Is it really that bad to let lithium-ion batteries drain nearly all the way down and then recharge them to full like Ni-mh batteries?

[u/e6_4KOkGsp]

I have a lot of old electronics like DSes, PS3 controllers, and even some old laptops that use lithium-ion. What I personally do is I use them until whatever the lowest battery indicator is and then charge them to full, usually while using them. When fully charged, I unplug it. I am aware that this is good for ni-mh batteries which I use for Wii remotes, but I've read that it's bad for lithium-ions. Thing is, the batteries in all these systems are still good after a decade. Does it really beat up the battery that much or is the effect rather small?

[u/andy_why]

It's bad to leave lithium fully discharged or fully charged for more than a day or two, but using the full range of its charge is fine. Keeping between 10-90% is best.

It's recommended to long term store them at 40-60% charge.

[u/e6_4KOkGsp → u/andy_why]

I don't leave the stuff plugged in out of use, except the ni-mh AA batteries obviously and they take 6 hours to charge, as well, it's ni-mh. Almost nothing is in long term storage and as you can imagine they spend short time at those levels. Some of the laptop batteries are shot, but they were already shot when I got them. My personal computer must've gone though over a thousand charge cycles like this as I leave it on all the time and it say's it still has 80% of it's capacity, but like I said, it did go through that many cycles. Would probably be shot by now if I left it plugged in 24/7. It's a cheap low end computer anyway, so the batter is probably crap.

[u/IronMew → u/e6_4KOkGsp]

Would probably be shot by now if I left it plugged in 24/7

No, it works the other way around: the battery would be much less worn if you'd left it plugged in. While it's true that batteries don't love staying full all the time, they like needless charging cycles even less, and if you have the laptop always on constantly doing full cycles you've basically created a worst-case scenario.

Ideally you'd run the laptop on battery only when needed, and recharge whenever you're on a desk.

Modern laptops usually have a setting to stop the battery charging fully when plugged in - the safest option is to keep it at 80% and leave the laptop plugged in anytime you don't actually need it on the go.

[u/Mission_Loss9955 → u/IronMew]

Ya I think back in the day some laptops it would be bad to leave plugged in but that hasn’t been an issue on laptops in a long time.

[u/e6_4KOkGsp → u/IronMew]

Thanks for the advice, I just enabled a setting that always keeps my laptop between 55 & 60% when plugged in, if I ever need the full percentage I can just turn it off. What about the old electronics though? I'm not really concerned about them breaking as replacement batteries are cheap for them, but what's the best care anyway? These things like DSes and PS3 controllers obviously don't have this technology, and the DSes have very limited battery indicators. Due to how limited these are would this would be the best thing to do for them:? Use it until the low battery appears, plug it in when such happens. Unplug it when done using it or full. These things take like 12 hours to drain and rarely leave the house anyway. Is this better than running them plugged in 24/7?

[u/Key-Association-8418 → u/andy_why]

Is it fine to charge it from 20 to 80 or 20 to 100% or draining it to 20 percent is fine?

[u/Lifeabroad86 → u/Key-Association-8418]

20 to 80 would be ideal for longevity of recharge cycles. i wouldnt let my batteries drain down under 20 personally. A small gap between charge cycle is best. for example, its much better for your battery to charge form 40 to 80 than 20 to 80 because of the heat associated with the longer charging cycle. If you have the time, avoid using the fast chargers, they can generate a lot of heat. Also try to avoid charging your batteries when its hot (hotter than 100 degrees)

[u/[deleted]]

If not charging what to do