Human beings are creatures of habit. Did you notice how each time you dream a dream, it may return to the beginning again? Well, storage batteries also have memories in terms of charging and recharging limits. But we can influence battery memory effect by the way we users behave. Read on and discover more.
Battery Memory Effect in a Nut Shell
Our best advice seems to be to avoid allowing our batteries to charge and discharge completely. Yet by the same token new devices recommend we charge and discharge them fully the first few cycles we use them.
That’s because some batteries may adhere to the same limits for future cycles. This means new batteries can adopt bad ‘habits’, unless we, their human users ‘train’ them properly. In other words, embed the optimal battery memory effect.
The Technology Behind the Phenomenon
Not all battery cells have this restriction. Lithium-ion avoids it, while many nickel-based batteries suffer from the limitation. Their metals and electrolytes react to form salts during discharging, which largely dissolve again during recharging. This is contra to our ideal world in which salts would coat a perfect metal surface evenly.
But this coating can be uneven in the real world, depending on the charge remaining when we recharge, as well as the charging voltage and current. And so it can happen that permanent imperfections develop, and become lasting chemical memories.
We could imagine those memories as ‘charging traffic signs’ that convince a battery it is full (or empty) when it is not. However, as we mentioned in the beginning this is not the battery’s ‘fault’. Because the real cause is the user did not follow the instructions, perhaps because they were in a hurry to get going.
More Information
Recharging a Battery if Electrodes Allow It
