The M1 unit came with 2 rechargeable lithium batteries. How long will one battery last approximately ? Is there a number of hours recommended before swapping to the second fully charged battery?
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This depends on the protocol (higher frequencies draw more battery power) and the intensity setting (higher settings drain batteries faster). The M1 can run up to 6 or 8 hours on one battery charge, sometimes, but my advice, to get the best performance from a system operating at full power:
1-Always keep one battery on charge, ready to use.
2-Change batteries FREQUENTLY, every hour or two, whenever you think of it. The swap is designed to only take a few seconds, so swapping to get a fresh battery basically every time you think of it is a good practice.
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That’s good advice!
I run my batteries dead every day multiple times. I’m thinking I might need a third battery. I fall asleep at night with the M1 running. I’ve found using the 4 coil attachment draws significant energy and the batteries go dead much faster. It’s just a good idea to make sure that the second unused battery is fully charged at all times.
Thanks! This is exactly the information I needed to know. About to try the M1 for the first time.
I’m running my M1 24/7 and always have several batteries charged up to allow me to swap them every hour or two, as Bob recommends. However, I’ve noticed that, after some time, these D-L188s become “fatter” and eventually fail to hold a charge for long enough, so I’m wondering if there’s a device that would allow me to monitor the batteries’ capacity so that I can ditch them before they reach the point of being unable to hold a good charge for the hour or two that I use them.
Well, the truth is that lithium batteries go bad generally much sooner than the manufacturers advertise. I have done everything I can to extend battery life, by limiting power surges from the power source, which accelerates battery degeneration for example. But the truth is that after a few hundred cycles, even lithium batteries start to go bad. The number of cycles varies by manufacturing batch, some good manufacturers occasionally turn out a bad batch, and there is really no way to detect this until batteries start failing. But here is what I do:
1- As soon as the batteries start to get a noticeable bulge, their internal chemistry is damaged, so they are on the brink of failure. Pay closer attention when you use batteries that have developed a bulge.
2- When you use batteries with a bulge, take note of how well they perform after a fresh charge. If they have a noticeably shorter life, or if they seem to have gone flat after just an hour of use (or less), then its time to replace that battery with a new one.
I did my best to find readily available, inexpensive lithium batteries for the M1, so replacements should not be excessively expensive or hard to find.
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