# slow to charge battery



## labread (Jan 26, 2011)

My battery showed about 1/3 charge last night, so I plugged it in directly to an outlet, not using USB, when I went to bed.About 7 hours later, the light had not switched to green.  I turned it on, and the indicator seemed to be full.  Left it plugged in, and the light just switched after about another 1/2 hour.  This seems quite slow to me from what I have both experiened previously and read.  It seems that I have been needing to charge it more than expected, but since it is new, I have been using both WiFi and 3G quite frequently.  Should I be concerned?


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## pidgeon92 (Oct 27, 2008)

If the Kindle is new, it will take a few full charges before the battery reaches its potential.

Try restarting the Kindle, by either

-- going through the menu (Menu _button_ -> Settings -> Menu _button_ - Restart)
-- holding the slider switch for 15 - 40+ seconds until the Kindle reboots.


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## Morf (Nov 18, 2010)

Just to confirm, you do mention plugging it into an outlet, but was this using the Amazon supplied charger/adapter or another 3rd party one?

The Amazon official charger will charge a Kindle significantly quicker than if you charge via USB from a computer. 

The Amazon charger will deliver a higher current than a computer USB port.

A 3rd party charger will probably work but may not deliver as high a current as the Amazon charger and so may be slower. 

I've honestly not really checked how long mine takes, I think it's usually about 2-3 hours but this does depend on how low the battery is of course, I tend to keep topping mine up rather than let it get very low (personal preference, it doesn't make any difference to the battery).

As Pidgeon suggests, give it a few charges to get settled in before you worry about it too much.


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## crica888 (Feb 22, 2011)

I guess that is time to buy a new one... just in case... I had the same symptoms in the past and I replaced it.


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## Morf (Nov 18, 2010)

crica888 said:


> I guess that is time to buy a new one... just in case... I had the same symptoms in the past and I replaced it.


...but labread says it is new!


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## jhanel (Dec 22, 2010)

crica888 said:



> I guess that is time to buy a new one... just in case... I had the same symptoms in the past and I replaced it.


If, after you've tried a few times, rebooting, etc... Call Kindle CS. They'll GLADLY replace it if it is within the last year. It's the best customer support I've EVER received. They're amazing, which is why I bought a kindle over the other e-readers.


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## intinst (Dec 23, 2008)

crica888 said:


> I guess that is time to buy a new one... just in case... I had the same symptoms in the past and I replaced it.


Her Kindle 3 would still be under warranty, and the battery is difficult to replace, in addition to this would void that warranty.


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## labread (Jan 26, 2011)

Yes, I am using the Amazon supplied charger.  My Kindle was purchased on the 27th of January.  I typically have charged it during the day, only until the green light is illuminated.  This was perhaps only the 2nd or 3rd time the battery was charged overnight.  What type of charging is better for this type of battery?  I will continue to watch it over the next few days so that I can call Amazon within the 30 day window if I feel it necessary.


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## joangolfing (Sep 12, 2010)

I just had a slow recharge on my Kindle after the 3.1 update installed today.
After about 6 hours of charging it was still orange and not green. I restarted and it is fully charged.
Could it be related to this latest update?


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Unless it is happening repeatedly, it's probably not a problem.  My guess is that it charges to full, but is also working on indexing or something, so the battery gets used some -- enough to trigger a 'recharge' operation.  So it might seem like it's taking a long time but it's just that you happened to look at it when it had briefly gone back into a charging cycle.


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## mayfire (Nov 11, 2010)

joangolfing said:


> I just had a slow recharge on my Kindle after the 3.1 update installed today.
> After about 6 hours of charging it was still orange and not green. I restarted and it is fully charged.
> Could it be related to this latest update?


I also noticed a difference in the charging process after updating to 3.1. I plugged in to wall with the Kindle charger as I always do, but this time the orange light did not turn green. It was plugged in much longer than I usually need to. I unplugged and checked the battery. It seemed just about fully charged. Could it be a result of updating as Joangolfing asks? Any need to worry? Everything else seems just fine. Are there any charging tips we aren't aware of?


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## Morf (Nov 18, 2010)

labread, are you on V3.1? (look at the bottom of the settings screen).

I've upgraded to 3.1 but I haven't charged since, I'll keep an eye on it when I do. It's possible that Amazon have changed the algorithm for deciding the battery is fully charged, there are a lot of things like that which are done within the firmware and can therefore be tweaked.

They may, for instance (this is guesswork only) be running a fast charge up to about 95% charge then dropping to a slow charge to top the battery off. This is often used to look after the battery (protects it from damage). It would give the symptoms people are reporting, of the light taking longer to go off but the battery appearing to be fully charged.

In terms of charging tips, my understanding is that with Lithium Polymer cells it really doesn't matter. They will die eventually, but it's not significantly affected by what you do to it in terms of charging.

More or less like your car petrol tank, you can top it up regularly or before a long journey, or you can let it run down and then fill it back up. I don't believe it even matters too much if you partly top it up.

The only thing I would avoid is running it completely flat very often. Unlike old Nicads where you should do this, Lithium batteries don't need it and tend not to like it.


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## labread (Jan 26, 2011)

Morf said:


> labread, are you on V3.1? (look at the bottom of the settings screen).
> 
> <snip>
> 
> ...


Yes, I updated manually to 3.1 the first day it was available. I think I had charged it once or twice prior to the overnight charge that had me concerned. I'm relieved to be reading now that others have seen the same thing and that there probably is a rational explanation, even if it is just theoretical.

You wrote that it doesn't matter if I top off the charge or let it run down (though not completely). Does it matter if it stays plugged in after charging? If it takes only three hours to charge, is it a problem if I routinely charge overnight?

(As an aside, the charge was down to just below 50% after three full days, and the green light just came on after 2 hours of charging.)


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## Morf (Nov 18, 2010)

labread said:


> You wrote that it doesn't matter if I top off the charge or let it run down (though not completely). Does it matter if it stays plugged in after charging? If it takes only three hours to charge, is it a problem if I routinely charge overnight?


Nope, shouldn't matter at all. There are intelligent charging circuits wrapped round a lithium battery, and they will charge the battery as much as it needs, then stop charging and turn the light green. If it stays plugged in for a few hours after that it really shouldn't matter. (I'd avoid leaving it plugged in for days on end, though that really shouldn't do any harm either).



labread said:


> (As an aside, the charge was down to just below 50% after three full days, and the green light just came on after 2 hours of charging.)


The battery being down to 50% after three days is quite fast use, but it depends what you've been using it for, if you've read for several hours every day that's more likely, especially if you've added new books that need indexing (to check if the Kindle is still indexing, search for a nonsense phrase like xysyyxsx - it will either say "not found" or tell you it's not indexed some books yet).

50% back to full charge in 2 hours sounds normal to me, I wouldn't see a problem with that at all.


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