Battery %

[KarenLeah]

How low can the battery go before it totally unusable?

I’m at 24% and got the red battery on the app. Wondering if I can make it through the day? 

[Ozzie65 · Accepted solution]

Hi @KarenLeah - Great question! Battery use is really dependent on how you are using your device. If you're at 24% and not planning to use GPS or any other battery draining apps, you'll be fine. Fitbit says that we should expect about 5 days of battery life with normal use. 

[SunsetRunner]

Depending on notifications and whether you do any activities with gps (which will suck battery) and how often you play with it  you should be fine till the end of the day.

[Pd1972]

I set off on a bike ride with 23% the other week- The watch shutdown after 40mins with GPS on. Forgot to stop an activity today- it ran with GPS for 6.5 hours (dropped from 80%-8%). Non GPS is great- still not sure I can live with the poor life when actually in use.

[Julia_G]

Hi, @KarenLeah, adding to what @Ozzie65 has said, although you should be fine to get through the day, yu should recharge your Ionic as soon as possible.  For best long term battery life you should ideally avoid discharges below 30%.

Little and often charging is ideal fir modern lithium ion batteries.  Deep discharges should be avoided whenever possible.

[KarenLeah]

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@Julia_G wrote:

Little and often charging is ideal fir modern lithium ion batteries.  Deep discharges should be avoided whenever possible.

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I am TOTALLY NOT saying you are wrong, but yesterday someone on this forum told me the complete opposite. They said to have as few charging sessions as possible. To let the Ionic go down in battery as low as I could before doing a full charge. I need to go research this. When I used other Fitbit devices I would put them on the charger while I was in the shower. So if I had a fully charged a device, then everyday charged it for about 30 minutes while showering and "such" I would be fine with the battery. Yesterday I was told to not do that. 

[SunsetRunner]

For longevity, a partial charge is preferable over a full charge.  Full discharges put a lot of strain on the battery, and it's much better practice to do shallow discharges to no lower than 20 percent. 

[SunsetRunner]

The truth is that with modern batteries and smart charging it really does not matter that much. Do what works for you it's hardly worth fussing.

What I would say is the first few times charge it to 100% and let it die to zero. It needs to self learn/estimate the batteries capacity in order to accurately estimate the total amount of charge still left.

[SunsetRunner]

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@SunsetRunner wrote:

What I would say is the first few times charge it to 100% and let it die to zero. It needs to self learn/estimate the batteries capacity in order to accurately estimate the total amount of charge still left.

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That’s precisely what causes the most stress on lithium ion batteries. Also they don’t need to learn but the do reach their best capacity after 3-5 cycles.

[SunsetRunner]

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@SunsetRunner wrote:

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@SunsetRunner wrote:

What I would say is the first few times charge it to 100% and let it die to zero. It needs to self learn/estimate the batteries capacity in order to accurately estimate the total amount of charge still left.

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That’s precisely what causes the most stress on lithium ion batteries. Also they don’t need to learn but the do reach their best capacity after 3-5 cycles.

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Um.. the batteries don't learn, it's the software that calibrates. And (LOL) it's not going to make ANY DIFFERENCE WHATSOEVER doing this a couple of times at the beginning, other than to give you a longer period between charges (which is the intention).

But sure go ahead and panic/poo poo my advice.. I'm just a dumb and stupid android user or something.

[Julia_G]

"Similar to a mechanical device that wears out faster with heavy use, the depth of discharge (DoD) determines the cycle count of the battery. The smaller the discharge (low DoD), the longer the battery will last. If at all possible, avoid full discharges and charge the battery more often between uses. Partial discharge on Li-ion is fine. There is no memory and the battery does not need periodic full discharge cycles to prolong life."

from "How to prolong lithium based batteries". There is lots more information for anyone interested in the physics at Battery University

The basic take away is that you should avoid deep discharge where possible.  

[SunsetRunner]

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@Julia_G wrote:

"Similar to a mechanical device that wears out faster with heavy use, the depth of discharge (DoD) determines the cycle count of the battery. The smaller the discharge (low DoD), the longer the battery will last. If at all possible, avoid full discharges and charge the battery more often between uses. Partial discharge on Li-ion is fine. There is no memory and the battery does not need periodic full discharge cycles to prolong life."

from "How to prolong lithium based batteries". There is lots more information for anyone interested in the physics at Battery University

The basic take away is that you should avoid deep discharge where possible.  

I already explained the reasoning and like I've said doing it a couple of times isn't going to make any difference whatsoever. None.. nada.

Oh and btw the software probably isn't going to allow anywhere near zero discharge anyway, it's just going to report it as such.

But sure better RUN FOR THE HILLS next time you fully discharge your battery 

[Julia_G]

I was responding to to @KarenLeah, who reported being told that she should have as few charge cycles as possible.  This is incorrect.  Little and often is the best way to proling the life of Lithium Ion batteries.  Ideally batteries should be kept at between 30-80%.  Obviously this is not practical in many cases, and occasional deeper discharge is unlikely to cause significant harm.  

@KarenLeah your habit of putting your device on to charge for a lttle while every day while you shower is very good practice, so no worries!

[cmi113]

Battery life is terrible. I always charge at night and it was at zero! Makes no sense. I don’t like the charger either. Never sure if it’s properly connected. I’m asking fitbit for a new one. It’s a month old!!!

[Ziptag]

Very Old rechargable Batteries were that way. Keep doing your shower charge.