How to prolong battery life of a power bank

My first power bank did not last for long time. It was from a branded company. I bought it with high price too. I was upset. But I had to buy another one.

So that time I researched a quite bit to find the reasons for early death of my power bank and what I found was helpful for later. I was using it too toughly and without knowing the measures to take care of battery of my power bank.

In this article I am going to discuss briefly how I did harm to battery of my power bank and how to increase power bank life. As you know prevention is better than cure. So if you did not want to harm battery of your power bank and do not want to regret like I me, follow the tips.

Here are the ways following which you can prolong power bank life cycle.

• Do not always use the quick charge facility
• Charge with lower current if possible
• Use short good quality cable
• If not necessary do not charge your power bank to 100%
• Store your charger in a cooler place
• Charge the power bank 50 % before storing it for long time
• Limit pass through charging

Let see how these steps help to increase power bank battery life.

Don't always use the Quick charge facility

We often do not like to wait for the minimum time to charge our power banks. So we use quick charge facility. But using it so often effects adversely to the battery life.

Fast chargers commonly use constant current charging method, by which often voltage limit is crossed. Temperature increases, stress on battery is increased too. This reduces life span of the battery.

So do not always use quick charge facility if not necessary.

Charge with a lower current to prolong cell life

If your power bank allows a lower current charging mode, use it.

As the current will be less here, teat produce will also be lesser. This will help to operate your power bank efficiently and you can expect maximum life of battery.

For a 10,000 mAh or 20,000 mAh poer bank, try to limit the charging current below 2 Amps.

Use short good quality cable

Good quality cables protect your device and ensure maximum efficiency during charging.

Long cables may offer better convenience but they waste a lot of current. When length is high resistance increases which effects in flow of current. It also cause huge voltage drops. Thus performance of the battery gets hampered, battery health also gets poor.

So, using a good quality cable of short length should extend battery life of the battery of power bank. Cable length of 6- 12 inches is good enough.

If not necessary, don't charge the power bank to 100%

Batteries inside a power bank are typically Lithium-ion or Lithium polymer batteries.

These Lithium-ion batteries loose a little capacity after every charge/discharge cycle.

However if you charge these batteries a little less than full, let's say 80%, they will last much longer. By charging it to 100%, many times voltage limit is crossed.

It is shown that when batteries are normally charged to 4.20 V they lasts for 300 to 500 cycles.

But if the peak charging voltage is reduced 0.10 V per cell, i.e. 4.10 V per cell, the battery life cycle should be double than normal charging scenario.

As an example, a lithium ion battery charged to 4.20 V lasts for 300 – 500 cycles. But it should last for 600 to 1000 usable cylces if charged to 4.10 V/cell.

Also charging the battery to 100% often leads to overcharging which causes over heating. This effects badly on life of battery.

Store the power bank in cooler place

Electronics devices are heat sensitive. If you keep your power bank in a hot place or a place where ventilation of heat is not possible it will badly impact on performance and battery life of your power bank.

As with heat, resistance increases, which effects in flow of current. This brings abnormality in performance and reduce life span of the battery.

So keep your power bank in a cooler bank from where heat can dissipate easily. Cooler place does not mean you have to keep your power bank in a refrigerator. Normal temperature i. e 20 degree Celsius to 25 degree Celsius is suitable to keep.

Charge the power bank 50% before storing for a long time

Do not keep your power bank either in low battery or fully charged for long time. Fully discharged battery sucks more current than usual. It can deteriorate the health of Lithium-ion cells of power bank.

Power banks do not just lose power when charging a device, they also leak energy. So if you leave your power bank for long time without charging it will suck energy from battery. When you do not want to use your power bank for sometime, charge it to 50 %. That will help to maintain at least a little charge, battery life will not be reduced much.

Limit passthrough charging

Pass through charging allows a device, say a cellphone, to be plugged and charged while the power bank itself is connected to a wall outlet. The most significant cause of damage to a battery is due to availability of excess heat . It impacts maximum storage capacity, charge transfer speeds, and battery life.

If it takes longer time to charge the battery, heat produce will be more and the battery cells will be exposed to higher temperature for an extended period of time. As with pass through charging time taking to charge the battery for power bank is obviously more so heat produced in the device. Also extra stress is given to the battery.

This is how battery life gets reduced if you use pass through charging for long time. If sometime you feel necessary to charge your device with pass through charging do not charge for long time. This is how you can prevent damage to battery and thus can maximize battery life of the power bank.

Conclusion

This is how you can prolong battery life of your power bank. Anyway, every electronics device is made to last for a certain cycle time. So it will stop working after certain period of time. But if you follow the above mentioned tips you can use it over a satisfactory range of time.