The new iPad 4 / iPad 3 boasts a built-in, 42,5-watt-hour rechargeable, lithium-polymer battery sealed up in an aluminum-and-glass shell, hard to open for customers, while iPad mini / iPad 2 / iPad is less avid for power and content itself with the battery of 25 Wh.
Apple claims that a properly maintained iPad battery is designed to retain up to 80 per cent of its original capacity at 1000 full charge and discharge cycles. So, the question is how to treat iPad battery to extend its life?
Following are a few simple iPad tips, first five are the most important:
- Make sure that you fully recharge iPad's battery at least once per month (fully recharge means running the battery down to 5 per cent and then charging it to 100 per cent)
- Don't drop the battery charge to low (less than 5 per cent is very risky as lithium-polymer cells being near their critical voltage drop the charge very sharply, so you may face completely dead battery that has no juice to start new charging cycle.
Each battery cell has its own safe-voltage-limit (~ 3 V). Except the cells in the battery are perfectly matched for capacity and voltage, whereas you both charge and discharge them as a whole battery, there is a chance that sooner or later individual cells will be driven outside their safe voltage range even if the pack, as a whole, stays within it.
The cells will start out balanced and tend to stay that way. It can cause the failure of the battery as a whole. Mind you, a good point is that you should start charging Apple tablet when the battery charge is less than 10 per cent.
Over discharging the battery will shorten the lifespan of its battery. The red indicator that will pop-up on your iPad screen is a good signal to start the recharging cycle.
- To prevent failure, never store the battery fully discharged. Apply some charge before storage, and then charge fully before use
- When possible avoid frequent full discharges. Instead, charge the battery more often. There is no concern of battery's memory when applying unscheduled charges. A high residual charge before recharge is a benefit rather than a disadvantage for chemistry of Li-Pol battery on all iPads. The best way is to keep battery between 40 per cent and 80 per cent charged
-Do not overcharge iPad. Overcharging iPad by leaving it charging for the whole night shortens the battery lifespan
-Avoid iPad from both overheating ( 35 °C)and under-cooling ( 0 °C). The optimal temperature for IPad is 22 °C. The elevated temperatures hasten permanent capacity loss for iPad battery. The worst condition is running iPad with a fully charged battery at elevated temperatures. While the battery is kept fully charged, the inside temperature during operation rises to 45 °C
- Apple claims that temperature is the most important factor that influence the lifespan of iPad battery.
- Free iPad from its leather or any other case when charging the battery. These cases prevent from adequate ventilation, and cause extra temperature rise while charging
- To safe battery's power: turn off Wi-Fi when it is not in use, and/or adjust screen brightness, and/or minimize the use of location services, and/or turn off push notifications, and/or turn off push mail, and/or increase Fetch New Data interval, and/or turn off push mail, and/or turn off the sound effects (if they are frequent and as they are activated by default). This can be done by going to iPad / iPad 2 / iPad 3 "Settings".
- Be aware that disabling PING service in the Restriction area of the tablet's Settings will dramatically improve the life of its battery.
– iTroubleshooter
