Why is my battery charging much faster than normal?

[AC Question]

I have a Galaxy S4, running Android 4.3 (it's a Straight Talk branded phone so it can't be updated to a newer operating system). I was listening to Spotify when my phone crashed, which very rarely happens, so I took the battery out and put it back in. After I turned the phone back on, I noticed that the battery percentage dropped from 24% to 19%. Then I noticed that it started draining faster than normal at first, but then returned to normal. Once it went down to 12% I plugged the phone in. However, I noticed that it started to charge at a faster rate than normal. Normally it charges about 1% every minute until it gets to about 90% then it slows down considerably. Right now it is charging a lot faster than that, sometimes charging a few percent every minute. My battery was acting normal before Spotify crashed the phone. Has anyone had this happen or know what is going on?

 

[nahoku]

S4 is an older phone. If this is the original battery, it's probably going bad. Might be time to get a new one.

 

[lindseyrocks]

Original poster here, didn't know I couldn't reply without an account lol. Well it's not exactly an old battery. I've only had this phone since the end of July, and this is the first time that this has done this (at least that I've noticed).

 

[nahoku]

The S4 came out in Apr 2013... that's what I meant by an older phone. Did you buy this brand new in July? If I'm not mistaken, Samsung warrants the battery for a year after purchase. They will also replace it for free, but you need to ship to them, or find a local authorized dealer that can do it under warranty. Anytime a battery acts weird, it's normally the battery. Not much else can be attributed to it, and if it begins to charge faster, it normally means it's getting "topped out" more quickly... again, meaning a bad battery.

Contact Samsung, your carrier, or whoever you bought the phone from to see if the battery is covered under warranty.