Charging Battery Over Night

[amarti19]

So I am curious how many of you plug the phone in to charge at night before bed and leave it plugged in all night? Most people I know do this but I usually try not to because it only takes 2-3 hours to do a full charge on the GSIII and I don't want to damage the life of the battery by overcharging everyday. Does anyone who is knowledgeable about this know if in fact it is ok to charge all night and does it reduce the battery life and charge over time?

 

[amarti19]

I meant to post this in the Samsung Galaxy SIII forum but it posted here. Can a Mod move this thread to that forum please. Thanks

 

[nexus89]

When I had my nexus one I did this now with my galaxy nexus I charge overnight but with the USB cable plugged into my computer. When plugged in thru PC it charges much slower than with wall charger but I have no idea if battery life is affected in anyway

 

[Devinator]

Does anyone who is knowledgeable about this know if in fact it is ok to charge all night and does it reduce the battery life and charge over time?

From all of my research in the past (sorry, I have no links, but, I'm sure you could find several answers supporting this with a quick Google search) I remember this not being the case. From what I recall, the phone stops charging after it gets to 100% My phone isn't fully charged now, but, I believe my battery monitoring app tells me it's only at 99% when the OS tells me it's fully charged. So, I'm gonna go with no, it shouldn't damage the battery. I dunno why it says to remove it from the charger to conserve energy, but, I don't think it could hurt. Wouldn't you rather wake up to a fully charged phone anyway? Even if it damages the battery slightly, it would seem worth it if you had to buy a second battery over the life of the phone (just so as to not deal with the hassle). I haven't seen a decrease in battery life (in any of my four batteries), by leaving it charged over night.

However, optimally, you shouldn't be charging your phone to 100% anyway. So, maybe you shouldn't leave it plugged in.

"It is better not to fully charge a battery. Lithium ion batteries do not need to be fully charged, high voltages stress the battery."

How to properly charge and take care of your Cell Phone Battery - ChargeAll | ChargeAll

 

[DavidBarnos]

The battery don't get damaged from that. It stops so the lithium ion battery won't get damaged. Don't worry about it brother

David Barnos, the King

 

[GMJeff]

New lithium ion batteries have a charging circuit built in, so even charging them to 100% doesn't damage them.

They charge to full, then trickle charge until unplugged. The suggested idea is to unplug the phone after a full charge to stop what is referred to as a vampire draw, which is the trickle charge itself.

I charge my phones all night every night and still have enough battery the next day for all day, with the battery always charging to full the next day. Battery cycling was done away with when nickel cadmium batteries were done away with in most devices.

Besides, if lithium ion batteries were to over charge, they would become an explosive device. This has been seen in incidents where people have had their phones blow up.

Refer to the person that recently blew up an iPhone in a microwave due to the extreme heat build up in the battery.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Android Central Forums

 

[amarti19]

Thanks guys for the input. I had heard that with the new lithium ion batteries being used today that it shouldn't hurt the battery to have it plugged in longer than needed. I just wanted to ask those that charge every night if they find reduced battery life over time. Although I guess after a year or so it is probably best to just buy a new battery anyways.

 

[Devinator]

Well, yea, it should reduce the amount of life you get out of the battery. It would seem you get more discharge cycles if you reduce the amount that you charge. But, who really wants to deal with that kinda battery management when batteries aren't really all that expensive.

"Most Li-ions are charged to 4.20V/cell and every reduction of 0.10V/cell is said to double cycle life. For example, a lithium-ion cell charged to 4.20V/cell typically delivers 300–500 cycles. If charged to only 4.10V/cell, the life can be prolonged to 600–1,000 cycles; 4.00V/cell should deliver 1,200–2,000 and 3.90V/cell 2,400–4,000 cycles. Table 4 summarizes these results. The values are estimate and depend on the type of li-ion-ion battery."

There was a table on this site that I tried to copy in that shows the charges you can expect to see. It didn't paste nicely in here, but, here is the link.

How to Prolong Lithium-based Batteries - Battery University