[Epic 4G General] gwcarpenter:
I've been seeing "Battery Calibration" a lot lately especially with custom Roms and how to improve battery life. Here is great info on prolonging battery life for your epic. And what NOT TO DO!

Forgive me if this is in the wrong section of the forum but I saw a lot here on this topic so I thought I would share the information I have.

Lithium Ion batteries

DO NOT NEED TO BE CALIBRATED

. Forgive me for yelling but I can't stress it enough. The current lithium ion batteries for your computer and most of all, your Samsung Epic4g do not have an internal memory. All they have is an internal chip that prevents them from overcharging, and of course the cells for the Lithium Ion process to occur.

Nickel Cadmium or NiCad batteries do have an internal memory that acts much like a fuel gauge in your vehicle, it tells the battery small information on % charge etc.

Your Samsung Epic 4G has to interpret the amount of charge left and % from your battery. That's why it saves battery stats. It really works by averages and the only thing the battery tells the phone is "I'm Full!" when it reaches 100%. or "I'm Dead!" when the cells are empty. Your phone does the rest and interprets to you in % how much life is left in that battery.

Someone got the not so bright idea of calibrating the battery, maybe because it worked on a NiCad battery, maybe it should work on a Lithium Ion battery? WRONG!

Lithium Ion batteries have a prescribed life. The average life of a 1500mAh battery is around 2000-3000 charges. The reason behind this is the Lithium Cells become unstable and are prone to explosion.

So, every time you fully discharge your battery and recharge it, you just shortened the overall life of your battery. And if you're one of those people who discharge and recharges 3 times consecutively, you're really messing up your battery. Heat is the biggest enemy of Lithium Ion Batteries, if they get too hot, from forced discharges they actually develop tiny crystals on the inside of the cells that prevent it from being truly 100% charged.

So, in reality your phone is telling you your battery is 100% charged when it is only 85% fully charged inside the battery.

Please, please, please, do not discharge your battery and consecutively recharge it again. I love my epic and I hate to see other epics abused like that.

If you want to prolong your battery life follow these short and simple steps:

1. The closer you keep your phone to 100% the longer it will live.

2. Avoid unnecessary discharges to 0%.

3. Charge your phone when it is off, not in standby. - Charging in standby causes unwanted heat.

4. Unplug your battery when it's fully charged. - Sure, that "Battery 100% Full" message is annoying, but maybe it was put there for a reason? Hmm.

5. Wipe your battery stats weekly, only after a full power off charge, or Rom Change

6. Avoid doing anything that heats up your phone. - Sure WiFi Tethering and BlueTooth Tethering is awesome, but it heats up the phone in most cases, this will destroy your battery.

I can't post the link because I don't have enough posts. But go to google , search "battery university" and then look for lithium ion batteries.

I am a computer science / electrical engineer and I have done extensive research in batteries and mobile devices.

Please save those batteries!

-George