Cell phone battery question; won't hold charge...

Good evening,
OK, here is my problem: The cell phone battery was getting old (about two years) and I ordered 3 new OEM Li-Ion batteries for me and family. I fully charged the battery (overnight) and the battery lasts less than 24 hours even with little or no talk or texting. This is true for the lady's phone as well. True after 3-4 charges. Ordered another set of batteries from a different vendor, same story. Ordered a 3rd set yet from another vendor, same story. The 3rd set says 100% tested. I tried charging on the car charger and the computer USB port to no avail. Ironically, the original battery lasts 24-30 hours, and it used to last 3-4 days on standby...

Do batteries degrade over time? (if say they were produced 3 years ago and sat there?) Does the phone's charging ability diminish over time? (even if it says charge complete?) I am happy with our phones and do not want to replace them, do I have another option? Is there a way to test a battery's charge? (I do have a digital meter).
Sal.

I went through the same thing once a few phones ago turns out it was the phone. I left the battery out for a few hours and when I finally put the batt back in everything worked fine, my brother had the same phone same issue left his bat out for awhile and it fixed his also. May want to see if there is an update for it.

+1 to Ed's suggestion. Also, check to see if GPS and Bluetooth is enabled (if it's a smart phone). These services will constantly run and suck down the battery (even if you're not using the phone).

Batteries definitely degrade over time and also with abuse. Most telephones and their chargers go to great lengths to avoid abusing (shutting down before they are completely dead which can be bad for it) and charging too rapidly. Excessive heat can still be a problem as are certain charging screwups (like continually restarting the charging cycle by using a charger that gets turned on and off a lot).

If a replacement battery doesn't hold a charge either, then I'd begin to wonder about the things Greg points out. For example, there are some particularly onerous features that sound innocuous when you turn them on ("do you want to help Apple improve software in case of crashes") that can insidiously cause late night transmissions when the phone calls home. Also make sure that you kill any location services that run the GPS (another power hog) while using certain apps.

I know at times my carrier seems to cut back the power as I will not get a signal where I normally get 3 or 4 bars. Other people that I know also have the same problem. It is like a brown out

Did you recently switch from 3G to 4G? If the phone is not in a 4G zone, it may be constantly searching for 4G and rapidly depleting the battery. More generally speaking, if the phone is warm, even when you are not using it, then some app is running in the background and rapidly draining the power.

If they are just regular phones, bluetooth will drain them.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Myk Rian

If they are just regular phones, bluetooth will drain them.

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Yup, my experience is about half the time between charges with bluetooth enabled but no connected vs. with bluetooth off.

If you've got a smart phone, it could also be that you've got some app running that's constantly communicating on the network too, using more power.

Thank you all for your feedback. I tried Ed's suggestion to no avail. My phone is not a "smart phone" (it is Samsung Intensity.) It has no GPS; I will check the bluetooth function.
Sal.