A charge cycle is the process of
charging Charging may refer to:
* Charging (ice hockey), when a player takes more than three steps before checking an opposing player
* Battery charger, a device used to put energy into a rechargeable battery
* Charging station, a device used for rechargi ...
a
rechargeable battery
A rechargeable battery, storage battery, or secondary cell (formally a type of Accumulator (energy), energy accumulator), is a type of electrical battery which can be charged, discharged into a load, and recharged many times, as opposed to ...
and discharging it as required into a
load
Load or LOAD may refer to:
Aeronautics and transportation
*Load factor (aeronautics), the ratio of the lift of an aircraft to its weight
*Passenger load factor, the ratio of revenue passenger miles to available seat miles of a particular transpo ...
. The term is typically used to specify a battery's expected life, as the number of charge cycles affects life more than the mere passage of time. Discharging the battery fully before recharging may be called "deep discharge"; partially discharging then recharging may be called "shallow discharge".
A "charge cycle" is not a unit of time; the length of time spent charging or discharging does not affect the number of charge cycles.
Each battery is affected differently by charge cycles.
In general, number of cycles for a rechargeable battery indicates how many times it can undergo the process of complete charging and discharging until failure or starting to lose capacity.
Apple Inc.
Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company b ...
clarifies that a charge cycle means using all the battery's capacity, but not necessarily by discharging it from 100% to 0%: "You complete one charge cycle when you’ve used (discharged) an amount that equals 100% of your battery’s capacity — but not necessarily all from one charge. For instance, you might use 75% of your battery’s capacity one day, then recharge it fully overnight. If you use 25% the next day, you will have discharged a total of 100%, and the two days will add up to one charge cycle."
Batteries - Why Lithium-ion? - Apple
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See also
* Deep cycle battery
A deep-cycle battery is a battery designed to be regularly deeply discharged using most of its capacity. The term is traditionally mainly used for lead–acid batteries in the same form factor as automotive batteries; and contrasted with starte ...
References
Battery charging
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