Navigation while using battery charger in car?

[lbrenes]

I have always been told with my cellphones: "avoid charging with the car charger, dont just leave it plugged in, it will ruin your battery, use it only for a quick charge".

Seeing how fast the battery gets drained when using navigation I was wondering if it would be safe to keep the phone plugged while navigating. I have read in some posts that while doing this the battery actually doesn't charge, pretty much all the juice gets used by the phone as it comes in and that this just keeps the battery at the current charge level.

What do you guys think? I don't want to ruin my battery, but I would like to use the GPS and Google Maps as it is a pretty capable GPS solution.

 

[Chris3D]

Overcharging will ruin any battery, but it takes a long time to do it. Unless you do a LOT of driving, I wouldn't worry about it. And from my personal experience, as you touched on, the battery charges extremely slowly off a car charger (mine at least).

Also, unlike a certain other brand of smartphones... our battery is replaceable, so on the odd chance it does shorten your battery's life, you can always replace it at will.

 

[gyroslice]

from my understanding, re-chargable batteries lose power over time because people leave them plugged in once they reach a full. the fascinate will stop charging once it reaches 100% and run the battery until it reaches 95% then start charging again. I use an off brand car charger (cheapest one on amazon) with my fascinate and haven't noticed any problems.

http://forum.androidcentral.com/verizon-fascinate/60939-unplug-when-fully-charged-important.html

 

[worwig]

There is a fairly large amount of rumor about batteries.
This phone has a Li-Ion battery.

Every time you cycle it, you will be wearing it out. Keep it on the charger every opportunity. Avoid running it dead intentionally.

If the battery is discharged too far, it can not be recharged, it is ruined. The phone and the battery itself do what they can to prevent the possibility of it being discharged too much. Never store it dead.

Overcharging the battery can damage it. Again, the phone and the battery pack itself have limiters in them to prevent them from ever overcharging the battery. When this phone reaches 100%, it turns off the charger automatically. Perfect. Then at about 96%, it turns the charger back on. That is pretty much exactly what you want. Plug it in and leave it plugged in.

Heat damages it, particularly when charging and it is hot. Avoid charging in in the hot sunlight. When using navigation software and charging it, it may get warm. Too much of that is bad. This phone has temp sensors in the battery pack and shuts off the charger until the battery cools down. Again, it is about perfect. Plug it in and leave it plugged in.

My last two smartphones (WinMobile) have been used in my car and on a motorcycle, clipped to the handlebar, as a GPS. I would ALWAYS plug them into a high rate charger when doing this (there is a difference in the charge rate between a PC USB port, and a charger only). I basically got two years out of the batteries on those two devices, being charged as much as I could while using the GPS, with no noticeable lose of battery life.

I've had two problems doing this. One, I had a waterproof box with a clear window for on the motorcycle, that I would put the phone in and use the GPS. It turned out that the box was a little oven. In the summer sun, the battery would stop charging (but luckily before it damaged it). So I don't use that box now, just an open clip. Second, is in my wife car. It has a long sloped windshield and again the suns heat would cook the phone and stop the charger. I relocated the phone down near an air vent and stopped the problems.

Plug it in, leave it plugged in, avoid heat.

 

[Kevin Gossett]

Excellent explanation, thank you!

 

[Sta11i0n]

Well put. You said everything I was going to.

 

[lbrenes]

wow worwig, thanks so much for your very informative post.

 

[freeoscar]

from my understanding, re-chargable batteries lose power over time because people leave them plugged in once they reach a full. the fascinate will stop charging once it reaches 100% and run the battery until it reaches 95% then start charging again. I use an off brand car charger (cheapest one on amazon) with my fascinate and haven't noticed any problems.

http://forum.androidcentral.com/verizon-fascinate/60939-unplug-when-fully-charged-important.html

I just purchased the actual Samsung car charger on Amazon for about $4.