

[Rhinochugger]

I did say when I was working, and being issued with a laptop would have been before the first company Blackberry (directors only initially).

So we're talking about 2002 I would say - some sort of HP laptop from memory.

For business use, laptops went out of favour when the Blackberry became the weapon of choice.

 

[Greg Elmassian]

I was agreeing, that it might have been the optimal course at the time.

I can't do documents or spreadsheets on a blackberry though

 

[Rhinochugger]

I was agreeing, that it might have been the optimal course at the time.

I can't do documents or spreadsheets on a blackberry though

Yep - I was just trying to pinpoint the 'when' to try and ascertain the type of battery.

Businesses sometimes went down strange paths, and a couple that I worked for kitted us out with desktops in the office, Blackberries for when you were on the move, and Citrix external access when you worked from home.

I went back to a laptop when I went out on my own as a consultant but, by then, smart phones had kicked the Blackberry in to touch.

Just a bit of boring history.

 

[GAP]

If the laptop is never turned off, the battery has probably long finished , and the computer is now effectively mains only (perhaps)

Nope not quite
After reading this I was curious if that was the case so I disconnected the mains and played a video game on it for 1 hour 25 minutes and the battery monitor indicated I still had 30% left. I did turn on battery saver and found that it disconnected me from the internet that I had running at the same time as playing the game (Opened eBay which bombards me with ads to have activity).

As I use the laptop mostly when travelling it is good to know that I can get some time out of the battery if I need to, thanks for making me think about battery life which is something I never do with the laptop.