Tablet Battery Charging

Thanks for the replies. No owners manual was supplied other than the "Quick Refference Guide" and a 9 or 10 page legal mumbo-jumbo pamphlet that I would need lawyer interpret. The internet was dubious at best so I posted my question here. That is what I do after I've done my research and would like a finer tuned answer.

My Brother did not listen to me. He ended up with a swollen battery on a MyFi type device from Bell Canada.

So the real answer is "it depends".

For LI I try to go 20% to 90%.

Find yourself a cheap watt meter. I have the kind that plugs into a 120v outlet. Also have a USB watt meter.

It's fun to see how much power devices pull. It will also let you know what happens at full charge.

I was just testing my cordless water flosser to determine how "smart" the charge was. It wont initiate a charge until the battery drops. Takes a good 5 mins of use before that happens.

Fizz wrote:
To repeat what I posed two days ago.
I speak from personal experience.


Don't leave it charging 24/7
I ruined one that way.
I used it as a hotspot all summer at the cottage.
As it was explained to me. The phone will stop charging at 100% but it always sips away using background app like wifi, blue tooth etc. The battery drops to 99% so it charges up again.
If it does that for hours on end it will heat up and deteriorate. Mine swelled up so much it popped off the back cover.

You got lied to by whoever told you that in order to deflect responsibility for a defective battery/phone charging system.

If I remember correctly there WAS a rash of defective Lithium batteries a few yrs ago, good chance that was your problem.

pianotuna wrote:
My Brother did not listen to me. He ended up with a swollen battery on a MyFi type device from Bell Canada.

So the real answer is "it depends".

For LI I try to go 20% to 90%.

A "MyFy" device IS NOT the same as a Tablet or CellPhone, it is a dedicated Cell to WiFi device.. BUT YET, the swollen battery issue was most likely either a defective battery (was a rash of that a few yrs back) and or a poorly designed or defective battery management system.

CellPhone and Tablets or pretty much any other device which is designed around Lithium battery use are purposely designed with a battery management system which when properly designed controls charge and discharging of the Lithium battery pack.

The battery management only charges the battery when it is needed and controls the charging current, if battery is not discharged, it will not charge the battery and the device will operated directly from the charging port with zero harm to the battery or device.

What causes the most harm to Lithium batteries is charging or discharging when EXTREMELY COLD OR HOT environment (in your vehicle in freezing weather (32F or lower) or Summer time with the windows up and full sunshine (+100F or higher).

Rule of thumb, if YOU are not comfortable without a coat or in a speedo, your phone/tablet with Lithium battery will not be comfortable..

docsouce wrote:
Thanks for the replies. No owners manual was supplied other than the "Quick Refference Guide" and a 9 or 10 page legal mumbo-jumbo pamphlet that I would need lawyer interpret. The internet was dubious at best so I posted my question here. That is what I do after I've done my research and would like a finer tuned answer.

Most manufactures do that nowadays, but you can download a detailed
one on their websites

There are a lot of myths about batteries.. Modern hardware has some serious battery charging monitors built in and won't damage the battery Some "Vintage" hardware... Would. many years ago.

wa8yxm wrote:
There are a lot of myths about batteries.. Modern hardware has some serious battery charging monitors built in and won't damage the battery Some "Vintage" hardware... Would. many years ago.

Well, a better way to say it is the modern built in battery monitors have improved to MINIMIZE the potential for battery damage caused by over charging or over discharging..

Older devices (especially when Lith Ion batteries first hit consumer devices) not so much.

True story, my company bought a high tech device from a well known and well respected company which was a first generation mobile smart device with WiFi which used MS Windows CE and contained a barcode scanner. That device also used FIRST generation Lithium Ion batteries.. My company resold the device with our specialized highly customized software for a specific task.

We DID have several times have either the device or a battery OVER HEAT to the point which resulted in a user receiving a severe burn.

One was ruled damage from the battery or device being dropped harder than the device was rated for, causing the battery to rupture and the other was inconclusive but was thought that the Battery management malfunctioned and allowed the battery to charge at a higher rate than designed.

pianotuna wrote:
For LI I try to go 20% to 90%.

The tablet already mostly does this.

Unless there is a specific warning not to charge overnight or more than 24 hours or the equivalent... I see nothing wrong with plugged in for an 8 to 10 hour drive to navigate.

Hi Gdetrailer,

Thanks for the information on bad batteries.

I've had extremely good service by staying between 20 and 90% state of charge. I'm at the moment using a Samsung J7 which is 5 years old. I still have excellent battery life on it.