Battery myths. It is OK to leave your phone plugged in over night.

[gorgalis]

Sorry to bring back such an old thread, however today I replaced the battery in my 3 year old Nexus 4. The Tech that did it for me showed me the old battery. It is bulging quite substantially but didn't burst. His question to me was do you keep the phone charging all night? My answer was every night for 3 years.

In 2 Days I will be replacing the battery of my wife's Nexus 4. If it too has a bulging battery that will be enough evidence for me that constantly charging is detrimental for the battery.

Posted via the Android Central App

Finding that the battery has a bulge has nothing to do with whether or not it was charged every night. I recently found my old Blackberry in a desk drawer that I haven't seen in years and the battery had a huge bulge in it. It has not been on a charger in at least three years and I know for sure that it was not that way the last time I used it. It just happens over time, if it is bulged, it has more to do with the battery being three years old than nightly charges.

 

[Double Tap]

Please keep us posted on the result of your wife's battery...

I had my wife's phone battery replaced today and much to my surprise the battery appears completely normal.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Jimomg]

I have left my s5 on the charger over night, every night since July. And have no battery issues.

The same with my s3 i had for 2 years with no problems

Posted via the Android Central App

This is what the deal is... on older phones (10 yrs. ago or so) or just about anything electronic it was probably not a good idea to leave you "stuff" charging all night. But technology has done away with this year's ago. I leave all my things charging all night. Phone, laptop and watch never had a problem. Now some people will still not believe this and will call their carrier or the company that made their product, and ask them the same question. If you speak to someone that just got their job and has no idea what they are talking about they will tell you not to leave things charging over night. SPEAK TO A TECH OR A SUPERVISOR.

 

[ATOMICANTMAN]

I have a bunch or LIPO RC car batterys and seems like 1 out of every two will bulge. I have a top line chager and only balance charge them so I am at a loss why it happens. I have never seen a phone or tablet battery bulge yet. I keep my Notepro 12.2 plugged in 24/7 since I bought it a couple years ago. No problems with it at all so far.

 

[Sarah0516]

My own story:

I always leave my main phone and my tablet charging overnight, never have had a problem.

I have a Samsung Galaxy S5 which I got shortly after the model was released, and which was my main phone for about a year. I used it heavily, and charged it overnight every night, not a single problem.

I then got a new phone which became my new, and the S5 became my secondary phone, which I kept for emergencies and also for using for other stuff. But I didn't use it much for a few months, and left it mostly off. I then set up a makeshift home monitoring system, and used that phone pointed at an entry. So it was on all the time, running the app, ready to spring into action and catch video. So I kept it constantly plugged in.

Then I got bored with that system and shut it down. Got another new phone, so the S5 became just another extra phone around, without service, just wifi app usage capabilities. Left it shut off most of the time for a few months.

Yesterday I came up with a new fun use for it (remote control for my harmony hub!!) so I powered it on, installed new app, etc. I realized that it needed an update for just about every app, would take hours, and the battery power was low, so I started the updates and left it plugged in charging, and went to bed. This morning I went to it and the screen was on, not sure why, but anyway I unplugged, and played with the phone for a while. Everything was working, all apps were updated, controlling Harmony hub nicely, etc. I set it aside and did other things for a while, then I looked over at it and noticed something didn't look "right". The screen was not tucked into the case and when I tried I couldn't get it to go. Weird, I didn't notice that before - did it just happen?? And the phone seemed a bit thicker. So I got concerned and took it to a table away from couch etc. Opened up the back and the battery was bulging quite a bit. Well, I'm no expert, but that seems like a bad thing, so I removed the bulging battery, put it in a safe place and will recycle ASAP, ordered a new battery, will wait on that to get it going again.

So, all the normal charging overnight for a year never hurt it. Leaving it constantly plugged in running an app never hurt it. But after all that, leaving it charged overnight (like I always used to!) and finally things get scary. So, I guess as a general rule leaving it charging overnight may not be bad, but maybe age of battery and lots of use can lead to it eventually wearing out. I'm not going to stop charging my main phone (S7) overnight, but I definitely will be careful with my older phones.

 

[pduffer]

How low did the battery get before you decided to use it again? That might be why it bulged when charging fully after deciding to use it again.

 

[datum9]

I'm not going to dispute the points you've posted and really appreciate the time you've spent to help others, but the one time I did leave my note 4 connected to the fast charger overnight I got a notification to disconnect the phone...something to the effect of "battery at 100% disconnect from charger". I have not seen this when connected to my laptop or desktop. I don't think my phone will explode but isn't this some warning from Samsung related to their batteries, perhaps?

Since then I prefer to charge my phone in the morning as I get ready to leave. It charges up full quickly and doesn't stay on the fast charger past an hour at most.

Posted via the Android Central App

The only place for fast charging that I see is when you need to charge urgently. Like in an airport or such. You are pumping 1 Amp to the phone battery, which is stressful for it, it cannot be good for it. I've dealt with Li-Ion batteries for years, mostly cylindrical like 18650 but the same exact same concepts apply to flat ones in smart phones.
You want to charge at low Amps like 100 mAh and overnight. It's gentle on the battery and does not overheat it.

fast charging has become a recent fad but it has been around for decades and has always been a bad idea. There is nothing revolutionary about sending over 1000 mAh to the phone and charging it in 45 minutes versus 6 hours.

 

[datum9]

My own story:

I always leave my main phone and my tablet charging overnight, never have had a problem.

I have a Samsung Galaxy S5 which I got shortly after the model was released, and which was my main phone for about a year. I used it heavily, and charged it overnight every night, not a single problem.

I then got a new phone which became my new, and the S5 became my secondary phone, which I kept for emergencies and also for using for other stuff. But I didn't use it much for a few months, and left it mostly off. I then set up a makeshift home monitoring system, and used that phone pointed at an entry. So it was on all the time, running the app, ready to spring into action and catch video. So I kept it constantly plugged in.

Then I got bored with that system and shut it down. Got another new phone, so the S5 became just another extra phone around, without service, just wifi app usage capabilities. Left it shut off most of the time for a few months.

Yesterday I came up with a new fun use for it (remote control for my harmony hub!!) so I powered it on, installed new app, etc. I realized that it needed an update for just about every app, would take hours, and the battery power was low, so I started the updates and left it plugged in charging, and went to bed. This morning I went to it and the screen was on, not sure why, but anyway I unplugged, and played with the phone for a while. Everything was working, all apps were updated, controlling Harmony hub nicely, etc. I set it aside and did other things for a while, then I looked over at it and noticed something didn't look "right". The screen was not tucked into the case and when I tried I couldn't get it to go. Weird, I didn't notice that before

A bulging battery is a classic case of a battery going bad from age. It's just old.

 

[datum9]

In a forum for a phone with a sealed battery, this can become a very serious, and somewhat important, question.

Newer Lithium tech is a lot more durable than those of older pedigree, but they still suffer small amounts of damage from misuse and smaller amounts of damage from "normal" use (fully charging, discharging to shutdown, all of these things do very tiny amounts of capacity damage).

And with smartphones approaching the thousand dollar range, it's a fairly serious thing to consider. A 20% loss in capacity, which is a perfectly normal thing to have happen over a year or so, could turn your all

Good points.