What are your charging habits?

[ihbsbA]

I'm a "charge at night' girl from way back - but when I bought the Note 9, I was told not to charge all night and to take the phone off the charger at 100%. Also, that to top off the battery isn't a bad thing anymore... and don't let the phone completely die.

All things against what I thought to be true...so, what are your charging habits?

 

[Gary02468]

when I bought the Note 9, I was told not to charge all night and to take the phone off the charger at 100%

Told by whom? More importantly, what reason did they give, and what evidence did they cite?

The user manual certainly makes no such recommendation.

 

[anon(5719825)]

I charge whenever my phone gets down to 5% or so or whatever it may be before I leave for work so that it's full for the day. Many times I leave it on the charger over night or on the wireless charger.

I sometimes use an Anker 20,000 power pack so I can fast charge it on the road if I need to. It charges just as fast as plugging into AC at home.

Basically, I just charge when I want and many times, I've left it plugged in or on the wireless charger for a few days. It don't hurt the battery to do any of this.

 

[music_man185]

I've wondered this as well, as I really want my Note 9 to last me a couple years. I've always put my phone on the charger when I go to bed and take it off when I leave in the morning. My S7 battery quickly began deteriorating after about a year. Before trading it for my Note, I was lucky to get 1 hour of screen time and half a day of stand by time, even using medium power saving mode.

 

[j_hansen]

I leave it plugged in on charger overnight and have it on wireless slow/USB charge at work, never really hit lower than 50% on weekdays

 

[Mooncatt]

I'm a "charge at night' girl from way back - but when I bought the Note 9, I was told not to charge all night and to take the phone off the charger at 100%. Also, that to top off the battery isn't a bad thing anymore... and don't let the phone completely die.

All things against what I thought to be true...so, what are your charging habits?

All of those suggestions you thought were right are holdovers from the days of NiCAD and NiMH batteries. Li-ion and Lipo batteries are different technologies that take different care for the best longevity. This article covers most everything you need to know about caring for lithium rechargeable batteries.

https://batteryuniversity.com/index.php/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries

After reading that, now you have to find what's best for you based on other factors. How long you plan to keep the phone. Your willingness to deal with or replace a worn out sealed battery. Access to chargers. The hassle factor of taking care of it...

The general recommendation for phones is to try keeping the battery between 40-80% as an ideal balance between time on and off the charger and overall longevity. An app like AccuBattery can help with this by setting an alert when you reach your chosen capacity. Also, yes you should try not to drain below 25%, which drastically increases wear, and partial charges are not a problem.

 

[anon(5719825)]

I've wondered this as well, as I really want my Note 9 to last me a couple years. I've always put my phone on the charger when I go to bed and take it off when I leave in the morning. My S7 battery quickly began deteriorating after about a year. Before trading it for my Note, I was lucky to get 1 hour of screen time and half a day of stand by time, even using medium power saving mode.

You might have had a high charge cycle count on the battery. My launch day S7 Edge shows 133 cycles with a battery health of 92.67%. It still easily lasts me 1.5 days with about 3 hrs screen time. Basically, I charged the phone when it got down to 5% and charged it to 100% as I do every phone I've ever owned and I still have all of them and they still last at least a full day, even my Note 4/Note Edge on the original batteries.

 

[bhatech]

I don't think about it and just charge whenever I get a chance. While I'm in car I plug into the car charger, at work in the wireless charger and before sleeping at home on the bedside wireless charger. Has worked great for my other phones and generally just charge whenever I get a chance.

 

[Richard Stewart79]

Somewhere I seen where Samsung stated that after 300 charges only 80%of the battery remains. And even less for apple

 

[anon(5719825)]

Somewhere I seen where Samsung stated that after 300 charges only 80%of the battery remains. And even less for apple

That may or may not be true but I have an iPhone 6+ sitting here with 305 cycles on it with a capacity of 94.27%. It's been abused by letting the battery run down so it powers off and sitting that way for weeks. I just don't use it as a phone anymore because it's slow. I bought in March of 2014.

 

[berfles]

I charge it every other day when it gets to around 20-25%.

 

[j_hansen]

How do you see the number of charge cycles?

 

[sweetypie31]

I just charge when I feel I need to. I seldom worry about battery degradation or charging cycles .

 

[anon(5719825)]

How do you see the number of charge cycles?

On phones from the Note 5 on up to the Note 8, use an app called PhoneINFO. It won't work on the S9/Note 9 phones yet if it does at all.

There are other apps in the play store that can do this as well.

 

[Gary02468]

The general recommendation for phones is to try keeping the battery between 40-80% as an ideal balance between time on and off the charger and overall longevity.

But then you'd be doing without 60% of the battery's capacity in order to prevent a possible decline by 10-15% after a year or two, by which time you might no longer own the phone anyway. That doesn't seem like an ideal balance to me.

I leave my phone on a wireless pad beside my bed to charge overnight. With the Note9, it looks like I won't need any other charging unless I have a day of exceptionally heavy use.

 

[j_hansen]

On phones from the Note 5 on up to the Note 8, use an app called PhoneINFO. It won't work on the S9/Note 9 phones yet if it does at all.

There are other apps in the play store that can do this as well.

Cheers, got that app and it shows 182 discharge cycles and 100% battery health.... However... App also shows I have root access but phone isn't rooted, I'm not 100% sure I always had this app or if it only recorded the cycles when installed or it can check the actual battery

 

[Mooncatt]

But then you'd be doing without 60% of the battery's capacity in order to prevent a possible decline by 10-15% after a year or two, by which time you might no longer own the phone anyway. That doesn't seem like an ideal balance to me.

If phones still had removable batteries, I'd agree. But when you factor in the extra time and expense of having a repair shop replace a battery (or learn to do so yourself), now it becomes more of an issue. While batteries will degrade at different rates from person to person, it's no secret that high charges and low discharging will accelerate that wear and there's no way to know if your battery is going to be one of the good ones that hold up longer, or will be half worthless in 6 months.

That's why I said those are the general guidelines and also gave other reasons for consideration in my post. Anyone concerned about battery longevity should consider all the factors as they apply to them, and charge according to what they think is best for their situation. If I had a sealed battery (I'm still on a V20 with a removable one), I'd personally do everything I can to prolong its life. Others may not.

 

[Knightmayre90]

I put it on charge every night and remove it every morning, always done that. never noticed any deterioration of the battery on any of my phones.

 

[arunma]

I keep my phone on a wireless charging pad at my desk at work all day except when I'm using it, so it's pretty much always at 100%. Since I do a JOD trade on my phone every six months, I don't really think about battery health that much. That said, I'm not sure that what I'm doing is particularly bad for my battery.

 

[amyf27]

For me it depends on the day and what activities are going on work, etc. Right now I'm at 29% and will probably charge it at my desk with USB c cord here soon.