I have been reading these days that some of you are starting to replace the battery of the Axon 7 after 1.5-2 years. This is something we all have experienced with phones, laptops, wireless devices, etc. About 2 years ago I researched on batteries and finally discovered how to avoid the degradation in Lithium-Ion batteries. I have applied it to my Dell XPS 13 Laptop and my Axon 7 with excellent results. Due to the recent proliferation of battery replacement I think this guide can be useful to extend the useful life of your battery.
Battery wear is something that can be reduced to almost nothing with proper charging habits. But there are some urban legends out there completely false. Lets review all them:
Do NEVER charge it over 90%: TRUE. The battery wears a lot when charging the last 10%. actually charging up to 90% takes about 10% of a degradation cycle while the last 10% takes 90% of the degradation cycle. Charging to 90%, only this trick, can reduce the wear of your battery to 1/10 or even more if you stop at 80%. I use to stop at 84%.
Do NEVER drain your battery completely: TRUE. The high current required to pull the energy stored in the battery when the level is so low requires more time per energy unit and that initial 10% wears the battery excessively. So taking care of that will save your battery too. I use to set low battery mode at 15% but I always avoid being so low. Please note that leaving the battery drained for too long can make it impossible to charge. IMPORTANT: If you are not going to use a device for some time, leave battery between 40-70%, not more, not less. If you do not do that, you can have an ugly surprise in case you need it again.
Quick Charge is bad for batteries: FALSE. It is actually the opposite. QC is a lot healthier since the battery is not heated for a long time. Heat is a problem too for the battery. So, try to avoid old charging units as possible and use only QC 3.0 chargers for car and home as much as possible.
Short charging sessions damage the battery: FALSE. A number of small charging sessions in the healthy region between 20-80% battery level is healthier than a long session for several reasons, the most important is that the battery temperature never rises that much.
I have been doing this in my devices and my Axon 7 retains the same energy storage as new after 18 months of healthy charging habits. These advises are also applicable to laptops and any other device using a Li-ion battery. As you can see, leaving your phone plugged at night will kill your battery very quickly the same way a laptop battery wears quickly when left plugged. I am lucky my Dell XPS 13 has a battery control software/firmware that allows charging to stop at a desired value automatically so I can have it plugged without actually charging. I was looking for a similar solution for the Axon 7 and I found it some time ago.
It was very annoying being on top of the device taking care of the battery level when charging. There are some apps out there that monitors the battery level while charging and signal an alarm when the desired maximum charge level is reached. But we are lucky!!!! The latest Custom Oreo Kernels for the Axon 7 support the charging_enable switch and we can use now Battery Charge Limit App to modify the max battery value. Two main values can be set, the max allowed charge and the recharge level. The first one is the most interesting since the charging will stop at that level. I have 84% set here but any value between 80%-90% is safe and healthy for your battery. The second value tells the system to avoid starting a charging session if the value is still above the second threshold. It is designed to avoid rapid charge/discharge sessions. Usually a value between 4-8% under the max value is safe and healthy. I have this second value set to 79%.
With this daemon your battery will never reach 100% and with it you will avoid excessive battery degradation. It worked for me so I hope you could benefit of it too. On the other side, just avoid drain your battery too much and do not fear short charging sessions during your car commuting time or while in the shower, etc... These little tricks sum and you will save the money and damages in your unit replacing a battery you probably could have avoided with proper battery care.
Cheers!!!!
Battery wear is something that can be reduced to almost nothing with proper charging habits. But there are some urban legends out there completely false. Lets review all them:
Do NEVER charge it over 90%: TRUE. The battery wears a lot when charging the last 10%. actually charging up to 90% takes about 10% of a degradation cycle while the last 10% takes 90% of the degradation cycle. Charging to 90%, only this trick, can reduce the wear of your battery to 1/10 or even more if you stop at 80%. I use to stop at 84%.
Do NEVER drain your battery completely: TRUE. The high current required to pull the energy stored in the battery when the level is so low requires more time per energy unit and that initial 10% wears the battery excessively. So taking care of that will save your battery too. I use to set low battery mode at 15% but I always avoid being so low. Please note that leaving the battery drained for too long can make it impossible to charge. IMPORTANT: If you are not going to use a device for some time, leave battery between 40-70%, not more, not less. If you do not do that, you can have an ugly surprise in case you need it again.
Quick Charge is bad for batteries: FALSE. It is actually the opposite. QC is a lot healthier since the battery is not heated for a long time. Heat is a problem too for the battery. So, try to avoid old charging units as possible and use only QC 3.0 chargers for car and home as much as possible.
Short charging sessions damage the battery: FALSE. A number of small charging sessions in the healthy region between 20-80% battery level is healthier than a long session for several reasons, the most important is that the battery temperature never rises that much.
I have been doing this in my devices and my Axon 7 retains the same energy storage as new after 18 months of healthy charging habits. These advises are also applicable to laptops and any other device using a Li-ion battery. As you can see, leaving your phone plugged at night will kill your battery very quickly the same way a laptop battery wears quickly when left plugged. I am lucky my Dell XPS 13 has a battery control software/firmware that allows charging to stop at a desired value automatically so I can have it plugged without actually charging. I was looking for a similar solution for the Axon 7 and I found it some time ago.
It was very annoying being on top of the device taking care of the battery level when charging. There are some apps out there that monitors the battery level while charging and signal an alarm when the desired maximum charge level is reached. But we are lucky!!!! The latest Custom Oreo Kernels for the Axon 7 support the charging_enable switch and we can use now Battery Charge Limit App to modify the max battery value. Two main values can be set, the max allowed charge and the recharge level. The first one is the most interesting since the charging will stop at that level. I have 84% set here but any value between 80%-90% is safe and healthy for your battery. The second value tells the system to avoid starting a charging session if the value is still above the second threshold. It is designed to avoid rapid charge/discharge sessions. Usually a value between 4-8% under the max value is safe and healthy. I have this second value set to 79%.
With this daemon your battery will never reach 100% and with it you will avoid excessive battery degradation. It worked for me so I hope you could benefit of it too. On the other side, just avoid drain your battery too much and do not fear short charging sessions during your car commuting time or while in the shower, etc... These little tricks sum and you will save the money and damages in your unit replacing a battery you probably could have avoided with proper battery care.
Cheers!!!!
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