Should You Charge Your Phone to 100%?

Battery degradation is inevitable. Even if you don’t do anything to the power source, it will gradually wear off. However, certain factors can speed this process up when you use it. This means that you can influence the life cycle of your battery by modifying your behavior.

There are many battery types. The rules to follow to prolong the power source life cycle will mostly depend on what is right, for one can be bad for another. As a result, various charging myths spreading on the internet can deteriorate battery performance should you put them into practice regularly.

You will hardly notice any difference if you buy the smartphone to resell it in a few months. However, if you use it for two-three years, degradation can be pronounced. Let’s have a look at the best practices to follow to prolong your battery lifespan.

When should you charge your phone?

A smartphone is designed to serve for one-two years. After this period, you will probably buy yourself a new one too:

• get a new technology that wasn’t available at the time of purchase,
• be able to use new Android or iOS version,
• enjoy new, up-to-date hardware – cameras, processor, etc.,
• have a better-looking device.

If you have a new phone every year – there is no reason to bother about charging behaviors. You will hardly notice any difference in a lithium-ion battery (most commonly used type nowadays) in the short term, continue doing your thing. There is one main advice for the rest of the people – avoid charging for extended periods (for example, overnight). Long cycles speed the degradation process up, use shorter ones instead.

The cycles and their duration will depend on your daily routine. Find long enough gaps during which you have access to the outlet. For example, you can charge in the morning after waking up before going to work.

How often should you charge your phone?

Have you heard the term “memory” regarding the phone battery? If you use a lithium-ion power source, you can forget about it. This means that you can charge it whenever you want – at 20, 60, or 80 percent, and you will never notice any capacity loss connected to this. Smartphone manufacturers have various technical ways to avoid overcharging so that you do not have to worry about this factor.

Feel free to top the battery up as often as you want. However, you should not:

• discharge up to zero percent,
• charge up to 100%.

When you store a phone or a battery, charge it up to half of the capacity and keep this way to avoid premature aging. This leads us to the conclusion that we should not leave fully charged battery for long.

What you should never do

Certain things sufficiently shorten battery life. To avoid deteriorating it prematurely, don’t:

1. Leave it somewhere very cold or hot. Keep in mind that heat is the worst battery enemy – don’t charge (or leave) it in your car on a sunny day.
2. Use fast charge for long as it generates excessive heat. Always take off the covers – especially the thick ones.
3. Completely discharge or fully top up.
4. Use smartphone much when it fuels up. Power it off if you can. Looking notifications or moderate browsing is fine.

Smartphones were created to make our lives easier, not harder. There is no reason to bother much about the charging rules since you will probably never use the same device for over two years. New technologies emerge very fast and are quite often used for marketing purposes. The manufacturer will rarely update OS for old devices to make you buy a new one. If you still wish to prevent your battery from aging, follow simple rules described in this article. This way, you will make sure you are making most of your battery.

Charging your phone’s battery to 100% from a low 25% — or pretty much any amount — can reduce its capacity and shorten its lifespan.

According to Battery University, lithium-ion batteries do “not need to be fully charged, nor is it desirable to do so.”

“In fact, it is better not to fully charge,” it says, “because a high voltage stresses the battery” and wears it out in the long run.

Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/the-best-way-to-charge-your-smartphone-2018-1

FAQ

Conclusion

Thanks to the built-in phone protection mechanisms, charging automatically stops if the battery is charged to 100%. This is not harmful to the phone, but there is some risk. You can charge your phone up to 100%, but it’s not desirable. In most cases, it is recommended that you charge the battery to 80-90%.

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