What percentage to charge?

[DanielLoreti]

Want to get the most out of my Ultra battery. What percentage do you guys wait until it gets to charge? It's learning my habits right now, so I want to stick to a routine.

 

[Nostromo79]

Want to get the most out of my Ultra battery. What percentage do you guys wait until it gets to charge? It's learning my habits right now, so I want to stick to a routine.

15% based on a single day's use. I received the phone on March 5, 2020. I can't say if I'll hit that mark consistently. I barely put the phone down yesterday once it was activated.

 

[Peter Scooze]

Want to get the most out of my Ultra battery. What percentage do you guys wait until it gets to charge? It's learning my habits right now, so I want to stick to a routine.

Usually you're not supposed to let the battery go past 30% and charge to 90%

 

[mustang7757]

This is in Samsung members app

 

[mustang7757]

I usually do 10% to 90-100 no issues

 

[Mooncatt]

A lot of info here on the topic.

https://forums.androidcentral.com/showthread.php?t=500054

 

[david61983]

I've always charged overnight and have never had any issues.

 

[durandetto]

Want to get the most out of my Ultra battery. What percentage do you guys wait until it gets to charge? It's learning my habits right now, so I want to stick to a routine.

How long do you generally keep your phones for? If you're not keeping it past 2 years I wouldn't stress too much on charging habits. With current battery tech you'll make it 2 years without noticable degradation.

 

[arunma]

I've always charged overnight and have never had any issues.

Same. I upgrade every six months (hey, don't judge). But if you're keeping your phone for over two years then holding a charge of 20-80% might improve battery health.

 

[estebancam]

I've had great luck with plugging in my phone when it is on low battery, and then unplugging it when the battery is full, or higher than when I first plugged it in.

 

[Emig5m]

I keep my battery topped up. I'd hate to be in a power outage or emergency situation and not have any battery left because I'm paranoid that charging the battery is going to hurt it. I also think keeping it topped up more often for shorter durations is better than letting it sink to zero the having to let it charge for a longer continuous time = more heat. As soon as I'm done using my phone, on the wireless charging pad it goes until it's topped up then I take it off. Stays cooler this way and you always have a topped up battery in case of a power outage or emergency situation.

 

[Mooncatt]

I keep my battery topped up. I'd hate to be in a power outage or emergency situation and not have any battery left because I'm paranoid that charging the battery is going to hurt it. I also think keeping it topped up more often for shorter durations is better than letting it sink to zero the having to let it charge for a longer continuous time = more heat. As soon as I'm done using my phone, on the wireless charging pad it goes until it's topped up then I take it off. Stays cooler this way and you always have a topped up battery in case of a power outage or emergency situation.

This is ill advised, as maintaining a high charge level like this hurts the battery as well. Probably not as much as draining to zero, but I killed a battery in about 6 months because wanted to keep it charged up.

And if you're worried about charging related heat, you could use a non-quick charge charging block. I've noticed a 10-15°F drop in battery temps using traditional charging compared to my QC3.0 charger. It takes longer, but helpful if you have the time to spare anyway.

 

[joeldf]

This is ill advised, as maintaining a high charge level like this hurts the battery as well. Probably not as much as draining to zero, but I killed a battery in about 6 months because wanted to keep it charged up.

And if you're worried about charging related heat, you could use a non-quick charge charging block. I've noticed a 10-15°F drop in battery temps using traditional charging compared to my QC3.0 charger. It takes longer, but helpful if you have the time to spare anyway.

I've never had a problem leaving my phones on charger overnight, every night.

I've had the following phones:

BlackBerry Pearl 8100 for 3 years.

BlackBerry Torch 9800 for 3 years.

BlackBerry Z10 for 4 years (an admittedly weak battery from the start, but I still keep it charged to this day).

Galaxy S8 for a year, but replaced with an S9 because of a drop that took out the screen. The S9 is now a year old and has the same 22 - 26 hours per charge use that it started with.

Phones have circuits in them that slows the charge as it gets close to 100, and turns it off (or, really, a trickle-charge) once it reaches 100. Always been the case. Leaving it on the charger does nothing once the phone reaches 100.

 

[Mooncatt]

Phones have circuits in them that slows the charge as it gets close to 100, and turns it off (or, really, a trickle-charge) once it reaches 100. Always been the case. Leaving it on the charger does nothing once the phone reaches 100.

It's nothing to do with overcharging, it's the act of keeping it at a high charge level. You could fully charge it, unplug it with the phone off, and still risk damage over time by leaving the battery fully charged. From https://batteryuniversity.com/index.php/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries

Lithium-ion suffers from stress when exposed to heat, so does keeping a cell at a high charge voltage. A battery dwelling above 30°C (86°F) is considered elevated temperature and for most Li-ion a voltage above 4.10V/cell is deemed as high voltage. Exposing the battery to high temperature and dwelling in a full state-of-charge for an extended time can be more stressful than cycling. Table 3 demonstrates capacity loss as a function of temperature and SoC.

 

[DanielLoreti]

I usually charge when it hit 20%. Is that too low?

 

[Mike Dee]

I usually charge when it hit 20%. Is that too low?

I try to charge it sooner but if it gets to 20% on a rare occasion I don't get obsessed over it.

 

[joeldf]

It's nothing to do with overcharging, it's the act of keeping it at a high charge level. You could fully charge it, unplug it with the phone off, and still risk damage over time by leaving the battery fully charged. From https://batteryuniversity.com/index.php/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries

In practical, real world use, leaving it on the charger overnight is minimal. I mean, just the act of using the thing all day every day does more over time than charging it does.

Worrying about stopping it before reaching 100% is a bit impractical. Better, and easier, to just be sure it doesnt get too low on a regular basis, or go completely down. But, if it happens once in a while - which, let's face it, might happen at some point, the battery won't suddenly drop to a 2 hour capacity.

Be realistic and enjoy your device.

 

[DanielLoreti]

In practical, real world use, leaving it on the charger overnight is minimal. I mean, just the act of using the thing all day every day does more over time than charging it does.

Worrying about stopping it before reaching 100% is a bit impractical. Better, and easier, to just be sure it doesnt get too low on a regular basis, or go completely down. But, if it happens once in a while - which, let's face it, might happen at some point, the battery won't suddenly drop to a 2 hour capacity.

Be realistic and enjoy your device.

What's "too low" though?

 

[Mooncatt]

In practical, real world use, leaving it on the charger overnight is minimal.

To be fair, my original comment you questioned was referring to Emig5m's post about keeping it "topped up" at all times, not just overnight charging.

 

[Mooncatt]

What's "too low" though?

Below 20% is where internal damage can really accelerate, but 30-40% is the usual recommended point at which to charge. In general, Li-ion batteries like a happy medium.