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Brapinator

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 1, 2021
11
1
My main worry is overcharging. If you plug it in at 50 percent, then the phone has plenty of time to adjust itself and slow down when it gets to 100 percent. But let's say its at 90 or 95 percent, is the phone smart enough to know that its almost full and not to overcharge itself on the way up to 100 percent?
 
Not recommend leaving your phone on the charger for long periods of time when the phone is fully charged, you’ll end up stressing out the battery and shorting it life span, why do you need to charge your phone if it’s at 90%?

Sounds like optimized battery charging in battery settings is what you’re after, check it out.
 
I wouldn't plug a phone in to charge that still shows 100% or 99% but 90% or 95% is fine. Unless they've changed the way phones charge since I first learnt about them, they charge in two different stages. Fast when the battery is low (20%) then slows down at the upper levels (80 to 90%.) That's why a phone can charge from 20% to 30% in 10 minutes, let's say for example, and also do 30% to 40% also in ten minutes. But when it gets to 95% it can take ten minutes just to get to 97%, which is a movement of 2% compared compared to 10% before, because it's charging fast then, and slows down as it becomes fuller. The charger actually gets its dictates from the batteries voltage. That percent gauge is just for your convenience. So when you plug in a lithium device to charge, several things happen at once. One of those things is determining which stage to charge in. If the battery is below a certain threshold voltage, it starts charging fast, like when the battery is at 40%. If it detects the voltage is above that threshold, it then commands it to charge at that slower pace. I remember experimenting with this in an old ZTE phone, my first ever smartphone. When charging from 25% the charger would be warm. But if I plugged it in at 92% the charger would produce very very very little to no heat in the charger block as the phone went to 100%.

That's how lithium batteries have worked from since I've started fooling with them, and if they've changed, it's news to me. Your battery has several protections built in, from overcharge to over discharge protection. Over current protection as well, but you really only see this happening in cordless tools that you try to draw to much power from. They also have a protection built in that if they get too overdischarged from self discharge and the voltage drops below a safe level, the circuit opens and renders the battery from accepting any charge unless you've got like a cadex battery analyzer.


Probably a longer answer than you wanted, but there it is.
 
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Unless you need maximum battery, there is no need to charge at 90%. If you have optimized charging enabled, it learns your rythm and stops at 80% untill well before you normally get up. Så that it is 100% when you get up, but not the whole time plugged in. Charging is controlled by the phone, so don't worry over charging, it will stop when full.
 
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Thanks for the answers. Yes I'm aware about optimized charging. My sleep pattern and wake up differs from day to day that I doubt it would ever consistently figure out my pattern. I'm asking this in the situation that if I unplugged my phone at 8am and go through the day with maybe a phone call or two and some texts and I arrive back home and it's 10pm and I'm ready for bed and my phone is at 90% and I plug it in if its safe to do so or should I leave it off and hope that It can make it overnight plus the next day. My days differ in that I may make 5 minutes worth of phone calls one day and 3 hours the next. I like to start off the day at 100 percent, just to make sure I'm good for whatever comes that day. I have no fear plugging it in at 50 percent, its the plugging it in at 90 percent I'm concerned abou
 
My main worry is overcharging. If you plug it in at 50 percent, then the phone has plenty of time to adjust itself and slow down when it gets to 100 percent. But let's say its at 90 or 95 percent, is the phone smart enough to know that its almost full and not to overcharge itself on the way up to 100 percent?
I wouldn’t worry about it at all. It’s a $60-$70 dollar battery. I worry about going to 100% and staying at 100% if my battery is $10k or more to replace. But like you I like to start my day at 100% on my phone. I’ll recharge at 98%. So don’t worry about it.

The phone software knows it’s 100% and will not overcharge it by continuing to pump voltage. Apple has been doing batteries since their notebooks to iPods. They have, the not overcharge the battery software technology mastered. In fact look at the charge curve on your iPhone. Notice how fast it reaches from 0% to 70%. Then notice how much slower it takes to gain another 20%. And from 95-100% it’s slow. The software knows to protect the battery.
 
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Thanks for the answers. Yes I'm aware about optimized charging. My sleep pattern and wake up differs from day to day that I doubt it would ever consistently figure out my pattern. I'm asking this in the situation that if I unplugged my phone at 8am and go through the day with maybe a phone call or two and some texts and I arrive back home and it's 10pm and I'm ready for bed and my phone is at 90% and I plug it in if its safe to do so or should I leave it off and hope that It can make it overnight plus the next day. My days differ in that I may make 5 minutes worth of phone calls one day and 3 hours the next. I like to start off the day at 100 percent, just to make sure I'm good for whatever comes that day.
Wake up a bit earlier and put the phone on charge, problem solved. 😜😊🔋
 
Lol. The day I set two alarms, one for the phone and one for me, is the day I check in to the looney bin. Thanks for the laugh, I needed it lol.


Yeah I'm not even too worried about it shortening the life of the battery slightly, I'm more concerned about the potential fire hazard lithium batteries pose when abused
 
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Lol. The day I set two alarms, one for the phone and one for me, is the day I check in to the looney bin. Thanks for the laugh, I needed it lol.


Yeah I'm not even too worried about it shortening the life of the battery slightly, I'm more concerned about the potential fire hazard lithium batteries pose when abused
Lol, plenty of people leave their phones on charge overnight, like @1rottenapple said above, battery replacement is cheap, thrash the living hell out of it then get a replacement from apple. 😁
 
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Lol. The day I set two alarms, one for the phone and one for me, is the day I check in to the looney bin. Thanks for the laugh, I needed it lol.


Yeah I'm not even too worried about it shortening the life of the battery slightly, I'm more concerned about the potential fire hazard lithium batteries pose when abused
Nah there been incidents of battery combusting just sitting there not charging. If you want no risk, stick to a dial up rotary phone haha.

I do think about the risk of fire given we have so many battery packs, laptops, phones, Nintendo switches, lamps, all on lithium battery packs. Heck i have a literal brick battery pack! I’m in trouble if it choose to start burning. One way to reduce risk is to have good working smoke alarms in all rooms and floors.
 
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Well, here's this. If you leave your phone plugged in overnight, its been charging this whole time from 95 to 97 percent back to 100 percent this whole time without you even knowing it. Lithium batteries can't trickle or top off charge like NiMh or lead acid batteries do. When Lithium batteries get to 100, the charging stops completely. While still connected, the charge controller monitors the batteries voltage. After several hours pass and the battery discharges a little, say around 97 or 98, the charger kicks back in and charges it back to 100, then stops again. You'll never see it, cause the battery gauge will stay at 100 percent when plugged in, but when the voltage drops after several hours, it starts charging back to 100 percent. So if you leave your phone charging overnight, like 99% of people do, your phone has already been charging from 97 percent to 100 percent, probably several times a night, without you even knowing it. Bar a rare defect in manufacturing of the battery, you're fine.
 
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My take away personally is to stop worrying about battery life. My 8+ in its fourth year of ownership still has 87% capacity while never once paying any attention to charging strategies whatsoever and randomly using all different chargers including almost two years of just wireless ones.
 
To answer your question:
The instant you plug the Lightning cable into the phone, the phone senses it and sets the appropriate charge current BEFORE the actual charging begins. When everything is set (taking temperature into consideration too) charging then begins at an appropriate rate.

If you plug in the phone when it's at 40% charge level, it'll get the full capacity of the charger output. If you plug it in when it's 90%, then it'll just get a slow inefficient trickle charge.

The best way to charge if you're not using much battery each day is to wait until the battery is below 65% before plugging in again.
But if you don't care about getting years and years and years out of the battery- you can plug it in at any time
 
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Plug in your phone whenever you want. Despite what many people here will tell you, almost nothing that you can do will have a significant effect on the long term health of your battery. The battery itself, and the software that governs its charging, are designed to accommodate all kinds of charging habits.
 
My take away personally is to stop worrying about battery life. My 8+ in its fourth year of ownership still has 87% capacity while never once paying any attention to charging strategies whatsoever and randomly using all different chargers including almost two years of just wireless ones.

Same. I just charge my devices whenever, always to 100% in the morning when I get up. I don't bother looking at battery health.
 
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I don't have the percentage showing and just plug it in (actually wireless) every night. Problem solved...
 
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Thank you everyone for all your answers, I'm feeling much more confident about it now.
 
I don't have the percentage showing and just plug it in (actually wireless) every night. Problem solved...
lol this is one of my favorite things about the notched iPhones is that it hides the battery percentage. I always kept it off I hated seeing the number because it would be the first thing I'd look at when unlocking my phone.

I just gauge it by the little battery icon, it's plenty
 
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