What should I do for my first charge with a Lithium-Ion Battery?

To keep the battery at optimum condition, once a month let the battery run completely out, then fully charge it. The battery will ‘reset’ and this will prolong battery life.

As far as breaking in…I’ve never done any of those things you listed, but that shouldn’t be a problem either way.

Open the little door on your belly. Look carefully for the + and the – . It isn’t math and it won’t be scary, just breathe. Put the battery in with the sticky-outey part toward the + and the flat part toward the -. I think you will get a nice charge out of it.

Sorry, I am too tired to be on here responding to questions—I have a mouse in my pantry!

@sndfreQ Alright thanks! So I guess I’ll just use it like normal then. (Havn’t used my iPod yet, It’s under the tree ;) )

Apple does recommend though that you fully drain your battery once unboxed then fully charge. Don’t know if anyone knew.

My cell phone probably doubled it’s battery life after the first time I ran the battery down.

It has a built in Motorola commercial, I play the video on a loop to kill the battery. One cycle seems to have done the trick, but I do it once per year from superstition.

@nomnomcake When the iPods ship, they come with a 25 percent charge; yes, run the battery down until the battery icon on the screen blinks (it takes the whole screen-you’ll know it when you see it). Then give a full charge and you’ll be good to go!

@sndfreQ Is that only for iPods? Fully draining then fully charging? Or for all lithium-ion battery gadgets?

@TheCreative I can’t speak for other devices, but my guess is that all devices with Li-Ion batteries would have the same issue. Come to think of it, my last two cameras had this as well.

The draining and then subsequent full recharge serves to reset the memory module (there is an actual chip in the battery) that calibrates the charge states of the cells. Otherwise, a full charge will not actually charge full capacity. That has been my experience with iPhones, iPods, and even MacBook Pro batteries, all pretty consistent results.

@sndfreQ Thanks! Didn’t know that.

Here’s a site that will tell you more than you probably ever really wanted to know about batteries and more than your mind, well, I should only speak for myself, more than at least my mind, can process on any given day. But you might find it useful: Battery University Actually, unless you get into the real technical stuff, the site is pretty straight forward and useful, in terms of providing information about various battery types, how they behave, how they should be charged, how they should be maintained, etc.

Just follow the instructions provided when you buy the charger for rechargable lithium ion batteries. The instructions are pretty standard and harmless too.

@lillycoyote Thanks for that!

@TheCreative You are most certainly welcome. :) Enjoy! It’s a big, wide world of batteries out there and it can get confusing. There also seems to be a certain amount of, I don’t know what, “mythology?” surrounding batteries. I am still figuring it out myself. But Battery University seems to be a pretty good site for sorting it all out.