My phone sits next to my bed at night – oh, charging! And I’ve rested my shoulders on the old myth that my phone is smart enough to stop charging once it’s full. At that point, the device is asleep, or so I thought. Apparently, I’m just like my phone. We recharge when we sleep!
But the question…
Your device has charged up to 100%, should you leave it plugged still?
No buddie.
It is not too good; it isn’t entirely bad however! Explains why Shane Broesky added a little veil when he stated that:
Leaving your phone plugged in overnight is okay to do, it will not drastically harm your device.
Ah, that feeling someone is thinking exactly what you are thinking! But when Shane goes further to say:
Lithium-ion batteries can react poorly if your phone experiences elevated temperatures, leading to a damaging effect. If you have a case on your device that does not allow heat to escape, this heat will increase the temperature of the battery and will cause cell oxidation, which will shrink the capacity and shorten the lifespan.
– Shane Broesky (co-founder, Farbe Technik, a charging accessories company.)
Then we have a problem. And when you find out, he’s right!
One thing that every tech equipment loathes is heat. In fact, no electrical appliance likes to deal with heat in every norm. And when you leave your phone plugged in for too long, this is what happens:
The battery overheats
Modern devices run on lithium-ion batteries which have like a brain of their own. Once they hit the 100 percent mark, they are supposed to fall asleep and maybe leave the host device to run on current from the charger. Truth is there is really nothing wrong with this until the battery begins to heat up, then you risk ruining its entire destiny.
When you leave your device plugged because you don’t want the battery to drain by even half percent ( I know that stare we can give in times like this), the battery packs up all the juice it can then requests for more when it’s in need again. Believe me, batteries naturally drain and there is nothing we can do about that! You may not notice but think about it, if truly the device stops charging at 100%, why then does it stick at that number when it’s plugged and not even drop an inch? You see, it is still charging!
At full charge, there is still communication between the charger and the battery and it is normal for batteries to become hot when charging (even during usage). When there’s too much pizza on the table, the kids make a mess – Quote from my great great great great grand mother. Experts recommend that we discontinue charging when the battery gets overly warm, how do you address this when you are probably sleeping? Or you are determined to leave your device at that designated socket till you are ready to leave the office? In essence, all the heat your battery is generating from charge can become too much for it to handle over the night. Every battery’s worst enemy is Heat! However, it cannot be prevented. So much heat…So much damage. It is advised to peg the heat at minimum. Charge responsibly!
Oh wait, there’s more to it!
The puffed corn hypothesis
Aside getting too much heat, there is one wee-thing your battery is capable of doing when it is plugged in for too long; which isn’t too good as well. Look at it this way:
When the battery is charging, it absorbs heat and expands; when it is not, it cools down. I was a champ in school back in the 20’s :D. So I remember that thing that happens to rocks when there’s so much water and so much heat. It breaks! Physical Weathering in Geography; ah, right!
The same goes for any device battery. When you plug it in till eternity and there’s a little discharge, it will get charged up again. In that sense, your battery will get hot, cold, hot-hot, cold-cold, etc… Puff! You notice significant decrease in battery life.
Imagine in a country like Nigeria where stable power supply only happen in the movies. Once upon a time, there was a pregnant battery!
Most modern phones have indictor light or beep tones when the battery is fully charged. It ain’t for fashion!
So what really happens if you decide to keep your phone connected to the charger when it is fully charged?
- You risk decreasing the lifespan of the battery
- You risk carrying a baby when you don’t have one (70% of preggie batteries don’t even power a phone)
- You risk surge battle if any
- Eventually, the battery will be damaged. I don’t know how long but eventually!
Keep these 4 things in mind and you shall never go astray!
To wrap up, battery manufacturers and experts advise that we should keep these modern batteries at 50% – 80% charge for a prolonged battery life, most especially Litium-ion batteries (Pocket Lint).
You see why you may not even need to juice all the way to 100 percent? If I can give you a simple formula, try charging to full capacity, then juice up again when battery gets to 50% or a little below. That way, you should be fine. You can’t overcharge your battery, you will only damage it!
With these few points of mine…. You know the rest!