Testing Battery

[mrholder]

Anyone have any suggestions on a good way to test my ipod touch battery for longevity, besides taking it to Apple for diagnostics?

[NineSwords]

What exactly do you wan't to test? Do you wan't a accurate repeatable test to compare your battery longevity with anonther Touch? Or just some approximated numbers from other Forum members? Or maybe a test to compare it against itself at a later time?

Either way, a laymans test would simply be to switch off everything that could alter the result (ie. wifi, auto light dimming, push, automated email checks, etc.) and then run one task with a full charge and see how long the battery will last.

In order to compare it to other Touchs you should use a task that somebody else can repeat without problems. I would recomment one of the free "Flashlight" apps which simply turn the screen white and disable the auto lock.

[Ron]

When I visited the Genious Bar they told me they do not have equipment to test batteries. They simply looked at all the things I had on (push, wi-fi, brightness, location) and said something to the effect of 'no wonder your battery doesn't last a day'. I walked away a real satisfied customer that day :rolleyes: .
A while back I picked up the "Accura" battery app while it was free. It claims to be able to "check battery health". My 2g iTouch received a rather poor rating (forget the number- mid 20%?). My brand new 3g received a zero! They have not answered my email regarding this....

I basically have to charge mine on a daily basis even though I don't use it as much as would seem necessary for this

[wiredmind]

Basically you need to charge yr battery before it drops to 20% and on a daily basis as advised by apple.

[Ron]

Basically you need to charge yr battery before it drops to 20% and on a daily basis as advised by apple.

Hi wiredmind-
I'm curious if the 20% is official Apple info. Because I let mine dip below that all the time I checked the Apple website and found no reference .Did I miss it? All the info there makes the battery sound like it's easy to take care of; no first time use rules, no memory, and no possibility of overcharging. Just charge it when needed, use the device to keep the atoms moving (or something like that), with a battery life limit of the total number of recharge cycles.

[mrholder]

What exactly do you wan't to test? Do you wan't a accurate repeatable test to compare your battery longevity with anonther Touch? Or just some approximated numbers from other Forum members? Or maybe a test to compare it against itself at a later time?


Thanks for the input everyone. Yes, basically a test to compare it against itself at a later time. Just want to see if it's being naturally degraded over time. Wonder how you know if it's time to send it in for a battery replacement? Maybe if it won't keep a charge but just for a couple of hours?

[Ron]

The Apple website contains instructions on how to do this I have found. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1322?viewlocale=en_US
I did not read the entire article but basically update everything, use the proper/same settings, play the same music and mark the time it takes for the ipod to shut off/die. If you do that now, then also at a later date with everything set up the same, compare time to shut off. Theoretically the second time, months later perhaps, will have less battery health and shorter play time. I don't think it technically applies to iDevices but the procedure should work , no?

[iPhonephreak]

It is good to let the battery completely drain (until the unit shuts itself down) once every 4-6 weeks. This process re-engerizes the battery so to speak.

[mrholder]

The Apple website contains instructions on how to do this I have found. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1322?viewlocale=en_US
I did not read the entire article but basically update everything, use the proper/same settings, play the same music and mark the time it takes for the ipod to shut off/die. If you do that now, then also at a later date with everything set up the same, compare time to shut off. Theoretically the second time, months later perhaps, will have less battery health and shorter play time. I don't think it technically applies to iDevices but the procedure should work , no?

Thanks for the link. I'll try that. Didn't realize Apple had a doc on it.

[juubee]

It is good to let the battery completely drain (until the unit shuts itself down) once every 4-6 weeks. This process re-engerizes the battery so to speak.

Wow I didn't know this. I never try to let it drain or go really low, but I guess this weekend I'll have to try that.
I always thought charging your battery a lot wasn't good.. (like before it drains out completely).

[ChiffaN]

It is good to let the battery completely drain (until the unit shuts itself down) once every 4-6 weeks. This process re-engerizes the battery so to speak.

Folks, I would advise against this. This was the case with older Ni-Cd and Ni-Mg batteries but the iPhone, as most other newer devices uses a Li-Io or a Li-Pol battery. And for these kinds it's actually akin to death to drain the battery completely. This is why you might notice that the iPhone actually shuts down BEFORE reaching 0 - to have a bit of charge left to keep the battery alive.

[mrholder]

Good point ChiffaN. Didn't know that. I hardly ever let mine get below 20%.

[iPhonephreak]

I always thought charging your battery a lot wasn't good.. (like before it drains out completely).
You can't overcharge the type of battery that is in these devices. Give it a charge whenever you can/want to. ;)

[Ron]

Updating my earlier post where I mentioned the "Accura" app. After the update that was supposed to fix the 0% battery health, my iTouch still registers 0%.
#Accurafail as the tweet would go....

[mrholder]

Thanks Ron. I'll steer clear of Accura.

[juubee]

Folks, I would advise against this. This was the case with older Ni-Cd and Ni-Mg batteries but the iPhone, as most other newer devices uses a Li-Io or a Li-Pol battery. And for these kinds it's actually akin to death to drain the battery completely. This is why you might notice that the iPhone actually shuts down BEFORE reaching 0 - to have a bit of charge left to keep the battery alive.

Oh wow. Thanks for letting us know. Good thing it doesn't completely drain out then so I couldn't have (attempted to last night).

[Ron]

O.K. I just downloaded the latest update to Accura (vers. 3.2- Feb 10th) It at least gives me a reasonable result when I check battery health (100% for a virtually new iTouch 3g 32 gb- as opposed to 0% before update). It has always seemed to match the iPods 20% warning level when I used the "estimated battery health" slider. Is it accurate? The million dollar question! The jury is still out on that one. If i can help answer the question I will post it here....

[wiredmind]

From Apple's website:

For iPod Touch:
http://www.apple.com/batteries/ipods.html

For iPhone:
http://www.apple.com/batteries/iphone.html


A very detailed thread (it has a guide to test for defective batteries):
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=525741