Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Anyone else addicted to charging / is it really bad?

I've been on an every 3rd generation iPhone buying cycle since the 3GS. The batteries didn't make it to each upgrade. My 3GS was unusable unless on the charger when I sold it as is. My iPhone 5 was on its third battery when I upgraded to the 6S.
 
leesweet said:
Right, I guess my point was: even if you flat discharged your phone daily, it would last a year before the battery needed to be replaced. Most Li-ion batteries have over 300 full cycles in them. And most of use never do a full cycle a day.
Click to expand...
And after the 300 cycles the battery isn't ruined, just won't hold as much as when new. 80% of rated new capacity. Unless a cell is damaged the reduction is gradual over the years.
 
VSMacOne said:
Not an issue with newer batteries. Just let it go down to >5% every 1-2 months but other than that it's better to keep it charged than do let it die every day.
Click to expand...

Very much not true.

bpeeps said:
Another fine instance of calling something OCD when it particularly isn't.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Folks in the forum say they are OCD about this and that and have no idea what it means. Sadly, I do.
 
GaryNoine said:
Not sure if this is a common problem, but my OCD often kicks in when it comes to my iPhone battery. If it drops below 50%, I get very worried and search for an outlet. I feel like I have to keep the battery in the 70-100% mark constantly.
My question is does anyone else do the same and is it really bad for the battery life to rarely let the phone drop below 50%?
Click to expand...

It is actually good for your battery, and will help it have a longer lifetime. Ideally you want to keep your battery at the higher %, 60-80% to reduce 'ageing'. So you have nothing to worry about.

PNutts said:
Very much not true.
Click to expand...

What he said is actually very much true for all newer batteries.
 
Last edited:
So is there no issue with iOS 9 and battery life? Wasn't there all this talk about it draining so much quicker after 9.0.2
 
GaryNoine said:
Not sure if this is a common problem, but my OCD often kicks in when it comes to my iPhone battery. If it drops below 50%, I get very worried and search for an outlet. I feel like I have to keep the battery in the 70-100% mark constantly.
My question is does anyone else do the same and is it really bad for the battery life to rarely let the phone drop below 50%?
Click to expand...
Actually you are doing the right thing by keeping your battery charged.
I would suggest you just to let it drain every few weeks down to a lower level and to unplug it every time you reach 100%.
BTW, just use it.
 
Last edited:
Max(IT) said:
Actually you are doing the right thing to keep your battery charged.
I would suggest you just to let it drain every few weeks down to a lower level and to unplug it every time you reach 100%.
BTW, just use it.
Click to expand...

You need to make up your mind as previous posts, you indicated that keeping your battery at 100% will harm the battery.

You are just contributing to the confusion!
 
Doesn't worry me at all. But here's something you could consider doing for your OCD. Once the phone gets to 50%, don't charge and make a note of how much usage in real world terms you get until it goes completely empty. Until it shuts off by itself. You should find that you get many more hours from it. That should be a good first step in dealing with the anxiety.
 
Newtons Apple said:
No. You said it could harm your battery.
Click to expand...
And you didn't understand, as I highlighted ...
What could harm your battery is to CONSTANTLY KEEP IT AT 100% (or discharged, but for other reasons).
To charge it at 100% and then unplug it is absolutely fine and it actually is what I'm regularly doing.
 
PNutts said:
Very much not true.
Click to expand...
Max(IT) said:
And you didn't understand, as I highlighted ...
What could harm your battery is to CONSTANTLY KEEP IT AT 100% (or discharged, but for other reasons).
To charge it at 100% and then unplug it is absolutely fine and it actually is what I'm regularly doing.
Click to expand...

Actually, most electronics today are capable of handling being plugged in at 100%. Yes, in theory it is bad to charge a battery at 100%, but most battery management systems are aware of this and cut of charge automatically. I know this is true for the macbooks, and I am very confident it applys to iPhone's as well.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Newtons Apple
Crzyrio said:
Actually, most electronics today are capable of handling being plugged in at 100%. Yes, in theory it is bad to charge a battery at 100%, but most battery management systems are aware of this and cut of charge automatically. I know this is true for the macbooks, and I am very confident it applys to iPhone's as well.
Click to expand...
Electronics of "today" still have to follow chemical laws.
I'm not going to explain it again, there are many threads on the matter, but basically a lithium based battery kept charged at 100% (whatever voltage that 100% is for the manufacturer) all the time wears quickest than the same battery that is unplugged AS SOON AS it reaches 100%.
That's chemical, not rocket science.
believe what you want.
A lot of people think I'm speaking about OVERCHARGING it. No, Im not. You basically can't overcharge a modern lithium battery.
I'm speaking about "the stress" of a constantly high (relatively high) voltage on a lithium battery.

two identical batteries, one kept at 100% and the other kept at 70%: which one lasts more ?
Do you know why batteries are stored at about 60% of the charge ?

That doesn't mean your battery going to die in a few months if you keep it constantly plugged in, but surely you are not doing the best for the battery doing that.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Eau Rouge
I'm that way too, with both my phone and my car. I won't let my gas tank go below half before I fill it up. When I see my phone at 49% I get a very uncomfortable sensation like it just has to be charged. Usually I can keep it above 50% for the duration of my day but when I can't, it's always when I've got no viable way to charge it.

I should invest in a good portable power pack, lost my old one a few months back...
 
I'm no longer charger addicted, since getting my 6s Plus!

In fact, I never enabled the battery percentage, just because I only seem to have to charge it every day and a half!

I just pop it on the charger at work either at lunch or before the day is out, and I'm great to go!
 
Last edited:
ROLLTIDE1 said:
I always wait till 1% or less before I charge
Click to expand...
Read the article I posted above. That's actually bad for your battery. Only do that full discharge about once every 1-2 months to help your software basically recalibrate according to the health of the battery.
 
I have almost never let the battery on my 3 year old iPhone 5 drain completely. It may have gone below 5% maybe less than 10 times in its entire history. The battery is still good, around 90% of design capacity.
 
Its a good idea to charge Li ion batteries as frequently as possible. Using the notional numbers in the below table, charging at 50% gives you 1500 cycles of 100% equivalent discharge compared to just 500 cycles at 100% discharge. That's 3 times more cycles than allowing the battery to discharge all the way down to 0%.

Another point to note is that Li-ion battery power electronics also are smart so that cells are selectively charged and discharged, so that all cells age at the same rate.

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1391186
2. Depth of Discharge (DoD): Quite self-explanatory thing. If you have 20% charge left, it means that DoD=80%. The higher is the DoD the lower is your battery life cycle.
Comparison table is here:
dod_chargecycles.png


Max(IT) said:
Electronics of "today" still have to follow chemical laws.
That's chemical, not rocket science.
I'm speaking about "the stress" of a constantly high (relatively high) voltage on a lithium battery.
Click to expand...
Needs more explanation than making a sweeping statement. My understanding is that the power electronics is switching to trickle charging when are certain charge state is achieved(~90% range), so that's not high voltage. If it's not high or max charge voltage at 100% state, can you explain how this relates to the so called 'chemical laws' causing the undue 'wear'?
 
Last edited:
I'm the opposite, I like to let my battery get really low before charging, as I think it will make it last better in the long run. Not sure if true or not, but makes me feel better.
 
Kinda feel sorry for anyone reading through this thread trying to figure out how best to take care of your battery. Those who constantly watch their charge level and rush to get a shot of juice if it gets below a certain amount . . . . well i got better things to do. I never even look at mine just plug it in before I got to bed and let my iPhone do what it was designed to do.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ladyc0524 and phillytim
GaryNoine said:
Not sure if this is a common problem, but my OCD often kicks in when it comes to my iPhone battery. If it drops below 50%, I get very worried and search for an outlet. I feel like I have to keep the battery in the 70-100% mark constantly.
My question is does anyone else do the same and is it really bad for the battery life to rarely let the phone drop below 50%?
Click to expand...
I was (and might still be) like that. 50% is the minimum I would tolerate. In order to "wean" myself off that addiction, I turned off the battery percentage.

The thing is, the paranoia I think is warranted, since there are times when phones just go kaput when the battery is nowhere near single digit percent left. So 50% can either mean you have half to quarter battery power left. And then there's the aging and charge cycle, so "half" of the battery after a year or so is not equal to half of the battery when the phone was new.

In any case, I always bring a battery pack with me so I'm less paranoid about my battery life now.
 
I don't really worry about charging until it's down to around 20% left. But, I have a fairly consistent and boring schedule and am usually home by the time it hits that mark. If I am traveling I generally try to keep it topped off if possible. Again I don't worry about it per se.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back