would leaving my galaxy s4 charging over night do any kind of damage to the battery?

csrantonio

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Jun 17, 2013
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Ive never left my gs4 charging over night cuz usually I still have about 40% left but would it damage the battery if I was to leave plugged in after its been completely charged to 100 at night??
 
No. The phone stops fast charging and just trickle charges when the battery is full. No damage at all.
 
I have heard though that if you expose the battery to trickle charges repeatedly over time that you will shorten the life span of the battery (i.e. - the amount of charging cycles until it stops being able to hold a true 100% charge anymore). Considering how fast the S4 can recharge itself (just under 2 hours for me when recharging from 10-15%), best bet would be to charge prior to bed, reboot and unplug at bedtime, and turn off all the radios you can in order to reduce discharge overnight (you'll probably only lose 3-4% by morning at worst).
 
I have heard though that if you expose the battery to trickle charges repeatedly over time that you will shorten the life span of the battery (i.e. - the amount of charging cycles until it stops being able to hold a true 100% charge anymore). Considering how fast the S4 can recharge itself (just under 2 hours for me when recharging from 10-15%), best bet would be to charge prior to bed, reboot and unplug at bedtime, and turn off all the radios you can in order to reduce discharge overnight (you'll probably only lose 3-4% by morning at worst).

A discharge cycle for Lithium ion battery is defined as dishcarge the phone the full 100% to 0% so letting the phone charge 1% 100 times uses 1 full discharge cycle just like 0 to 100% one time for a lithium ion battery

Link

1_zps463f5f73.png


Thus for a Li-ion battery phone like GS4, small partial discharge is better than use it almost dry then full recharge due to the heat produced in a high% recharge.

If you install Gsam battery monitor and looked at the Battery% vs Battery Temperature graph you will realize that letting a phone charge 1% 100 times is actually worse than letting it charge 100% once, because a high% recharge would heat up the battery(a 85% recharge would cause the battery to go up significantly) whereas leaving the phone on the charger overnight would not.
 
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Its no big secret that a cell phone battery is toast at about 18 months. I think that was the logic behind the old upgrade plans. Yes batteries have gotten better and rate plans are keeping up with the cycle. If you can replace the battery, don't sweat it. I plug in all night or when ever I need it. In the off chance it makes a difference I can drop 50 bucks on a new battery every year and a half. WTF its better then a dead battery on the charger because I wanted it to be preserved. Just my two cents.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
 
I have heard though that if you expose the battery to trickle charges repeatedly over time that you will shorten the life span of the battery (i.e. - the amount of charging cycles until it stops being able to hold a true 100% charge anymore). Considering how fast the S4 can recharge itself (just under 2 hours for me when recharging from 10-15%), best bet would be to charge prior to bed, reboot and unplug at bedtime, and turn off all the radios you can in order to reduce discharge overnight (you'll probably only lose 3-4% by morning at worst).

This.

By the way - luckily if our battery lifespan does diminish we can always just pop in a new one. Just saying. I'll never get having a non-user replaceable battery designed smartphone. But that's for another thread.
 
Its no big secret that a cell phone battery is toast at about 18 months. I think that was the logic behind the old upgrade plans. Yes batteries have gotten better and rate plans are keeping up with the cycle. If you can replace the battery, don't sweat it. I plug in all night or when ever I need it. In the off chance it makes a difference I can drop 50 bucks on a new battery every year and a half. WTF its better then a dead battery on the charger because I wanted it to be preserved. Just my two cents.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

$50 on a new battery? You can get Anker's battery charger WITH two included NFC batteries on Amazon for $29.
 
I have seen batteries for around 10 dollars. If this was a phone without a removable battery, I would be more concerned.
 
Some battery data for me today. I first drained the battery down to 15%(playing video 9am- 5:50pm) and then charged back to 100%(6-7pm), then kept the phone playing video while plugged in(after 8pm).

As you can see, normally battery temp is in the low 30 C range, charging the phone from 15% to 100% raises it to 40C+. However as phone's battery % pass 90% the charging slows down and battery temp drops back to low 30s. Keep the phone running while plugged in (90-100% battery) doesn't affect battery temp much if at all.

Since over-discharging & heat are the two biggest killer of Lithium ion battery, you are much better off leaving your phone plugged in when you can instead of letting it drain all day then recharge a large %.

Edit: added One last screenshot(9:55AM): my battery temp after leaving the phone plugged in overnight: As you can see the battery temp stays very cool(Ambient is 24C).
 

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I don't know about the trickle charge....but I DID notice that the phone just stops charging at 100%. The charge sign goes away and so does the lcd light letting you know it's charging. I thought it just turned off. ..but I guess it must be charging a bit ti still have a full charge in the morning. Glad I read this. ..
 
Yes it will damage it because i am on s4 i brought brand new i called Samsung company up and they told me don't leave ur s4 more than two hours meaning once its fully charged unplug it because it will damage it also i been told by Samsung company that if charge like for example your battery life is 20 percent and you started charging it, then when its fully charged and ur using ur phone normally then u can use it but it will die when it comes to 20 percent but you feel it because ur battery die normally on 1 percent but actually the truth is it could of longer but it didnt as u started charging at 20 percent day by day ur battery life dies and become less life meaning it wouldnt last long but gd news is that it can be restored if you charge it normailly from 1 percent to 100 without overcharging it then automatically restore and also if hasnt been overchargred before i am saying this because it happened to me i have my sec s4 i overcharge it and now it dnt last long it does but i havent overcharged as much as my 1st ever s4 that one used to die in 6 hours
 
I know the thread is old but I saw those interesting screen shots by NovaWiz, GSam shows a cell voltage of 4.335V while 100% capacity.

I thought 4.2V should be the limit for Li-Ion ... at least my HTC phone's battery cells don't exceed this voltage level.
Does Samsung this for to get more battery life with charging up to 110% capacity level?
Battery Univerity shows this table with 110%
zuze3y7y.jpg

Link

Update:
Did a little search ... there are Li-based batteries with an OVP of 4.35V :)
Maybe Battery University should update ... but even if these batteries are safe, have they the same count of discharge cycles over their life span as batteries with an OVP of 4.2V?
 
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Just do whatever is most convenient. The absolute worst thing that could happen is you'll have to drop $20 on a new battery in a year. There's a good chance you won't even have to do that. Li-Ion batteries have a limited life and the tiny amount of extra life you'll get out of not leaving it plugged in at night is most likely negligible. Everything you do to your battery, with the possible exception of disconnecting it while it's at nominal voltage and then just letting it sit, will reduce the life of the battery. That's just how these batteries work. Keep in mind that most of the advice given about phone batteries is over a decade old. Newer phones have newer charging circuity and much more CPU power devoted to battery monitoring. It's way less of an issue now than it was back then.
 
i have heard of that like it creates a partition also i heard for extended life first few cycles should be from cut out to 100% charged three or four times
 
Its no big secret that a cell phone battery is toast at about 18 months. I think that was the logic behind the old upgrade plans. Yes batteries have gotten better and rate plans are keeping up with the cycle. If you can replace the battery, don't sweat it. I plug in all night or when ever I need it. In the off chance it makes a difference I can drop 50 bucks on a new battery every year and a half. WTF its better then a dead battery on the charger because I wanted it to be preserved. Just my two cents.

+1, And... If you're like most people in about 18 months you're getting the next new phone that just came out. If you keep your phone forever just buy a battery when you need to. I've kept every phone I've owned plugged in all night every night. It's my bedside clock and alarm (Dock Clock) and I want it always fully charged when I grab and go.
 
Yes it will damage it because i am on s4 i brought brand new i called Samsung company up and they told me don't leave ur s4 more than two hours meaning once its fully charged unplug it because it will damage it also i been told by Samsung company that if charge like for example your battery life is 20 percent and you started charging it, then when its fully charged and ur using ur phone normally then u can use it but it will die when it comes to 20 percent but you feel it because ur battery die normally on 1 percent but actually the truth is it could of longer but it didnt as u started charging at 20 percent day by day ur battery life dies and become less life meaning it wouldnt last long but gd news is that it can be restored if you charge it normailly from 1 percent to 100 without overcharging it then automatically restore and also if hasnt been overchargred before i am saying this because it happened to me i have my sec s4 i overcharge it and now it dnt last long it does but i havent overcharged as much as my 1st ever s4 that one used to die in 6 hours