I have my battery placed on my right side. If you were to draw an imaginary line from my belly button over to my right side, it would be an inch or so higher than that. I have the rechargeable one. I am paranoid to let it go down too far because it can only be "jump started" once. I am told if it drains completely a second time, it would need to be replaced with a new battery. Medtronics told me to recharge when it got to about 1/4 left of battery so I don't believe you have to wait until it's low on battery life to recharge. I personally recharge between 1/4 - 1/2. I find that it takes about anywhere from 1 - 1 1/2 hours to recharge. I tend to do it either when watching one of my weekly nighttime shows or when I'm on the computer. I do have to be mindfull to watch my movement as the more bars you have the quicker it will charge. (Like a phone and the number of bars for better reception.) I find that after 1 1/2 hours it does start getting uncomfortable with warmth and just an overall feeling of "weirdness". (Great terminology I know!) I don't quite know how to explain it other than I feel this need to stop. As far as the life of the battery that I have, I believe it is about 10 years.

I hope that helps a little bit. Hang in there!