I pad recharging

[confused of chalus]

I have had my i-pad for 11 months, and over the past few weeks have noticed that the battery life is reducing a lot. At first it hardly ever needed recharging, but now its every two or three days.

Does this mean the battery is failing? If so, should it have lasted longer? Will it cost an arm and a leg or might it still be guaranteed.

regards, Kathy

[YCCMB]

Speaking from experience, make sure it's not your charger or the lead to it..Could still be the battery, but I've had problems with the lead.

[confused of chalus]

Betty, that was incredibly quick! The I-pad battery icon quickly fills up to 100%, so I don't think its the charger..

[YCCMB]

It's the "quickly" that surprises me. My Ipad takes forever to charge, as does OH's. Mine is a 32GB, his is 16.

[Russethouse]

We don't recharge our iPads until we get down to 12% ....not sure if this helps...but it sees to work for us...

[Clair]

I've had a similar problem with my iPod on a couple of occasions; it was so bad I even looked into getting a replacement battery...

By a strange coincidence [blink] the problem disappeared after I synced the iPod with iTunes.

It happened twice and the sync solved the problem each time.

Worth a try?

[AnOther]

[quote user="Russethouse"]We don't recharge our iPads until we get down to 12%[/quote]Absolutely completely and utterly wrong.

Many people treat Lithium batteries like nicads but they couldn't be

more wrong, they require completely the opposite treatment for optimum

performance and life.

The more you use a Lithium based battery the quicker it will expire, deep discharging and heat are the twin worst enemies.

For best life top up the battery at every opportunity then disconnect it and switch the device off completely and only use the device on battery when you have no access to external power.

[url]http://thehowto.wikidot.com/prolong-battery-lifespan-for-ipad[/url]

Like other Apple products a dead battery means sending your device away for replacement, that's complete DEVICE replacement not just the battery, therefore what you get back will be somebody else's which they sent it and will be completely cleared out and restored to factory settings.

Cost will be between £39 and £66 depending on model and method of using the service.

[url]http://support.apple.com/kb/index?page=servicefaq&geo=United_Kingdom&product=ipod&select=REPAIR_PRICING[/url]

Some apps can have a serious impact on battery life so bin any you don't use. I'm not sure why a sync would affect anything but a update of installed apps might.

[confused of chalus]

AnOther, I'm sure the Apple advice is to discharge completely once a month and then recharge it.

I'm afraid we don't use it connected to the mains at all because the very short lead supplied Won't reach a socket from the kitchen table.

I will get an extension lead for it ..... And take a look at the apps, although we don't have many.

Thanks for the advice.

Kathy

[AnOther]

From Apple:

"For proper reporting of the battery’s state of charge, be sure to go

through at least one charge cycle per month (charging the battery to

100% and then completely running it down)"

Note though that is says for reporting of the battery’s state of charge and NOT as an aid to battery function or life so in truth is something to be done only if you suspect the battery is not giving of it's best. Personally I only ever deliberately cycle my batteries perhaps one every 3 or 4 months.

At the foot of that page they also say:

"Rechargeable batteries have a limited number of charge cycles" and that really is the nub of it when it comes to Lithium batteries, their potential life is measured in complete charge cycles, they also begin to self deteriorate from the moment of manufacture but that is something else.

Now no manufacturer is ever going to affirmatively state exactly how many cycles their battery is good for, the fact is they don't really know and to give a figure which they could put their hand on heart and guarantee would mean taking the worst example, and then shaving a bit off that, after which they might arrive at a figure not of 1000 (as suggested by Apple and commonly mentioned by many others) but somewhere in the low hundreds which, while being laudably honest, would not be a very good sales pitch for a portable device !

If for arguments sake though we say that it is 1000, assuming zero natural deterioration and that a full charge will run the device for 10 hours (again as suggested by Apple) then using a full charge discharge regime that infers a life of of 10,000 hours or approximately 13-14 months. By the simple expedient of recharging when the battery gets to 50% you decrease that full charge cycle count by 50% and thereby double it's potential life, it's really that simple an equation.

If you RH habitually run yours down to 12% then that is all you adding to that base 13-14 month life and if you do add in factors like unavoidable natural deterioration and the potentially damaging affects of excessive heat in reality it's possible you might find your battery failing within the year and Kathy your idea of using an extension will pay dividends in the long run, a slightly less effective solution might be a solar charger.

[Quillan]

Well for what it is worth I would say this. If the OP is correct and it is only 11 months old then take it back before the guarantee runs out. All these ideas may be all well and good but at the end of the day after you have tried them all your warranty may well have run out. So take it to an Apple dealer or whatever their service system is and get it fixed. For the warranty there is a link below (Its from the UK website but covers the EU).

http://www.apple.com/uk/legal/statutory-warranty/

 

[AnOther]

And I would ask the OP how they have been charging, full charge/discharge cycling or topping up ?

[EmilyA]

Have you updated to IOS7? My battery drains much more quickly now. It helps to turn off the automatic updating of background apps, but it still goes much faster.

Or is it just too much Candy Crush? Level 409 is using up lots of battery!

[Quillan]

[quote user="AnOther"]And I would ask the OP how they have been charging, full charge/discharge cycling or topping up ?
[/quote]

All I am saying is to get it to Apple and let them sort it out as the OP will have only four weeks or less left on their warranty (aacording the original post). If it is a battery problem bought about by not following the charging instructions then Apple will tell them. If on the other hand it needs a new battery or charger it will be fixed under warranty. If it were say six months old then I would suggest they try yours and others possible fixes but time is an important factor in this case.

[EmilyA]

Given that the OP says this started a few weeks and lots of people have this problem with the Ios7 upgrade, I am pretty sure that this will be the problem. If you Google Ios7 and battery draining, you will find plenty of help.

[Quillan]

I just wonder if the OP tries all these things out and then the warranty runs out turning this time and it still does not work correctly will they pay for any repair?

[AnOther]

I was not suggesting they not claim Q, just asking out of interest and to potentially back up what I've said about charging habits with a real case.

[Russethouse]

Much of the time I can have my ipad plugged in while I'm using it, so that's what I'll do from now on ...thanks for the heads up!

[Quillan]

[quote user="AnOther"]I was not suggesting they not claim Q, just asking out of interest and to potentially back up what I've said about charging habits with a real case.
[/quote]

I understand that and if this had happened earlier in the warranty I would normally agree with what you and others have said, it's just the time frame and not the helpful information/suggestions given. [;-)]

[confused of chalus]

Thanks to Emily and quillan.

The timing of the decreasing battery life and ios7 definitely rings a bell, so we will google as Emily suggests.

Quillan, we have to get to an apple store, and will be close to one a week before the expiry of the guarantee, so will at least go and talk the problem through. The problem is I suspect that, as everything works, albeit not so well the chances of them accepting it as a valid claim on the guarantee are slim.

Meanwhile I am on mains power, and what I need to know is whether it is safe to leave it plugged in 24 hours a day, or should I just plug in when I want to use it?

Sorry to seem so dim, but this technology is another world to me.... I love it, but don't understand it.

[Quillan]

If you have followed the instructions on charging especially the ones pointed out to you in this thread as per the Apple website and you still have a problem then it is the IPad (or possibly the new operating system) and nothing you have done wrong.

I don't have an Ipad, I have a Google Nexus because I prefer Android (which is very similar to Apples operating system). I wait till my slate has discharged before recharging it. I usually recharge mine at night and unplug it when get up (I use it for books so it its on the bedside table). I also switch it off between use as opposed to 'standby' mode. It will last a good week once charged although if I watch a film on it the time is reduced to a couple of days. I have been watching "Breaking Bad" (brilliant by the way) at a rate of two to three episodes per day and that requires a recharge every two days. The battery technology is the same I believe as the IPad.

[EmilyA]

Chalus, my ipad and iphone are using up the battery much more quickly since Ios7. My ipad is just over a year old. The background updating of apps and the location services are the most likely things. I have turned off the updating of apps, but wouldn't want to lose location for Find My Iphone. I have Flightradar on my ipad and updating all those aeroplanes was using up the battery fast. Also turning down the brightness helps.

[AnOther]

[quote user="confused of chalus"]what I need to know is whether it is safe to leave it plugged in 24 hours a day, or should I just plug in when I want to use it?[/quote]It's impossible to overcharge the battery so you could leave it plugged in 24/7/365 if you felt like it.

My, or rather our iPhones as we both have one, are plugged in and on charge whenever they we are at home so the only battery use they get is the few hours in the typical week when we are not. On a long car journey, when one or the other will be used for playing music, they get plugged into a USB charger in the car for the duration.

Only if a device showed signs of getting hot would it be best to disconnect as that would tend to suggest that something was amiss either with the battery or the charging circuitry.