1 Always charge your device before leaving home, especially on long trips. 2  Bring the charger with you if you are going away overnight, or for an extended period of time. 3  While the iPad battery is slated to last up to 10 hours, frequent use will shorten this time dramatically. Repeatedly draining your battery completely (called a “deep discharge”) can shorten the life span of the battery. 2  So, if you use your iPad until the battery fails, you will get more use of your iPad on this particular charge, but you will reduce the number of times you can recharge your iPad’s battery.