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Phone charging strategy - keep topping up or drain and charge?

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UpperCaseN said:
I feel like full drain full charge is a thing of the past, battery technology doesn't need it anymore. I could google memory effect but it's late and I'm half asleeeeeeeee
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Yeah that was like a super retro thing.
 
Whenever I'm home, I have my phone plugged into the wall charger. Whenever I'm in the car, I have it plugged into the car charger. Don't really know about what's "best" for the phone, it's just what I do because I'm like that.

People are always talking about their phones being dead, I never see mine get lower than like 90% lol.
 
With my last phone, I typically had it hooked up whenever I was home. With my S7, I usually use it until later in the afternoon and the battery gets down to 40% sometimes. Then I throw it on the wireless charger and leave it there.
 
Never let your phone get below 20% or above 90% charge. It wears out the battery faster. I have a Tasker alert set up that tells me when my phone goes from 89 to 90% charge, and that's when I disconnect it.
 
Skux said:
It doesn't matter. The phone will become obsolete long before the battery becomes unusable.
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Your notion of what's obsolete is very different from mine. There's no reason you can't use the same smartphone for 4-5 years, and the battery will need replacement long before that.
 
These aren't Ni-CaD batteries where it's better to drain all the way before charging due to the memory in the batteries. Lithium batteries are meant to be charged all the time and encouraged so they last longer. I've seen lithiums last over 7 years and maintain nearly the same life as day 1 due to proper use of charging it when it starts to get low or when not in use.
 
I just plug it in at night and let it charge to full.

My iPhone is three years old and it still works great, usually doesn't even get below 65% by the end of the day.
 
ReAxion said:
Optimal charge should be a steady rollercoaster between 70% and 30%.
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Apart from being a PITA to people really have no idea what the actual charge is. The battery and phone likely report things differwnt than the physical battery. Like someone else said. Your phone might say 0 when it actually has 5 or 10% left.
 
My iphone batteries have gone to shit after 2 years. My 6 is already losing its charge quicker, but I hope to get another year out of it.
 
My phone goes on the wireless charger at night. I also have a wireless charger at work that also acts as a nice stand to watch videos on while I work. That's more than enough to keep my phone charged through regular use. Only other time I'll charge it is when I'm using it for GPS navigation in the car.

I have Droid Turbo 2, which also happens to have a beefy-ass battery.
 
Xe4 said:
Drain and charge ideally, but sometimes I top off. Lithium ion batteries, as was mentioned in this thread, do have a memory effect, although it is much less pronounced than in other types of rechargeable batteries.
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No, modern Li-Ion batteries do not have an appreciable memory effect. As has been stated by many others, it is best -not- to allow a Li-Ion battery to fully discharge. It is also optimal to not fully charge them either, but that's not really practical.
 
I leave my phone plugged in all day at work and while I sleep. Almost never get below 60%.


My Vita and DS4s perpetually sits in their charging docks when not in use. I'll periodically top off my 3DS and Game Boy Micro once every few months (they've got great batteries that barely discharge when not in use).
 
SG-17 said:
My Vita and DS4s perpetually sits in their charging docks when not in use. I'll periodically top off my 3DS and Game Boy Micro once every few months (they've got great batteries that barely discharge when not in use).
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If you don't use them every day I'd strongly suggest not doing this. The batteries are not designed to be kept at full charge for days on end. If you know you're not going to use them for a long period of time, it is better to discharge them to around 50% then power then down (don't use sleep mode). Otherwise, just leave them unplugged when not in use and charge when they hit 40% optimally.
 
as far as I know, it doesn't matter either way with today's batteries.

Also, unless you drain you battery and need to charge multiple times a day, your battery shouldn't be useless after two years. I've never kept a phone longer than 2 years though.
 
Charge it every night on my nightstand without any regard for the current charge. My iPhone also doubles up as a sleep tracker so it's always connected during the night.

Draining it before charging is completely outdated.
 
Technically it's better to top up usually. The occasional full drain and charge is fine for calibrating the battery.

In a real world scenario you're unlikely to see much difference with modern batteries. The aging of the battery will kick in before the effects of any charging practices will become noticeable.

So basically just use your phone and don't worry too much about it.
 
I thought modern batteries actually perform worse when draining them often. Pretty sure topping up is better, keeping the battery above the lower percentages.
 
how does your phone last for 3 days at 35% even on low power lmfao

low power just means i get an extra few hours out of it and i'll make it home with my phone still on.
 
I usually control my phone through my laptop when im at work, pandora in the car, so it always stays charged.
 
Harmen said:
I thought modern batteries actually perform worse when draining them often. Pretty sure topping up is better, keeping the battery above the lower percentages.
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I am actually surprised how many people still drain. Li-on batteries are actually not supposed to get drained all the time.

http://www.howtogeek.com/169669/debunking-battery-life-myths-for-mobile-phones-tablets-and-laptops/

Modern devices use Lithium Ion batteries, which work differently and have no memory effect. In fact, completely discharging a Li-ion battery is bad for it. You should try to perform shallow discharges — discharge the battery to something like 40-70% before recharging it, for example. Try to never let your battery go below 20% except in rare circumstances.

If you were to discharge your battery to 50%, recharge it, and then discharge it to 50% again, that would count as a single “cycle” with modern Li-ion batteries. You don’t need to worry about performing shallow charges.
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Septimus Prime said:
Top off. Lithium ion batteries get damaged if you let them drain out. Phones usually have a safety mechanism that considers the battery "0%" when there's still some juice, though, but top off.
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Yep, my iPhone 4 is still going strong because I rarely ever let it drain lower than 30%
 
At work I put it on the charger at my desk when it hits around the 60% mark. I let it charge while I'm working/using it but take it with me if I walk away. Then I charge it overnight while I sleep. Simple.

It is about time for a new phone though, recently started getting sudden power drops/losing settings on restarts.
 
Are there even hardware manufacturer or OS options to stop charging Li-ion at 70-90 % instead of 100 %?

Anyway, I doubt this has a noticeable impact on battery life these days compared to the full discharge thing.
 
Keep mine charged at all times.

-Home: Charger
-Car: Charger
-Commute: Anker portable charger in the bag
-Work: Charger

My phone only goes below 80% if I'm just too lazy to plug it in at any given time.
 
PotionBleue said:
Are there even hardware manufacturer or OS options to stop charging Li-ion at 70-90 % instead of 100 %?

Anyway, I doubt this has a noticeable impact on battery life these days compared to the full discharge thing.
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Most phones I've used (all Android) have the charging light turn green at 90%. The last 10% is the slowest to charge. Every phone tends to set 0% to actually around 5-10%, because the last thing you want to do is allow a deep discharge.
 
Top Off / random through out the day. Basically varies if I'm driving, at work, at home, etc. Then at the end of the night.
 
Top up, drain to 0% every now and then to reset the charge sensing circuitry.

There's a steep voltage drop when a lithium ion/poly battery runs out. For everything in between the phone has to guess from voltage and how much power has been drawn. Over time that guess can deviate and is why you can sometimes see the phone drop from like 30 to 0% in no time.

If you can avoid it it's generally a bad idea to leave it charging over night. The cells wear out faster the higher the charge is and unless you have a really slow charger even going from 0->100% will take just two hours. I think constantly being hot and charging is why so many laptop batteries die in record time. Some laptops have an option to cap the charge at 60-80% if you leave it plugged it most of the time.
 
Generally I do a full charge every other day unless I need to top it up otherwise - like if I'm going somewhere where charging might be difficult, and I think it's good to be safe than sorry. If only my girlfriend went by this ethos (she frequently runs out of battery)!
 
Full drain and charges can be useful for recalibrating the battery, but other than that troubleshooting step you don't want to be doing it.

And as people have stated, long-term storage of your electronics you want to make sure it's roughly half-charged. Leave a lithium ion battery around full without discharging it for long periods, and you can start to erode its max capacity. Leave it empty and the chances it never takes a charge again start ticking up.

Ty4on said:
Top up, drain to 0% every now and then to reset the charge sensing circuitry.

There's a steep voltage drop when a lithium ion/poly battery runs out. For everything in between the phone has to guess from voltage and how much power has been drawn. Over time that guess can deviate and is why you can sometimes see the phone drop from like 30 to 0% in no time.

If you can avoid it it's generally a bad idea to leave it charging over night. The cells wear out faster the higher the charge is and unless you have a really slow charger even going from 0->100% will take just two hours. I think constantly being hot and charging is why so many laptop batteries die in record time. Some laptops have an option to cap the charge at 60-80% if you leave it plugged it most of the time.
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Modern electronics aren't stupid, they won't erode the cells like that because they constantly let the phone discharge a bit and charge back up. That's why sometimes your iPhone will drop from 100% to something like 97% really quickly, because it was in the middle of one of those cycles and didn't top up again.
 
I put my phone on the charger when I go to sleep. Sometimes it's at 8% by that point, sometimes it's at 40%. I've had the phone (iPhone 6) nearly two years and it's still going strong in terms of battery life.
 
Aeana said:
I charge my phone at the same time every day, regardless of whatever its battery level is. I usually don't get it below 50% on a given day though.
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I try my best to do this as well. Usually around 8pm every night but if I see it go near 50% I charge it as soon as I can.

My only problem is falling asleep when it's still charging. Don't like leaving it charging all night but it happens sometimes.
 
Is it true for say an iPhone 6 or 6S battery that it is better to charge it slower than faster?

So the new 6, 6Plus, 6S and 6S Plus do accept faster charging say from a 2.1amp charger...

... but they come with the slower charging plug thing in the box.

I have read that the slower charging is better for long term battery health but I don't know if this is correct or not. Does anyone know?
 
AFAIK modern batteries lose half their charge capacity after 500 or so charges. Everyone I know with 2+ year phones can't last an entire day on a single charge anymore.
 
I remember reading that batteries didn't need the old drain and charge anymore, so I just charge it whenever the chance is there and I feel it's necessary.
 
Depends, I usually try to keep it full. I also use it as an alarm so I keep the fucker plugged in overnight and then its still charged during work
 
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