Prevent premature battery degradation with Lava Computers’ Charge-Check

Lithium-ion batteries are part of almost each fashionable gadget, and sadly, over time, they degrade.

Lava Computers is an Etobicoke, Ontario-based firm that goals to guard your devices’ batteries from overcharging and degrading with a easy 60mm x 231.1mm x 45mm machine.

Most fashionable smartphones are already designed with battery optimization in thoughts. Although they cease drawing energy as soon as they attain a full cost of one hundred pc, the battery will nonetheless lose some energy whereas it sits on the charger, not charging. This causes the charger to kick in once more and restore the telephone to full cost as soon as it has misplaced some energy.

If you permit your telephone on the charger for an prolonged time period, this cycle of energy loss and charging will proceed, resulting in a rise within the machine and the battery’s temperature, which may trigger ion decomposition, off-gassing, and finally, battery swelling that leads the battery’s efficiency to degrade prematurely.

On the opposite hand, Apple presents optimized battery charging. The function was first added to the iPhone with iOS 13. It basically reduces the period of time a tool spends overcharging by monitoring the person’s charging habits. When the machine is initially plugged in, the function fees the iPhone to 80 p.c earlier than charging the remaining 20 p.c inside a longtime time-frame. The software program predicts when the person will unplug their machine and begins the remaining cost an hour or two earlier than that point, primarily based on the established sample. Google’s Pixel telephones have an identical function referred to as Adaptive Charging that delays reaching till near when a person’s alarm will go off.

It’s important to notice that optimized battery charging has its limitations too. In conditions the place the person doesn’t disconnect their machine on the anticipated time, overcharging should still happen. Additionally, the algorithm could take as much as 5 days to study a brand new charging sample or set up an preliminary one. As a consequence, this function is only when there’s a constant charging routine that’s constantly adopted.

Enter Lava Computers’ Charge-Check.

The Charge-Check is a small exterior machine that goals to forestall your devices, together with telephones, tablets, audio system, cameras, controllers and extra, from overcharging. It’s a easy plug-and-play adapter that’s suitable with nearly any USB charging machine.

The machine makes use of what Lava Computers calls CABM (Continuously Active Battery Modulation). “CABM is a plug-and-play battery modulation technology built into LAVA’s u Series family of adapters. Designed to improve the longevity of mobile devices, CABM protects Lithium-Ion batteries from overcharging and swelling,” reads the corporate’s web site. The function displays your machine’s battery and waits for it to achieve the trickle stage, the place your machine stops charging when it’s close to one hundred pc, however mechanically fees once more when a little bit little bit of battery has been drained. This usually occurs between 92 and 99 p.c cost.

With Charge-Check related, the machine mechanically cuts off the facility provide when it detects your machine is close to one hundred pc and permits the machine’s battery to discharge. The foremost function of the Charge-Check machine is that you would be able to preset the variety of hours after which the machine would permit electrical energy to go by way of your gadget once more and provoke its subsequent charging cycle. This method, you may preserve your devices plugged in 24×7 with minimal battery degradation.

The timeout size could be personalized by the person between one hour to 5 hours. Essentially, as soon as your gadget has reached close to one hundred pc cost, Charge-Check will minimize off the charging and resume it after one to 5 hours, relying in your choice (default is three hours). The timeout time could be configured utilizing a black button on prime of the machine, with customized inputs for various timeouts talked about beneath:

The Charge-Check resides in a white plastic casing that doesn’t flex and feels sturdy. Further, it ships with a Micro USB to USB-A cable to hook up with the facility supply. It is obtainable to order now for $29.99 USD (roughly $41 CAD). Learn extra about Charge-Check right here.

Image credit score: Lava Link