How to Properly Take Care of a Phone Battery?

[salmanahmad]

Recently I've been seeing a lot of posts here about people saying that you shouldn't let your battery discharge below 40%.

Though I dismissed most of these posts as myths in the first place I've done some research and different places come up with different answers.

My laptop, a Sony VAIO came with these settings:



And my best guess is that the best way to take care of your battery is to not let it charge to a 100%(as VAIO says) and not let it fall below 40%(as some people here say).

My phone has a non removable battery and I want to last it for long. Suggestions?

 

[zorak950]

Frankly, well-designed and -built lithium ion batteries are resilient enough that you shouldn't worry too much. It's true that it's best not to drain them to empty (or near empty), or to overcharge them (though they have circuitry to prevent that, so it's oversold that you shouldn't leave your device on a charger), and they don't like shallow charging cycles or extreme temperatures, and any number of other things, but let us not forget these devices are meant to make our lives easier: obsessing over their care isn't really worth it. They're designed to tolerate all kinds of use cases, so I'd tend to say just use as much of the battery as you need when you need it, and charge it when you can, and you'll be fine.

 

[AxlMyk]

I use my phone until it gets to 15%,then plug it into the external battery or charger.
No matter where the battery reads at night, it gets plugged into the charger.
These are not NiCad batteries.

AC App on SGS3

 

[zorak950]

There are always all kinds of opinions about prolonging battery life but there are no authoritative ones.

I beg to differ: this isn't an opinion type thing, it's a matter of fact and fiction. I admit that it's not always easy to separate the two, but some tips are backed up by science and empirical evidence and some aren't.

Not to put anyone down for having wrong information (it happens to me often enough), but there is wrong and right on this topic.

 

[LeoRex]

The way I look at it is....

I've always had good luck with Lithium batteries... I've gotten rid of phones before battery degradation became a problem. So I am going to discount any notion that I've just always had awesome batteries.... I chalk it up to my particular usage and charging habits lend themselves to long lasting batteries.

1) I charge early and often. I rarely let my phone drop to low levels... under 40%... and very rarely have I beat one down until it turned off. If I am near a charger, I'll charge it. It's not like I am doing it to save my battery, I'm just doing it because I can.

2) I don't let it sit at 100%. The power supplies will throttle things and drop into a trickle charge when they register a full charge. The Nexus 6 charges bloody fast, so I never really got into a situation where I had to leave it on a charger overnight. Even if I pop it on a charger when I wake up, by the time take care of the three Sh's, its ready for a full day's use.

So near as I can figure... what I am doing is working.

Oh.... and I'm pretty sure that every one of these phones cuts out at a voltage level that is significantly higher than where LiPos would be at the risk of long term damage or shortened life. I think I seem to recall the low point around 3.7v or something.... that's a long ways away from where these batteries are over-depleted (going off the 4.3V top end, the 'here be dragons' line is high 2's). The reason why these phones cut out, from what I can see, is that the voltage probably gets to the point where the power supplies can no longer adequately provide consistent power to the phone.... those processors and chips no like-y wibbly-wobbly power....

 

[salmanahmad]

The way I look at it is....

I've always had good luck with Lithium batteries... I've gotten rid of phones before battery degradation became a problem. So I am going to discount any notion that I've just always had awesome batteries.... I chalk it up to my particular usage and charging habits lend themselves to long lasting batteries.

1) I charge early and often. I rarely let my phone drop to low levels... under 40%... and very rarely have I beat one down until it turned off. If I am near a charger, I'll charge it. It's not like I am doing it to save my battery, I'm just doing it because I can.

2) I don't let it sit at 100%. The power supplies will throttle things and drop into a trickle charge when they register a full charge. The Nexus 6 charges bloody fast, so I never really got into a situation where I had to leave it on a charger overnight. Even if I pop it on a charger when I wake up, by the time take care of the three Sh's, its ready for a full day's use.

So near as I can figure... what I am doing is working.

Oh.... and I'm pretty sure that every one of these phones cuts out at a voltage level that is significantly higher than where LiPos would be at the risk of long term damage or shortened life. I think I seem to recall the low point around 3.7v or something.... that's a long ways away from where these batteries are over-depleted (going off the 4.3V top end, the 'here be dragons' line is high 2's). The reason why these phones cut out, from what I can see, is that the voltage probably gets to the point where the power supplies can no longer adequately provide consistent power to the phone.... those processors and chips no like-y wibbly-wobbly power....

Thank you for the information you've provided.

Oh and by the way I would advise against using quick chargers, not an extremely good idea.

 

[cherrybean]

:-X Thank you, very helpful post. Really need to take care of the phone battery.

 

[mohit9206]

My phone battery life has become worse since i bought it 3 months ago. I wonder if its because i let my phone overcharge sometimes and only charge when battery goes to 10% or less. Its a sealed battery (Moto E).

 

[scipper77]

As I understand it, you have to watch out for heat. If you are a power gamer and you have a rapid charging system the battery will likely see a quick performance drop off. I'm sorry that I don't have any science to back that up.

I do however have a removable battery ans $20. So I'm not going to worry about my use. My S5 goes on the charger at night and that's it. It's rare that the charge ever goes below 30% even with heavy use.

 

[2Hard]

Agree! The heat is the main degradation factor.