Is it bad for phone battery to be dead for too long?

SpookDroid

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"Too long" would be months before you saw any noticeable decrease in capacity. Days is OK and considered in the battery's protection circuitry (no battery is truly dead dead by the time your phone can't power on).
 

fuzzylumpkin

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Yeah, fully discharging is one of the worst things you can do to a battery.

It'll probably be fine if it's happened, but I would avoid it if you can.
 

mustang7757

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You dont want it to go into a deep sleep like that sometimes the phone doesn't wake up compared to battery at 80% then turning off .
 

Shellcracker

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Is everyone still only charging to 85%?

I went back to 100%

Yeah I'm going to use the full battery. They sold me 3700 mAh of battery(realistically about 3590 according to GSAM) so I am going to charge it to full power. Especially considering a bit yearly upgrade schedule. Even if it does degrade the battery over time, I see no sense wasting 15%.

The one thing that irks me though is if I do let it get to 5% that last 5 will drop almost like a literally countdown so I run from 100% down to 6%.
 

holz75

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Yeah I'm going to use the full battery. They sold me 3700 mAh of battery(realistically about 3590 according to GSAM) so I am going to charge it to full power. Especially considering a bit yearly upgrade schedule. Even if it does degrade the battery over time, I see no sense wasting 15%.

The one thing that irks me though is if I do let it get to 5% that last 5 will drop almost like a literally countdown so I run from 100% down to 6%.

I'm all for charging to 100% because I don't believe in the 80% thing. I will say though that discharging to 6% is probably not a good idea, and I'd imagine others here wouldn't recommend it either.
 

J Dubbs

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I'm all for charging to 100% because I don't believe in the 80% thing. I will say though that discharging to 6% is probably not a good idea, and I'd imagine others here wouldn't recommend it either.

Yep going from 100% to 6% every day is the absolute hardest thing there is on a battery (next to running it completely dead). That will give you the shortest battery life by far... but if someone trades in their phone every year they'll still be okay. 2 years though would be a stretch. That's why some folks can get 4 years out of the same phone, while others only make it 18 months.
 

Golfdriver97

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I'm pretty sure it's bad for that. I have a Nexus that does not hold a charge well anymore because it is dead for so long.

As for me, I charge to 85%, but I also keep my phones a little longer than 2 years. My current phone is the 5a (late purchase), the 3, and the original. When I start noticing a difference in battery longevity is when I start shopping for a new phone.
 

J Dubbs

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I'm pretty sure it's bad for that. I have a Nexus that does not hold a charge well anymore because it is dead for so long.

As for me, I charge to 85%, but I also keep my phones a little longer than 2 years. My current phone is the 5a (late purchase), the 3, and the original. When I start noticing a difference in battery longevity is when I start shopping for a new phone.

I'm currently using a pixel 3XL, and before that an original pixel. I still use my original pixel to sync my Fitbit with, and the battery has definitely lost some life, but it would still get me through a day if I had to use it. I picked up my pixel 3XL brand new, but over 2 years old. When I took it out of the box to set it up and put it on the charger, it had 0% battery charge. I thought uh oh.. I'd never seen a new phone with zero battery charge, but I'd also never opened a 2+ year old brand new phone before :eek: It charged up and has been working perfectly though.. battery doesn't seem to be hurt at all.

I suspect that brand new batteries that have never been put into use can better take sitting dead longer than used batteries. I have a brand new spare Fitbit Surge that I picked up cheap on clearance, that I think's a little over 10 years old, possibly more. I'm going to be setting it up in the coming days, I'm thinking the battery should be okay... what's your guys predictions? It should be an interesting experiment. Then I'll move on to my Daydream headset which was a free promo gift that I've never opened, it's probably about the same age as the Fitbit... I would be surprised if it doesn't work just fine, but you never know ;)
 

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