Fast charge vs. regular charge

[Michael Mud]

I went out to buy a charger for one of my digital devices. All they could sell me was a FAST CHARGER. What is the difference between that and a regular charger? Does a Fast charger shorten battery life? TIA.

 

[mike]

On 7/13/2014 3:41 AM, Michael Mud wrote:

I went out to buy a charger for one of my digital devices. All they could sell me was a FAST CHARGER. What is the difference between that and a regular charger? Does a Fast charger shorten battery life? TIA.

Could you be more vague?
There are MANY variables to consider.
If you don't have an option, what does it matter?

 

[Jeff Liebermann]

On Sun, 13 Jul 2014 03:41:38 -0700 (PDT), Michael Mud
<michael.muderick@gmail.com> wrote:

>I went out to buy a charger for one of my digital devices.

I'll assume your unspecified digital "device" uses a Lithium Ion
battery. It would be helpful if you disclosed the nature of this
mystery "device". Hopefully, it's not a charger for a stolen cell
phone as many aftermarket chargers are sold for this purpose.

All they could sell me was a FAST CHARGER. What is the difference
between that and a regular charger?

A fast charger charges quickly. A regular charger charges slowly.

Both chargers have some method of determining EOC (end of charge)
which is helpful for preventing the battery from burning down your
house or melting your mystery "device".
<http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_measure_state_of_charge>
A regular charger just slowly charges to the EOC point, and quits. A
fast charger usually is a 3 stage charger, with 3 stage charging.
<http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/charging_lithium_ion_batteries>

>Does a Fast charger shorten battery life? TIA.

Only if it screws up and overcharges the battery. I recently had an
RF balance charger do exactly that to a quadcopter battery.
Fortunately, all fast chargers use switching power supplies, which go
to zero output when they screw up, thus saving your battery from a
premature demise.

Leaving the battery at full charge, and running it hot (like inside
your mystery "device") will kill a LiIon battery.
<http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries>
<http://www.mpoweruk.com/lithium_failures.htm>
Newer laptops have a setting where you can charge to about 50% should
you need to leave the charger plugged in 24x7. However, cellphones,
smartphones, and media players usually do not have this feature.

However, I wouldn't worry much about battery life in your device. The
average lifetime of a common cell phone is about 18 months. 30 months
for smartphones. About 4 years for laptops. Your "device" will be a
candidate for eWaste long before the battery dies. That's one reason
that Apple embalmed the battery inside their "devices" and made them
almost impossible to replace.


--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

 

[mike]

On 7/13/2014 2:30 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:

Fortunately, all fast chargers use switching power supplies, which go
to zero output when they screw up, thus saving your battery from a
premature demise.

I think that's an irresponsibly optimistic view, given that we
have zero info on the device, battery technology and charger.

 

[Jeff Liebermann]

On Sun, 13 Jul 2014 18:48:31 -0700, mike <ham789@netzero.net> wrote:

On 7/13/2014 2:30 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:

Fortunately, all fast chargers use switching power supplies, which go
to zero output when they screw up, thus saving your battery from a
premature demise.

I think that's an irresponsibly optimistic view, given that we
have zero info on the device, battery technology and charger.

I'll take full responsibility. Dunno about the optimism part.

You're correct about the zero info part. That's nothing unusual as
I've noticed that those that can properly frame a question, usually
can also figure out the answer themselves by Googling or just
thinking. Those that can't, ask questions here, resulting in the all
too common badly framed, one-line, non-specific, overly general, quite
useless, and difficult to answer type questions. Unfortunately,
without them, there would be no usenet. I endure, awaiting
clarification.



--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

 

[Phoena J.]

On 07/13/2014 09:30 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:

However, I wouldn't worry much about battery life in your device. The
average lifetime of a common cell phone is about 18 months. 30 months
for smartphones. About 4 years for laptops. Your "device" will be a
candidate for eWaste long before the battery dies. That's one reason
that Apple embalmed the battery inside their "devices" and made them
almost impossible to replace.

Apple didn't embalm anything. They had a Chinaman do it for 10 cents an
hour.

 

[Brian Gregory]

On 13/07/2014 11:41, Michael Mud wrote:

I went out to buy a charger for one of my digital devices. All they could sell me was a FAST CHARGER. What is the difference between that and a regular charger? Does a Fast charger shorten battery life? TIA.

It means the seller wants you to believe (it may or may not be true)
that this charger charges faster than some other charger.

--

Brian Gregory (in the UK).
To email me please remove all the letter vee from my email address.

 

[Michael Mud]

On Sunday, July 13, 2014 6:41:38 AM UTC-4, Michael Mud wrote:
> I went out to buy a charger for one of my digital devices. All they could sell me was a FAST CHARGER. What is the difference between that and a regular charger? Does a Fast charger shorten battery life? TIA.

Thanks for the answers so far. To clarify, It is a car charger supporting a motorola smartphone containing an OEM Motorola lithium ion battery. The original chargers provided are junk, which is why they break, which is why i had to buy a new one. In this case, I replaced a car charger with an Motorola OEM MicroUSB quickcharger. Looking forward to reply.

 

[Michael Mud]

On Sunday, July 13, 2014 6:41:38 AM UTC-4, Michael Mud wrote:
> I went out to buy a charger for one of my digital devices. All they could sell me was a FAST CHARGER. What is the difference between that and a regular charger? Does a Fast charger shorten battery life? TIA.

It is a car charger supporting a motorola smartphone containing an OEM Motorola lithium ion battery. The phone is not stolen. The original chargers provided are junk, which is why they break, which is why i had to buy a new one. In this case, I replaced a car charger with an Motorola OEM MicroUSB quickcharger.
BTW, do I understand that it's a bad idea to leave a laptop with a lithium ion battery plugged into a charger all the time? Shortens the battery life?

 

[Phoena J.]

On 07/13/2014 09:30 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:

However, I wouldn't worry much about battery life in your device. The
average lifetime of a common cell phone is about 18 months. 30 months
for smartphones. About 4 years for laptops.

Those also sound like average lifespans for Palestinian girls in the
hands of the Israeli Army.

 

[Roger Blake]

On 2014-07-13, Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com> wrote:

However, I wouldn't worry much about battery life in your device. The
average lifetime of a common cell phone is about 18 months. 30 months
for smartphones. About 4 years for laptops. Your "device" will be a
candidate for eWaste long before the battery dies.

I'm currently using a Nokia cell phone that is nearly 15 years old.
Miraculously the battery is still working OK, thought it may not
be quite as old as the device itself is.

--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roger Blake (Change "invalid" to "com" for email. Google Groups killfiled.)

NSA sedition and treason -- http://www.DeathToNSAthugs.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[Allodoxaphobia]

On Thu, 17 Jul 2014 01:09:41 +0000 (UTC), Roger Blake wrote:

On 2014-07-13, Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com> wrote:
However, I wouldn't worry much about battery life in your device. The
average lifetime of a common cell phone is about 18 months. 30 months
for smartphones. About 4 years for laptops. Your "device" will be a
candidate for eWaste long before the battery dies.

I'm currently using a Nokia cell phone that is nearly 15 years old.
Miraculously the battery is still working OK, thought it may not
be quite as old as the device itself is.

+1
Using a 10-year old Nokia here. Original battery.
Granted, I don't use it like some air-head teenager....