The truth is we are currently living in personal hand-held gadgets era. If you own a cell phone, you own a personal hand-held gadget. If you own an ipod, you own a personal hand-held gadget. If you own a Playstation PSP or Nintendo DS, you are an owner of a personal hand-held gadget. If you own a kindle, yes you own a personal hand-held device. The truth of the matter is wherever you go, you will see dozens of people carrying their own personal hand-held device. Sometimes, people even carry their own personal laptops wherever they go. Admittedly, I am a proud owner of iPhone and I carry it around with me everywhere I go. Without it, I feel so lost and confused and empty. If you own an iPhone as well, you probably know what I am talking about. One of the worst thing that could happen to me is running out of battery on my iPhone when there is no charger nearby to be found. I’ve been in countless situations when my phone died and I couldn’t charge it back up. It’s just an awful feeling. It’s those moments when I wondered about the battery inside my phone that allows me to take advantage of its many features.

iPhones, like most of the modern hand-held gadgets are juiced by lithium ion batteries. Because of these batteries, gadgets nowadays last more than a few hours with just a single charge. Nickel Cadmium and Nickel Metal Hydride batteries have come and are now pretty much gone. The properties of lithium ion batteries are just more superior than these other counterparts and thus have dominated the rechargeable battery market. Because the average consumer have gone through so many technological generations of rechargeable batteries, we are often confused about how lithium ion batteries work.

How many times has someone told you to drain your batteries completely before recharging because it’ll last longer? Do batteries really last longer when you drain them completely? Unlike NiCd and NiMH batteries, Li-ion batteries have no memory effect where discharging completely is recommended to prolong its life.

Li-ion batteries last about 2-3 years from their birth independent of use. So make sure that when you buy these batteries from the store, the batteries are brand new and fresh and has not been sitting on the shelf too long. These batteries also can hold their charge much longer than their nickel based counterparts. Li-ion batteries will only lose about 5% of the charge in one month as opposed to 20% from nickel batteries. Moreover, the battery life can be maximized when stored in cool temperatures, such as inside a refrigerator. At higher temperatures, the batteries will tend to degrade at a faster rate.

So, now that you know how lithium ion batteries work, you can take advantage of this knowledge and make maximum use out of your batteries. However, due to the make-up of these batteries, along with every other batteries, practice of proper disposal methods are recommended to protect the environment from hazardous chemicals that may leak from the batteries. Please check with your local recycling center and inquire about their recycling programs for batteries. You may also go to your local stores to drop off you batteries there. These stores include Batteries Plus, Best Buy, Black & Decker, The Home Depot, Radio Shack, Sears, Staples, Target, and Wal-Mart. If none of these retail stores are available to you, you may visit Call2Recycle.org website for more information.