G4 charges really really slow when in use with screen on

[dpham00]

I was using the g4 for basic tasks - browsing, Tapatalk, email, and hangouts and it went up 3-4% in 20 minutes. In comparison, my zf2 went up 41% in the same time. Also when used as navigation the g4 sometimes won't even go up a single percentage in the same time.


Sent from my Verizon LG G4

 

[dpham00]

Zf2



Sent from my Verizon LG G4

 

[anon(782252)]

Charging is definitely being restricted by heat. LG needs to tweak it. That ZF2 is allowing 4 times the mA at 20 degrees higher temp.

 

[TheMarcus]

I kind of feel like this "more efficient screen" that LG touted for the G4 is actually less efficient than that of the G3.

Sent from my LG-H811 using Tapatalk

 

[maybish]

Yep I noticed this too from the beginning. You can't use this and get a quick charge at the same time.

Sent from my VS986 using Tapatalk

 

[KPMcClave]

Even with it just sitting on the desk with the clock displayed while charging it is noticeably slower to charge.

 

[RedOctobyr]

Charging is definitely being restricted by heat. LG needs to tweak it. That ZF2 is allowing 4 times the mA at 20 degrees higher temp.

+1.

The slow charging with the screen on is the most obvious symptom. But keep the phone cool (I used an air conditioner for my test), and it can still charge at about 1500mA with the screen on, at full brightness. My thread with my temperature/charge current testing results:

http://forums.androidcentral.com/lg-g4/540551-slow-charging-apparently-related-temperature-warm-slow.html

The problem is that once the battery reaches about 90F, the phone throttles the charge current down to about 300mA. And in the summer, it doesn't take much at all to get the battery to 90F.

As tourbound129 said, the other phone's battery is 20F warmer, and that phone is *still* allowing 2200mA of charge current.

The stock LG charger for the G4 likely can't achieve that much current even best-case (phone turned off), as it's only a 1.8A charger. But even with that aside, in the summer, the phone won't stay cool enough to allow the ~1500mA charge rate, if you're using the phone, and you have the screen on. It would seem that a software change could relax these rules. Raise the 300mA-charge-throttling temperature, maybe to 110F, something like that.

If you're in the car, and you need to use navigation, then you may not have the option of turning the screen off, etc. And you can see your charge % stay the same, or even drop slowly, which seems pretty disappointing to me.

 

[maybish]

I'm starting to see a common thread. Do you think this is something they did on purpose? Something overlooked? Something they didn't think would be a problem? I came from the Samsung s3. The phone started doing this during the last year I had the phone. Other than that it worked great and so did my Droid x prior to the s3.

Sent from my VS986 using Tapatalk

 

[RedOctobyr]

My guess is it's something done on purpose, and which they didn't think would be a problem. Maybe the limit is intentional, but they simply set it overly-aggressively.

It *is* good to manage the lithium-based battery's temperature. Too hot, and you'll degrade the battery more quickly. And WAY too hot, and you could get into a fire situation.

But in my opinion, the system needs to strike a balance. Everything is a trade-off. Say they limit the charge current to keep the battery below 90F, and this provides 15% more battery cycles than letting it reach 100F. Some users would prefer that. But other users (like me) would prefer to be able to charge faster during the day, when I may also need the screen on.

It's a removable battery, so even if the battery life is degraded somewhat, it can easily be completely replaced if required. This, to me, should justify being a bit more aggressive with charging the battery.

Aside: I have gone back to my S3 for now, from my G4. The G4 got me paying attention to charge current. I've noticed that the charge current on my S3 is quite low, the highest I've seen (screen off) is about 700-900mA. For a 2100mA battery, that's 2.3-3 hours to charge fully. My S3 battery temperature has been as high as 112F recently, during use in the car while charging. The phone & battery are 2.5 years old; at this point the battery life is certainly not great, but it's still serviceable.

 

[BBSeattle]

I notice this mostly when wireless charging in the car. If I have Pandora or Nav on while in the charging dock it literally sits at the same percentage.
If I plug into the USB it will charge while these apps are on but very slowly. It acts similar to my G3 charging characteristics so I guess I am not alarmed or concerned.