I have seen a few threads about calibrating the battery, and I downloaded an app on the market, but I don't want to run it yet until i get some questions answered.
Is there a way that is better than others? Does calibrating the battery help with battery life, or what is the purpose?
stevew84 said:
I have seen a few threads about calibrating the battery, and I downloaded an app on the market, but I don't want to run it yet until i get some questions answered.
Is there a way that is better than others? Does calibrating the battery help with battery life, or what is the purpose?
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Click to collapse
Battery calibration does nothing. A google employee even confirmed that battery stats are only used for keeping track of what is using your battery (which it does not do very well IMO). So deleting them and discharging the battery then rebooting and all that other crap only wastes time.
As for fully draining and recharging the battery to calibrate it... in short it does much more harm than good. Older Ni-Cad batteries used to have a 'memory' of sorts. if you did not fully discharge them from time to time they would act dead when they wernt.
The batteries in our phones (and most newer electronics) are Lithium-Ion (and in some newer phones Lithium-Polymer). these batteries have no 'memory'. in fact discharging them all the way is very bad for them, and can actually cause the battery to rupture if its done too extreme (you would have to short the terminals for this to happen)
The reality of this is that the less you let your battery discharge, the longer it will last. Every time you let it drain all the way (or almost all the way) you are harming it and reducing its lifetime.
The best way to take care of your phone's battery is to try to keep it between 50% and 80% full. Even keeping the battery fully charged for very long periods of time can be just as bad as discharging it fully.
TL;DR: get rid of that app, and dont ever think about doing any battery calibration ever again.
Further Reading Here and Here
Klathmon said:
Battery calibration does nothing. A google employee even confirmed that battery stats are only used for keeping track of what is using your battery (which it does not do very well IMO). So deleting them and discharging the battery then rebooting and all that other crap only wastes time.
As for fully draining and recharging the battery to calibrate it... in short it does much more harm than good. Older Ni-Cad batteries used to have a 'memory' of sorts. if you did not fully discharge them from time to time they would act dead when they wernt.
The batteries in our phones (and most newer electronics) are Lithium-Ion (and in some newer phones Lithium-Polymer). these batteries have no 'memory'. in fact discharging them all the way is very bad for them, and can actually cause the battery to rupture if its done too extreme (you would have to short the terminals for this to happen)
The reality of this is that the less you let your battery discharge, the longer it will last. Every time you let it drain all the way (or almost all the way) you are harming it and reducing its lifetime.
The best way to take care of your phone's battery is to try to keep it between 50% and 80% full. Even keeping the battery fully charged for very long periods of time can be just as bad as discharging it fully.
TL;DR: get rid of that app, and dont ever think about doing any battery calibration ever again.
Further Reading Here and Here
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Cool man, thanks...I'll skip on the calibration.
Related
I go out at night mostly so by the time i leave the house my phones battery is about 75% full. I have the LG G2x. My question is sometimes before i leave i'll see that it's 75% full so i'll charge it back to 100% before i leave. Does charging the phone without it being drained damage the battery? should i just leave it alone next time i go out? sorry if this is already a thread just point me in the right direction.
Thanks.
You're not damaging your battery But if you never drain the battery completely, i'm not sure how good the battery will be after 6 month, so i recommend you drain it completely every couple of weeks.
Sent from my HTC Desire HD using XDA Premium App
There are several opinions about keeping battery health for more time. Recharging at 75% is not one of them, but it's not the worth of it.
Here's what i know and what i've heard:
* some manufacturers (laptops) have software that don't allow the battery to charge when it's over 80 to 90% - they say it helps on battery life
* it's common sense that you should recharge when you have 20 - 40% and do a full cycle once in a while (this is what i do)
In my opinion, charging only 25% of the charge in a regular basis will not really help to keep battery life...
I've personally had the best performance from batteries when I let them discharge as much as possible and then charge them to full without interruption.
some have also said that draining the battery too often can also damage it, is this correct?
They like to be ran down then recharged but not all the way down to nothing unless you are having a problem with bat life on a rom
groe886 said:
some have also said that draining the battery too often can also damage it, is this correct?
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Yes. You should not drain your battery all the time. Use normally, charge it when below 40% and yes, charge it back to full - that's the ideal thing.
l4g4rt0 said:
Yes. You should not drain your battery all the time. Use normally, charge it when below 40% and yes, charge it back to full - that's the ideal thing.
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+1 that is the best way. Li-on batteries should'n be drained completly because it can shorten their life.
I read somewhere that it is not important when you start charging your battery (20%, 60%...) but it's important that it finishes to charge up to 100% every time
I heard/read that LI-ION batter is good to charge when cap goes bellow 30%.
There is no “break-in” or “conditioning” required for the Li-ion batteries. They do not need the old “fully discharge – fully charge” routine for the initial three charges as was recommended on older battery technologies. For a number of years now, the advice has been to fully drain a new rechargeble battery at least three times in a row, then do so at least once a month from then on in order to ‘condition’ it. This is designed to prevent ‘memory’ effects and to prolong the life and capacity of the rechargeable battery.
Unfortunately, it appears that this advice is not only incorrect but could be causing battery damage in that it’s reducing the shelf-life of your equipment.
Modern Li-ion batteries apparently do not suffer from memory effects. All that matters is how many recharging cycles they support. The more cycles they are put through, the less effective they become at holding a charge down the line. The caveat, however, is that you can accelerate their decline by forcing them to drain deeper and deeper.
According to Battery University, the depth-of-discharge on a Li-ion device will determine its ultimate cycle count. What this means in practice is that you should recharge your battery frequently and let it drain as little as possible in between recharges. Partial discharges are better.
As expected, high temperatures are also disastrous to the lifespan of Li-ion batteries. Interestingly, high-voltage charging has a similar effect. Higher voltages will charge the battery faster but damage it. The article suggests that user-regulated voltages for laptop batteries might be a useful way to allow the consumer to decide which is more important to them in their daily useage – faster recharge or longer life.
Always store a Li-ion battery full charged. Not doing so will reduce its lifespan and capacity.
Similarly, it would seem that keeping it connected to a power supply when it is 100% charged is not very wise either.
Thanks for posting this! I was wondering something similar after I got my Sensation. I was looking to improve my battery life and was wondering if the fact that I've let my battery discharge irregularly only a handful of times along with hardly ever leaving it off the USB laptop cable at home had anything to do with it. I'll be sure not to discharge it unnecessarily from now on.
Tacjim said:
There is no “break-in” or “conditioning” required for the Li-ion batteries. They do not need the old “fully discharge – fully charge” routine for the initial three charges as was recommended on older battery technologies. For a number of years now, the advice has been to fully drain a new rechargeble battery at least three times in a row, then do so at least once a month from then on in order to ‘condition’ it. This is designed to prevent ‘memory’ effects and to prolong the life and capacity of the rechargeable battery.
Unfortunately, it appears that this advice is not only incorrect but could be causing battery damage in that it’s reducing the shelf-life of your equipment.
Modern Li-ion batteries apparently do not suffer from memory effects. All that matters is how many recharging cycles they support. The more cycles they are put through, the less effective they become at holding a charge down the line. The caveat, however, is that you can accelerate their decline by forcing them to drain deeper and deeper.
According to Battery University, the depth-of-discharge on a Li-ion device will determine its ultimate cycle count. What this means in practice is that you should recharge your battery frequently and let it drain as little as possible in between recharges. Partial discharges are better.
As expected, high temperatures are also disastrous to the lifespan of Li-ion batteries. Interestingly, high-voltage charging has a similar effect. Higher voltages will charge the battery faster but damage it. The article suggests that user-regulated voltages for laptop batteries might be a useful way to allow the consumer to decide which is more important to them in their daily useage – faster recharge or longer life.
Always store a Li-ion battery full charged. Not doing so will reduce its lifespan and capacity.
Similarly, it would seem that keeping it connected to a power supply when it is 100% charged is not very wise either.
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I have to disagree with this to an extent, as its preferred to discharge and recharge the first times, as it freshens the cells and calibrates the phone to the battery.
But after this you should recharge it when it's at 30-40%
Also you should not leave a lithium batter fully charged when storing it, but rather have it at 60% and throw it in the refrigerator. This is what i have been doing to all mine batteries, but don't let it freeze though, this will harm the battery!
There's nothing worse than a know-it-all Uni student! If there's a real technician or scientist on the matter I would like to hear their advice.
As I am a mechanical technician I use a variety of battery powered tools all of which are Li-ion, I like to condition all my batteries but for the few that cannot be conditioned due to lack of time those particular batteries are, weaker, last less time and overall die out faster.
Flashmore said:
There's nothing worse than a know-it-all Uni student! If there's a real technician or scientist on the matter I would like to hear their advice.
As I am a mechanical technician I use a variety of battery powered tools all of which are Li-ion, I like to condition all my batteries but for the few that cannot be conditioned due to lack of time those particular batteries are, weaker, last less time and overall die out faster.
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Haha, it's not a Uni student, its batter university, a well known webpage
http://batteryuniversity.com/
Utking said:
Haha, it's not a Uni student, its batter university, a well known webpage
http://batteryuniversity.com/
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I see, so I suppose it just posted this all on its own?
Flashmore said:
I see, so I suppose it just posted this all on its own?
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No this man did: Isidor Buchmann
http://www.cadex.com/about/people.asp
http://www.myistop.com/blogs/greenbatterys/isidor-buchmann-battery
http://nutsvolts.texterity.com/nutsvolts/200612/?folio=58#pg58
I believe i can say i trust him
Are you sure? sounds more like Dracula's side kick, haha
Utking said:
I have to disagree with this to an extent, as its preferred to discharge and recharge the first times, as it freshens the cells and calibrates the phone to the battery.
But after this you should recharge it when it's at 30-40%
Also you should not leave a lithium batter fully charged when storing it, but rather have it at 60% and throw it in the refrigerator. This is what i have been doing to all mine batteries, but don't let it freeze though, this will harm the battery!
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This is exactly what I do. Last time I drained a phone down to 0% it killed the battery and wouldn't hold charge like it used to (was fine before I did it). Was on an old LG. Same thing happened to a friends phone too. From then on I try and tell everyone to never do it as well.
While I'm sure you have your sources, I have to disagree. When I got my vibrant, I didn't condition it at all, battery life was horrible. I bought a new battery (the same one), conditioned it, and it was 10000x better.
But I do agree that batteries have become much greater than they used to be about this.
Batteries are always a fun topic
This comes from rooted phones and batterystats.bin
It's recommended when you flash your new ROM that you turn off the phone. Than fully charge it. And while still charging removing batterystats.bin so your android phone knows 100% and than let it die down so it knows 0%.
I think that is where this all came from.
Flashmore said:
There's nothing worse than a know-it-all Uni student! If there's a real technician or scientist on the matter I would like to hear their advice.
As I am a mechanical technician I use a variety of battery powered tools all of which are Li-ion, I like to condition all my batteries but for the few that cannot be conditioned due to lack of time those particular batteries are, weaker, last less time and overall die out faster.
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Click to collapse
The only thing I'm trying to do is help people from shortening the life of their batteries by listening to people who don't have a clue what they're talking about. Since you seem to spout out that "unconditioned" lithium Ion batteries are weaker, last less time and die out faster...lets see some professional resources from your "know it all" conclusion?
By no means an expert, just putting in my 2cent, i think people seem to mix the ideas of battery conditioning and recalibration. I think it IS useful to recalibrate batteries by draining the battery to 0% so the phone can recognize the accurate battery levels. However in terms of the battery, its always the same and there is no "reconditioning". the drain/recharge cycle is only useful for the PHONE for accurate recognition of battery level.
personally, i havn't bought into the conditioning aspect.. i can afford the $10-$15 it takes to replace a battery when it dies out and i always charge before it is dead (min 30%); (on the sensation so i dont lose temp root) but also because usually it would take 10 minutes or so for it to get enough juice to turn back on (in the iphones/touch's case.. but in any case i had always learnt that NiMH batteries you could drain fully and make sure to fully charge before you use them again; whereas Li-ion you could charge at 30% keep your good life and use the device at the same time pretty simple really
c19932 said:
By no means an expert, just putting in my 2cent, i think people seem to mix the ideas of battery conditioning and recalibration. I think it IS useful to recalibrate batteries by draining the battery to 0% so the phone can recognize the accurate battery levels. However in terms of the battery, its always the same and there is no "reconditioning". the drain/recharge cycle is only useful for the PHONE for accurate recognition of battery level.
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Agreed. From what I've read this hasn't anything to do with battery capacity or memory effect, it's so the phone can calibrate itself correctly to the battery inserted using the batterystats file giving a better indication of peak to zero.
Tacjim said:
The only thing I'm trying to do is help people from shortening the life of their batteries by listening to people who don't have a clue what they're talking about. Since you seem to spout out that "unconditioned" lithium Ion batteries are weaker, last less time and die out faster...lets see some professional resources from your "know it all" conclusion?
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Well you know what they say it takes one to know one!
As well as that I havent "spouted" anything (well not here anyway hehe)
My conclusion is this, dont believe everything you read, what a cliché
Seriously though I already gave my "real" practical know-it-all conclusion so unless you have somethijng to disprove it go and you know what
will fast charging will damage battery.?
I want to use fast charger for Nexus 5. Original charger gives 5.6 volts and 1.2 Ampere output.
Some post I found on xda which shows that fast charging working perfect on nexus 5,
can OP tell me that fast charging will affect battery or not? If it affects then how can I find its getting affected?
Thread which shows nexus 5 fast charging works perfectly.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/goo.../hands-best-fastest-cheapest-nexus-5-t2729066
Hello Guys, i bought a new mugen akku and dunno what´s the best way to calibrate it.
There are a few things that are confusing me:
1.Mugen Instructions: "Never drain battery to 0%"
(but that´s required for calibration, isn´t it?)
2.the battery got its full power after a few charges/discharges
(so would it be better to wait to calibrate the akku when it got its full power?)
So finally, should i wait with calibration or do it at the beginning? I think one time is necessary to let it go down to 0%.
So what are your advice?
thx in advance, l-viz
The way I calibrate mine is to discharge it completely so it turns off by itself (normally happens around 1 or 2%) then plug it into the charger and let it charge completely to 100%. Note that the LED will turn green at 90% .. so its not done yet!
Just my 2 coppers...
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using xda premium
You are just calibrating the battery meter on the phone, not the battery. People constantly abuse the terminology.
You don't need to drain the battery to zero, because the battery meter is not even remotely that accurate in the best of circumstances. Draining to 10 or even 20% is no different than draining to zero.
What CAN happen if you drain to zero, is you you may trip the safety circuit on the battery, and render the battery unable to take a charge, thereby rendering it useless. Its not very likely, and safeguards on the phone are designed to prevent this, but plenty of people on here have had it happen. Full power cycles (draining to zero) also shortens the long term life of the battery. Especially considering there is NO value added to draining the battery to zero, there is no point it doing so intentionally, and taking an unnecessary risk.
Just charge your battery to 100%, let it sit on the charger for a while after full, to make sure its really topped off. Then use the phone until 10-20%. Repeat this a couple times. You can also go into recovery and clear battery stats before you charge/discharge. But I haven't noticed this to make much of a difference.
redpoint73 said:
What CAN happen if you drain to zero, is you you may trip the safety circuit on the battery, and render the battery unable to take a charge, thereby rendering it useless. Its not very likely, and safeguards on the phone are designed to prevent this, but plenty of people on here have had it happen. Full power cycles (draining to zero) also shortens the long term life of the battery. Especially considering there is NO value added to draining the battery to zero, there is no point it doing so intentionally, and taking an unnecessary risk.
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Wow. I didn't know that. Thanks!
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using xda premium
Draining the battery to a literal 0% is almost impossible. Lithium ion batteries do not allow devices to utilize all the juice in a the battery. Once a device shuts off and tell you the battery is "dead", there's actually a bit more juice that is only used by the battery to prevent the battery's level from becoming too low.
Think of it like space partitions in hard drives. While you can use 100% of a single partition in a hard drive. There will still be space left over in the other partition.
Now what mugen means is to not allow the battery to reach the 0% of the ENTIRE battery. In order to make that happen you would have to discharge the battery until your device doesn't turn on and then NOT charge the battery for a very long period of time. I'm talking weeks and months of no charge whatsoever. Other than that, feel free to allow your phone to die and charge it back up. This in conjuction with deleting your battery stats file will speed up the calibration process.
Hope I helped out.
Sent from my HTC Vision using Tapatalk
UnSungHERO420 said:
Draining the battery to a literal 0% is almost impossible. Lithium ion batteries do not allow devices to utilize all the juice in a the battery. Once a device shuts off and tell you the battery is "dead", there's actually a bit more juice that is only used by the battery to prevent the battery's level from becoming too low.
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What is supposed to happen with the failsafes on the device and what ACTUALLY happens unfortunately are not one and the same. There have been plenty of people here that have let their batteries drain to zero, and then the battery will no longer take a charge.
True, the battery is not actually zero voltage. But its low enough that the safety circuit on the battery will prevent it from accepting a charge. The phone is SUPPOSED to prevent the voltage from dipping that low, but it doesn't always work. So the only way to bring the battery back to life, is with a special battery meter with a "boost" function. Since the vast majority of us do not have access to such a thing, the battery is effectively dead, as buying one is likely cheaper and easier than getting access to such a battery meter.
As I've already mentioned, this is unlikely to happen. But its happened to at least a few people with our phone, and I've seen it happen to other XDA users with other devices. No point in playing probabilities, if it happens to you, it sucks and it doesn't matter how "almost impossible" its supposed to be. As I already discussed, the battery meters on phones are not even close to accurate enough to read single, or even 5% battery increments. So draining to zero is not any more beneficial than draining to 10%. No benefit in draining to zero, so why risk it?
I have learned the hard way that discharging lithium ion batteries below 20% is the fastest way to kill them early! (greatly shorten their life)
thanks 4 replies, a lot of useful knowledge
For MB865 in perticular :
1)What difference does it make if you charge from empty to 100% in switched off stage and the same in on state? Which is better?
2)How should we calibrate the battery and how often using which app for unrooted MB865 Asia retail?
3)Also if phone dies (switches off) constantly due to insufficient charge does it harm the battery in terms of cells getting destroyed gradually? Mine dies many times mostly in night due to day usage before I charge in the morning again.
4) Does switching off or switching on the phone while charging have any effect issue on phone or the battery??
Thanks in advance for inputs for all queries.
Calibrating the battery doesn't do anything. I wouldn't even mess with it. Every once in a while, charge your battery to 100% and use it til it dies without charging. That's about it. There isn't a whole lot you can do with you battery to make it better.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using xda premium
tmease1 said:
Calibrating the battery doesn't do anything. I wouldn't even mess with it. Every once in a while, charge your battery to 100% and use it til it dies without charging. That's about it. There isn't a whole lot you can do with you battery to make it better.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using xda premium
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Thanks & I guess it covers #2 of my queries . Can't even begin to describe how much essential my Moto WPS-602-P893 external portable battery pack charger is. I have to add when I first unboxed my Atrix 2 last month (launched only recently in India) the first thing I did without switching it on, was put it on charge for straight 6-7 hours (as I remember having read somewhere that devices are charged 50% from the factory & the initial charge plays an important role in the future performance of the battery. 3G & GPS coupled with some gaming suck the battery dry pronto.
@tmease1 Are you sure? I have read and tested that resetting the battery calibrations in more accurate reporting of what apps are specifically draining your battery.
Charging when your phone is off just makes it charge faster, nothing else.
And from my knowledge of chemistry Lithium-ion batteries (the one in your phone) should not shouldn't be let reach a complete stage of discharge. (I can give you an explanation of you would like). Lithium-ion batteries are very flexible, they can be charged at any point in the cycle but again letting it completely discharge is to be avoided. It shortens the battery life by about half after a year.
farshad525hou said:
@tmease1 Are you sure? I have read and tested that resetting the battery calibrations in more accurate reporting of what apps are specifically draining your battery.
Charging when your phone is off just makes it charge faster, nothing else.
And from my knowledge of chemistry Lithium-ion batteries (the one in your phone) should not shouldn't be let reach a complete stage of discharge. (I can give you an explanation of you would like). Lithium-ion batteries are very flexible, they can be charged at any point in the cycle but again letting it completely discharge is to be avoided. It shortens the battery life by about half after a year.
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I might not be right. From my personal experience what i told him is how i run my phone. I use to be the king of trying out new things to improve battery life. I would try anything. I use to calibrate my battery after ever flash and honestly have not seen any difference since i stopped. You would think that calibrating it would do more harm than good after awhile. Google at one time said that it wasn't necessary. I don't really know for sure what to tell anyone to do. I gave up on battery up keep awhile ago. I got sick of messing with it and just carried an extra charger.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using xda premium
Whenever I flash a different ROM I reset battery in CWM. Other than that, I'll run the battery down all the way at least once a month then recharge to 100%.
Sent from my MB865 using Tapatalk 2
Thanks for all your thoughts and inputs guys.
@Farshad could u please share method for resetting the battery calibration. Just want to give it a whirl to see my experience. I am unrooted on MB865.
Not agreeing or disagreeing with either side. But here is what Battery University says.
How to Prolong Lithium-based Batteries - Battery University
Similar to a mechanical device that wears out faster with heavy use, so also does the depth of discharge (DoD) determine the cycle count. The smaller the depth of discharge, the longer the battery will last. If at all possible, avoid frequent full discharges and charge more often between uses. If full discharges cannot be avoided, try utilizing a larger battery. Partial discharge on Li-ion is fine; there is no memory and the battery does not need periodic full discharge cycles other than to calibrate the fuel gauge on a smart battery.
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Also you actually cannot completely discharge li on batteries. Doing so royally screws them up. So devices now that use them have a circuit which kicks in when they reach a minimum level telling the device to shut off.
Sent from something off of star trek
RAD7 said:
Thanks for all your thoughts and inputs guys.
@Farshad could u please share method for resetting the battery calibration. Just want to give it a whirl to see my experience. I am unrooted on MB865.
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Yeah, all you have to do is boot into CWM. Go to advanced, and there should be an option to wipte battery stats. Alternatively you could download an app just search "battery stats wiper" or something of that sort in play store.
How long should I let the battery run down before I charge it again?
After I've installed all the apps I want and need, I charge my phone to a 100% then I let it run untill it shutsdown due to lack of power.
After that, I charge whenever I feel like it. Sometimes, if I suspect something is wrong with my battery, I repeat the process. I think that's maybe once in two/three months. Usually a bad flash, or some program with a bad update.
There is no need to drain the battery. If I don't need to I don't charge my battery at night (not with more than 40% and a charger at work).
In fact, completely killing li-ion batteries will reduce their life.
Killing batteries completely and charging them back up applied to NiCD etc batteries - older batteries... not modern ones.
Don't kill li-ion batteries, it is not good for them!
You can't kill them. Not in these phone's. They're always protected, which is also why they shutdown. Your phone will boot at least 10 times after a forcefull shutdown (I tried ). So no need to worry, the battery protection in Motorola's work just fine.
After flashing a new ROM you should always recalibrate your battery by using one of many free apps (I use "Battery Calibration") that will wipe the battery stats. If you start to notice big dips in your battery % for no apparent reason or your phone stays on much longer than it should have with only 1% battery then you're probably needing another calibration.
Basically you'll charge your phone to 100% then take it down to 0 then charge back to 100% without interruption.
I have noticed my meter is much more accurate if I do this after each flash (though I'm too lazy to as I am on nightlies so I do it about once a week).