Factory charged battery performance

[ashish]

Wanted to ask this since a along time and unable to categorize this discussion so mods can move this to the appropriate section.

Based on observations all these years with brand new products,
The devices which come factory charged actually last long or stay true to their specifications like standby time, playback time etc.
But once the factory charges gets discharged or we charge the device ourselves the same factory performance is never gained.

This is true for almost all chargeable devices like ear buds, smart watches, trimmers and many such products. Phone I wont count as once we tend to install application and all its naturally to not get the factory performance.

Need to understand why this difference between a factory charging and our charging inspite of using suggested chargers per specifications.

 

[Kloud]

I haven't experienced anything like this. Can you give a detailed example of what you mean?

 

[ashish]

I haven't experienced anything like this. Can you give a detailed example of what you mean?

What detailed explanation is required?
Its simple as stated. Example if you order a smart watch you will observe its battery will be somewhere in 90s and it will last you even for a month but once we charge it the next time it will last only for 2-3 weeks..
Same goes for other devices as well.

 

[john1911]

I don't remember experiencing anything like this.

 

[kalph09]

I guess what OP meant.... A product sitting on shelf for months retains the charge upto 90% or more when you power it on for the first time while subsequent charge cycles does not hold up charges the same way.

 

[john1911]

I guess what OP meant.... A product sitting on shelf for months retains the charge upto 90% or more when you power it on for the first time while subsequent charge cycles does not hold up charges the same way.

It might be what OP meant but I think OP means something different.

Example if you order a smart watch you will observe its battery will be somewhere in 90s and it will last you even for a month but once we charge it the next time it will last only for 2-3 weeks.

I think OP means that the initial 90% charge (which was charged at the factory) lasts much more than the subsequent 90% charges which was done at home.

OP should explain in detail if this is what he meant.

 

[ashish]

I think OP means that the initial 90% charge (which was charged at the factory) lasts much more than the subsequent 90% charges which was done at home.

Correct!

 

[Heisen]

The term factory charging is irrelevant, having quite a lot of experience with electronics, I can say that whichever method you use to charge the device, does not affect how long the battery will run. The actual charging circuit is inside the phone and also the battery itself, what we do (by we I mean you, me and the guys at the factory) just apply constant voltage to the phone by various power supplying methods and it's the phone which decides to charge itself with it or not, at what current and what not.

My best guess is what you are experiencing is just placebo.

 

[b.life]

From my understand there are a couple of things that might be at play here,
1. When we buy the product we may not be tinkering/full utilize all the options from the get go, so the power consumption may be low so it may look it lasts longer.
2. Over time the battery will loose its capacity so it wont be holding the same chage for longer. But this needs time though.

 

[enthusiast29]

It's a known fact that battery degrades with every charge discharge cycle.
It's not due to a manufacturing defect or user's fault. It's how it works.

A few things you can take care of to make it last a bit longer,

Don't discharge below 15-20% (drains Li-ion cells to the extent where their charge holding capacity degrades much faster).
Don't charge above 80-85% (stresses the cells).
Don't keep the device plugged in with 100% charge and keep using it.
If you want to store the device for a long time, charge it to 50% and check every 3-4 months. If it drains to below 25% charge again to around 50% and store.

With these steps you can keep the battery "healthy" and prolong degradation.

 

[john1911]

I think OP's emphasis is not on prolonging life (or the loss of capacity) of battery over the months or years.

The emphasis in on comparison of the first charge of device (which is done in factory) versus the second charge which is done at out homes. The question here is why do the same device with the same battery (at the same amount of battery wear and tear; charge 1 vs charge 2) when charged to an arbitrary % (say 90%) lasts more when it was charged at factory (charge 1) as compared to when it was charged at home (charge 2) using suggested chargers per specifications.

 

[enthusiast29]

I think OP's emphasis is not on prolonging life (or the loss of capacity) of battery over the months or years.

The emphasis in on comparison of the first charge of device (which is done in factory) versus the second charge which is done at out homes. The question here is why do the same device with the same battery (at the same amount of battery wear and tear; charge 1 vs charge 2) when charged to an arbitrary % (say 90%) lasts more when it was charged at factory (charge 1) as compared to when it was charged at home (charge 2) using suggested chargers per specifications.

I answered that in the first two lines but didn't go into details because "science".
If more details are needed I advise OP to google more or read some research papers like this: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2021/cp/d1cp00359c

In addition to that I gave a few tips to prevent degradation to some extent.

 

[john1911]

It's a known fact that battery degrades with every charge discharge cycle.
It's not due to a manufacturing defect or user's fault. It's how it works.

I don't think a single charge cycle will cause any noticable degradation.

PS: I'm speaking based on OP's posts. I haven't experienced any such phenomenon.

The term factory charging is irrelevant, having quite a lot of experience with electronics, I can say that whichever method you use to charge the device, does not affect how long the battery will run. The actual charging circuit is inside the phone and also the battery itself, what we do (by we I mean you, me and the guys at the factory) just apply constant voltage to the phone by various power supplying methods and it's the phone which decides to charge itself with it or not, at what current and what not.

My best guess is what you are experiencing is just placebo.

This I feel is what summarizes this thread best.

 

[n1r0]

The answer is battery calibration - the device's Battery Management System doesn't actually know what is 100% and what is 0%. Once it figures out the voltage difference between the two, the battery percentage indicator becomes more accurate. This is the reason devices especially laptops ask you to fully cycle a new battery a couple of times.

Calibration is a continuous process and is the reason a new device with 100% battery lasts way longer than say a 3 year old device charged to 100%. You can't measure a battery's "capacity" you can only guess it via the voltage.