Stop Charging your Phone Overnight!

What’s worse for your phone: Fast Charging and Qi Wireless Charging, or plugging your phone in overnight and charging to 100%? Also a quick look at the Anker PowerWave 7.5!

Buy Anker PowerWave:

Intro Screen Music Credit:
Title: Laszlo - Supernova

[KRPT]

Just leave your phone off all the time and it'll last years.

[g]

I don't think you should care about your phone's battery, care about your teeth instead. You have only one set of adult teeth and fixing just one dead tooth can cost more than an iPhone XR Max. You have been warned.

[nikolai]

"what did you do at work today?"
"Got stuffed into a car with the rest of my coworkers"

[josephperez]

Imagine a wireless charger that knocks your phone off when it's at 100% lmao.

[Yorenzo]

Life’s too short to be worrying about a god damn battery life.

[PopStrikers]

If I stay between 25-80%, I'm only getting 55% of my battery capacity, which is the equivalent of massive battery health degradation done on purpose from day one, so I don't really see the point.

[nikobreun]

Or buy a Nokia 3310, charge it one time and never again.

[CKTDanny]

I wish we didn't move away from easily user replaceable batteries

[hawkeye]

Hi, Electrical Engineer here. You can't charge a battery on a voltage it doesn't discharge, it doesn't work that way. Batteries only accept the voltage they discharge. Stepping down a voltage, as you would from the wall power, steps up the current proportionately, since it has to follow Ohm's Law. From the wall, power is usually stepped down to 5V, which is the USB voltage rating. By stepping the voltage down by a factor of 24 (in the US), you are stepping up the current by a factor of 24, which is something no charging cable could handle so current is then limited to something reasonable like 2A. However, in the phone it must be stepped back up to the discharge voltage of the battery. In my S7, that voltage is (drum roll) 9V. By stepping the voltage back up by a factor of 1.8, you reduce the current by a factor of 1.8, leaving you with a charging current of 1.11A. By giving the phone a voltage that is already something the battery can accept, you can charge it without reducing current significantly. A fast charger for my S7 would supply 9V at 1.8A, and the difference in current results in faster charging.

Additionally, phones have had a little feature for literally years now that actually prevents reaching a 100% charge for any protracted length of time. If such a battery level is reached, the phone begins discharging, even while plugged in, to reduce the charge level to something closer to a safe level. Further in the favor of the battery, modern batteries, last I checked, have safe charge/discharge levels between about 90% and 20%, with the ideal level for long-term storage being around 50%. I wouldn't quote me on those numbers, though.

Furthermore, the only batteries I would expect to be damaged from heat are cheap ones found on some Chinese section of Amazon or in an Apple phone. The heat is not caused directly by current flowing through the battery, but rather by the chemical reaction within the battery itself. Lithium-based batteries operate off of a chemical reaction that creates an ion drift from one pole to the other, and this reaction generates gas and heat. Coincidentally, this reaction becomes significantly more efficient at higher temperatures, but can be limited by limiting current. Modern phones have such current limiting capabilities, and good quality batteries are sturdy enough to withstand the heat generated by normal charging and discharging. Again, the only batteries I would worry about are cheap ones, and those can be deadly dangerous since lithium is one of the most reactive elements on the table.

[swisstraeng]

first of all : when an OS says the battery is at 100%, it is never FULL.
Second : The battery has protection circuits, which will anyway limit the battery charge to not make it vent out.
third : the worst with lithium batteries is to keep it discharged.
4th, lithium DO dislike being fully charged, but there is NO WAY to know if your battery is really fully charged when your phone says so.
5th : What lithium batteries hate the most is heat. Which is why I highly recommend avoiding gaming on modern phones, while they can do it, they heat up which in the long term will reduce the battery's life.
The worse thing to do is to charge the phone WHILE playing, as it gets even hotter. But keep in mind it will not kill the battery directly...
6th your battery WILL get used. Deal with it. No magic tricks exist to make it last forever, and honnestly, if you're having battery problems, try disactivating bluetooth, wifi, anything you can if you don't use your phone. Also screen brightness changes things a lot.

[fg]

I clicked this video knowing it wouldn't change my mind

[echofunandgames]

The phone should automatically stop charging at full battery and start charging again when it's replugged.

[robertf]

Speaking of premature death, Tunnelbear

[FatMan]

"non-replaceable" **laughs in Galaxy S5**

[samic]

The truth is Lithium ion battery degrades just by existing.

[Southmuzik]

Nah man. I need my phone at 100% before I go to work lol

[TheHeroofCourage]

Keep this in mind, though. Over 2 years by charging up to 100% and then back down without worrying, you'll lose on average about 20% - so your battery health will be ~80%, but usually better. By only charging 60-80% to keep its health... you're essentially sitting at how much charge you'd have lost over the years anyway. It's not too much of a worry at all.

[MeepMeep]

So our smart phone isn't smart enough to stop charging at a certain percentage?

[AceNallawar]

Ions are huge, dude. You cannot transport ions through a wire, unless it's a salt bridge.

Electrons get transferred.

[MISTER_CEO]

Tldr using your phone in any way reduces battery health. In other news grass is green and water is wet.