Nowadays, most notebooks, smartphones, tablets, and other gadgets like wearables have waved goodbye to the user replaceable battery, and more often than not replacing it anyway means voiding your warranty. Digital cameras sometimes even require special tools to open the cases and once inside you’ll realize the battery is cemented in place. If you want to avoid the quite hefty manufacturer and third party service fees the right charging and storage techniques could help to improve your battery’s life expectancy as well as to reduce its inherent capacitance loss.

Unfortunately, the internet is abound with rumors dating back to the days of nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) or even the much older and mostly extinct nickel-cadmium cells (which happen to be not only harmful to the environment but also to your health). Following advice derived from these rumors will frequently have the exact opposite effect on lithium-ion batteries.

Since lithium-polymer batteries are only a subspecies of lithium-ion batteries the following statements apply to these batteries as well. The main difference between lithium-ion and lithium-polymer batteries is their prospective form – the latter can be formed into many shapes, for example curved cylinders.