Lithium ion batteries are one of the most popular battery types that are used in consumer electronics today. If you bought a PDA or a camcorder lately, in most cases you may have gotten Lithium ion batteries together with your purchased item. But what do we really know about these batteries? For instance, are they dangerous in any way? Let's take a closer look at theses batteries, their pro's and con's:



Lithium ion batteries - the pro's:

1.Lithium ion batteries have one of the best energy-to-weight ratios. That means they are very light and provide many hours of electricity supply to your product. They are reported to give at least %40 more than the older nickel cadmium batteries, while being a lot lighter.

2.The Lithium ion batteries also don't have any of that memory effect that is so annoying with other types of batteries. The memory effect in batteries means that if a battery is recharged when it's not completely empty, it's full capacity is reduced to the level in which it was recharged.

3.The Lithium ion batteries have a very slow rate of self discharge (while not in use), compared to other batteries. They may lose up to %5 every month, as compared to other batteries that may lost up to %30 every month while not in use.

Lithium ion batteries - the con's:

1.A unique drawback of the Li-ion battery is that its life span is dependent upon aging from time of manufacturing (shelf life) regardless of whether it was charged, and not just on the number of charge/discharge cycles. This drawback is not widely known, and for obvious reasons, the manufacturers are happy to keep it that way. The life span of an Li-ion battery will also we significantly influenced by the temperature it is stored in. Temperatures higher than 25 Celsius will shorten it's life span significantly. This makes the Li-ion battery useful in backup systems as they can't survive long enough.

2.Because the maximum power that can be continuously drawn from the battery depends on its capacity, in high-powered applications, like PDA's, Notebook Computers and video cameras, rather than showing a gradual shortening of the running time of the equipment, Li-Ion batteries may often just abruptly fail. Low-powered cyclical applications, like mobile phones, can get a much longer lifetime out of a Li-Ion battery. This is something to consider when you think about what battery to choose for your notebook computer, as the sudden lose of power is very frustrating.

3.Li-ion batteries are not as durable as nickel metal hydride or nickel-cadmium designs and can be extremely dangerous if mistreated. Fro that reason, they are quit frequently recalled.

4.The Li-ion batteries are usually more expensive than other batteries.

So now you can see that the Li-ion batteries come with some great advantages, but are not totally without disadvantages. Their extreme popularity show that their advantages are worth more than the disadvantages. Just remember to handle them with care and according to the instructions.