I have a Makita L-I drill/driver set. Very pleased with the power of both -- except for the relatively short charge life. Any reason not to charge to full before depletion? Would this shorten battery life?
Larry
I believe the Makita has a smart charger. It senses when the battery is to hot and waits for it to cool down before it starts charging. It also will let you know through its LED lights when a battery is going south. I've had my Makita for 2 years and use it everyday and both batteries are going strong. I have zero complaints when it comes to my Makita's. I'd buy another in a dead second. Although I have looked at the Milwaukee but haven't bit yet.
Li-Ion batteries have a limited number of charge cycle. A 20% charge (80% to
100%) counts, more or less, the same as a full charge.
This may be totally different but my iPhone has a lithium ion battery. The instructions absolutely say that there is a limited amount of "Full" recharges. Five 20% recharges = One Full recharge charge.
My iPhone has been recharged every day give or take a few exceptions since February of last year at various degrees of discharge and it still performs well above the scheduled replacement threshold of only holding
80% charge compared to new.Charge Cycles
A properly maintained iPhone battery is designed to retain up to 80% of its original capacity at 400 full charge and discharge cycles. You may choose to replace your battery when it no longer holds sufficient charge to meet your needs.
Recharge cycles explained here
A charge *TO* full counts as one charge, whether it's from 80% or 20%. The wear-out mechanism is terminal-charge dependent.
Anecdote data
3
I misstated but here is the poop from the Apple site. I should have stated charge cycle.
A charge cycle means using all of the battery?s power, but that doesn?t necessarily mean a single charge. For instance, you could listen to your iPod for a few hours one day, using half its power, and then recharge it fully. If you did the same thing the next day, it would count as one charge cycle, not two, so you may take several days to complete a cycle. Each time you complete a charge cycle, it diminishes battery capacity slightly, but you can put notebook, iPod, and iPhone batteries through many charge cycles before they will only hold 80% of original battery capacity. As with other rechargeable batteries, you may eventually need to replace your battery.
This may not be the case with all lithium ion batteries and their chargers.
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