racoma.com.phJ. Angelo Racoma on technology, economics, writing, problogging, and getting things done

I’m sometimes lazy with charging my mobile phone. These days, with weeks-long battery life for phones you tend to forget to plug in at night. So sometimes we use a car charger when on the road. I didn’t realize car chargers weren’t so good in terms of battery care.

Chris Pirillo quotes:

Any charger that goes into the car is bad for the device battery. Why? Because the power is not regulated like in your home. In my line of work, I have seen many batteries die because people use their car chargers WAY too much. A car charger should be a LAST resort. I try to explain to customers that when they get home they obviously (well I guess 99.9% of the world) take out their wallet, keys, coins, or whatever is in their pocket before going to sleep. Make it a habit to charge your phone with your home charger.

The same goes for purchasing cheap home chargers just to save a buck.

Nokia has recalled BL-5C batteries made by Matsushita due to risk of overheating or even explosion (which is not really unique to Nokia batteries, but is a risk when using Lithium Ion batteries). I immediately checked my phone’s battery when I read the Nokia press release. It’s a BL-5CA. Close enough, I thought, so I decided to check the serial number against the Nokia database.

Thankfully, this is the message I got:

Your battery is not among those manufactured by Matsushita between December 2005 and November 2006 and your battery will not be replaced.

Downside: I don’t get a new battery.

Upside: I can be confident I won’t burn my hands, ears or some other part of my body when using the phone.