Best way to preserve TiBook battery?

[bryanus]

I have a mint G4 TiBook that I cherish. I also have a battery for it with only 8 cycles. As I never really use it, everytime I do boot it up (maybe a few times a year), the battery is completely depleted and the CMOS battery has depleted as well. I'll then charge up both fully, and it goes back into deep storage until the next time I am feeling nostalgic or want to play with some old Kai's power tools!

What is the best way to extend/preserve the life of my battery? I doubt it's a good idea to let them run down to zero as I've been doing. I thought about leaving the charger plugged in all the time, but have read that may damage the battery (and possibly other internal components) over time even more.

 

[philgxxd]

I started a charging diary two years ago with all my laptops battery and do periodic charges and write down the performance (some do have degradation signs as shutting off at 30% charge).
When i come back to them about every 3-6 months I always start with writing down the percentage of the charge. Then charge them before I will use it with a laptop, run them down and charge them again until 50-70%.
I take them out afterwards before they go in storage again. I move them in summer in the coolest room in the house for storage.
I know it’s inevitable that they degrade but I like to track it at least.

 

[f54da]

Limit max charge to 25%, store in coolest room of your house plugged in.

But don't those have removable batteries anyway?

 

[Doq]

Limit max charge to 25%, store in coolest room of your house plugged in.

But don't those have removable batteries anyway?

Correct. However, it's also well-documented that 2nd Gen Titaniums (667-1000MHz DVIs) will also throttle CPU to 667MHz in the absence of a good battery, so it is definitely beneficial to have a good battery, at least for those later models.

 

[smirking]

What is the best way to extend/preserve the life of my battery? I doubt it's a good idea to let them run down to zero as I've been doing. I thought about leaving the charger plugged in all the time, but have read that may damage the battery (and possibly other internal components) over time even more.

I don't know if there's a magic percentage number that's ideal, but it's not zero as you had already guessed and it's also not 100%. I can attest as someone who's learned the hard way that keeping things fully charged all the time is a bad ideal.

Also as someone else suggested, store it in a cool place.

 

[cellularmitosis]

I don't know if there's a magic percentage number that's ideal, but it's not zero as you had already guessed and it's also not 100%. I can attest as someone who's learned the hard way that keeping things fully charged all the time is a bad ideal.

Also as someone else suggested, store it in a cool place.

The magical number is usually quoted as 40%. https://batteryuniversity.com/article/bu-702-how-to-store-batteries

However, batteryuniversity notes that hitting exactly 40% isn't critical. Anywhere in the neighborhood (below 4.0V per cell) is fine:

There is virtually no self-discharge below about 4.0V at 20C (68F); storing at 3.7V yields amazing longevity for most Li-ion systems. Finding the exact 40–50 percent SoC level to store Li-ion is not that important. At 40 percent charge, most Li-ion has an OCV of 3.82V/cell at room temperature. To get the correct reading after a charge or discharge, rest the battery for 90 minutes before taking the reading. If this is not practical, overshoot the discharge voltage by 50mV or go 50mV higher on charge. This means discharging to 3.77V/cell or charging to 3.87V/cell at a C-rate of 1C or less. The rubber band effect will settle the voltage at roughly 3.82V.

If it is already dead, stick it in your TiBook and watch the % charge, disconnect the battery at 40% and put it on a shelf.

 

[aurora72]

I had two of those batteries. Last year I pried open one of them which didn't hold any charge at all:

and took all 7 Lithium Ion batteries out: (6 pictured here, one of them was leaking so I threw it away)

The one you see below is functioning quite good. It can power my PowerBook 1GHz for an hour or two (didn't do any special measurement) Considering that it was manufactured in 2002, it's fantastic. I don't do anything out of the ordinary to preserve its life. I just remove it from the TiBook when I won't be using it for extended periods and store it in a cool, dry place.

Just in case you pry the battery open for the purpose of replacing the 7 Li-Ion batteries:
Be sure to watch any video (if there are any) showing how to pry open the bottom plastic case without damaging the mini-board inside and particularly the ribbon cable connected to mini-board. As I pried it open, I damaged the ribbon cable inside. I could have repaired it but didn't want to mess with it because I already had a one healthy, functioning battery. If it was the only battery I had, that could have been a big problem.