Does leaving a phone charging overnight harm the battery?

[monsieurms]

I was interested to see this article on battery life tips. I don't know the source's credibility. But over the years, I thought most had concluded here that there was no big deal in leaving a phone on the charger overnight, that modern tech took care of such things, that it had little impact.

ChargedCafe - Mistakes We Are Making While Charging Our Android SmartPhones

This site says instead: "Mistake #1: Leaving Phone Charging Overnight
It might seem like common sense to leave the Android phone on charge overnight so that when you wake up it is ready to go at 100% power....During the night the phone will charge to 100%, but once it has reached capacity, the charger simply does not turn off. The charger is going to send small pulses of energy to the battery because it does not realize it is full. Each time it sends those little pulses, it slowly eats away at the battery. Doing this continuously will cause the battery to drain faster when you use it over time."

I'm not sure I care all that much as I have removable batteries, but I was interested in this salvo on this issue. Rebuttals?

 

[N4Newbie]

Bull.

It might have been true years ago with earlier battery technologies and earlier charging circuits.

If there is any detrimental effect at all you can be certain that it is minimal.

 

[DenverRalphy]

It's not just "Mistake #1" that is seriously flawed. Pretty much every tip is flawed.

I wouldn't take that site (well, that particular article anyway) seriously at all.

 

[Billy Bob Jimmy Joe]

I've been charging my phones overnight for many years now. Never had an issue.

Google Nexus 6P

 

[Tech-Newb]

I read that almost all phone have built-in overcharge protection to keep it from overcharging. When the battery is full, the charging stops.

Posted with ❤Love❤

 

[N4Newbie]

I read that almost all phone have built-in overcharge protection to keep it from overcharging. When the battery is full, the charging stops.

Posted with ❤Love❤

*ALL* modern phones have built-in overcharge protection.

 

[crownybest]

ive always left the phone charging over night. Nothing seems to happen ...but I only keep phones for about a year

 

[kramer5150]

A well designed / robust overcharge protection circuit (which most reputable phones have) will prevent over-charging.

However there is some truth in that its 100% physically impossible to over-charge a phone when its unplugged. So by that logic... unplugging the phone is the only 100% guarantee to avoid an over-charge in the event of protection circuit failure.

 

[N4Newbie]

A well designed / robust overcharge protection circuit (which most reputable phones have) will prevent over-charging.

However there is some truth in that its 100% physically impossible to over-charge a phone when its unplugged. So by that logic... unplugging the phone is the only 100% guarantee to avoid an over-charge in the event of protection circuit failure.

While completely true and accurate, by the same token the only way to prevent your TV, toaster, coffee maker, refrigerator, etc., etc.(not to mention your heating/cooling system), from bursting into flames in the middle of the night is to unplug them as well. All of these devices are capable of burning down your home, and even more so because they draw much higher current.

I choose not to worry about any of them; Lord knows I have plenty of other stuff to lose sleep over.

 

[kramer5150]

Yeah... what I stated is kind of obvious, and I am by no means in agreement with the author. But its kind of a different way of looking at it all.

 

[hasina10]

Yeah... what I stated is kind of obvious, and I am by no means in agreement with the author. But its kind of a different way of looking at it all.

+1

 

[Inders99]

Bull.

'nuff said

 

[EdwardSmith36]

Yes, it does harms your phone! Never ever try leaving your phone whole night on charging.

 

[dpen15]

The way I had been understanding it is that the thing that we plug in to the wall outlet is an adapter (not a charger) which outputs a specific rating of DC current. The chargers are within the device which is smart enough (at least on most smartphones) to know whether the battery is fully charged and stop charging. Similar to how my Win10 laptop says... "100%, Plugged in, Not charging". The only difference is that we dont see that type of charging status (in text) on our phone (perhaps the green fully charged LED also meant to say that?). Anyways, this is the 3rd phone I have been leaving on charge overnight and no issue with battery what so ever. One thing to note, however, is that I have stock rom and disabled the fast charge option.

 

[Inders99]

Yes, it does harms your phone! Never ever try leaving your phone whole night on charging.

Please stop...

 

[Ashtroid666]

After reading the comments, most of you guys said that it's ok to leave it charging overnight.
Good that i found out about this. Thank you guys for sharing your knowledge

 

[Sizzers]

Well I believe it does.

Its rather techy but the following two articles are worth reading:

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/charging_lithium_ion_batteries

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries

I try to live by the principles but of course its not always easy or practical to do so, but as much as I can I try not to discharge below 40% or charge above 85%. Wasn't a particular issue with me in my Symbian days as all Nokia's had removeable batteries and I ALWAYS had a spare. Now being a Moto man with a non-removeable battery I try to look after it as much as I can.

 

[Inders99]

Charging Lithium-Ion Batteries – Battery University

How to Prolong Lithium-based Batteries - Battery University

I've seen those before and they're interesting. But here's the other side, most of us work or go to school all day. I can't be bothered with phone maintenance when working and nor do I want to worry about a device during my discretionary time, there's too little of it to be tethered to device maintenance.

Most go to bed, plug it in and work all day. Go home, do whatever, go to bed and plug it in and wake up ready to go...that's life. I've been doing that since they invented these things, has my battery degraded...probably. It seemed that way with my GS3 after 2.5 years of that routine so I went out and spent $20 on a new battery...done. Altering my lifestyle over a $20 battery after 900+ days of use ($.02/day) isn't even worth my time or interest. Now that manufacturers came up with the dumb idea to seal batteries it's a little less easy to pop a new one in, but how long does the average person keep a phone these days anyway?

To the OP, use your phone, enjoy it.

 

[monsieurms]

I've been doing that since they invented these things, has my battery degraded...probably. .

Not to mention that even if you do all the recommended stuff and even if those recommendations are valid, your battery will degrade over some years anyway. Batteries are simply not immortal. So the question is not degradation vs. no degradation. Even if one presumes quick deterioration, even then your answer is spot on--$20, new battery, who really cares--but the actual question is much different: how fast it degrades under certain circumstances and how much more than if it had been treated otherwise. Which is to say, upending your lifestyle because you could have had 14 months of top use instead of 13 becomes the tail wagging the dog.

In particular, I see this recommendation on not charging past 85%. Who does that? On my laptop, which I mostly use wired rather than on battery, Toshiba does have a battery utility that keeps the charge from going past 85%. But that's a situation where the battery is almost never used unless I'm on a trip. It's almost always on a plug-AC. It is a very different combination of circumstances than charging a phone overnight and then running the battery throughout the day.