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Charge Apple watch Ultra every night or not?

M

metman888

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 19, 2022
69
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So i recently got my first apple watch, I've liked the idea of one for a while but never really clicked with the design. My wife's had a few and I've tried them on but didn't like them enough, that was until the ultra.

Anyway, we all know the battery life on the ultra is much improved, I'm regularly at 75% at the end of the day which leads me to my question...

I'm not interested in sleep tracking, I work very irregular shifts and it seems a pain to keep setting it up, I can go from going to bed at 9pm one night to 1am the next. Anyway seeing I'm only using say 25% of the battery per day would I be best off charging it at night every night or waiting till say its at 25% and charging it then. Either way I guess doesn't make a difference to me but just wondering what the general opinion is for say the health of the battery.

If it makes any difference i'm using the supplied charging puck and a 20w charger. Optimized charging is on but with my wildy changing patterns I don't expect much from it.

Dave
 
I’m in the same boat. I’ve been charging every other day, which means the watch is usually around 45% when I charge it. However, I’ve been considering just charging every night, as I like the idea of starting each day at 100%. I also have optimized charging on, and a pretty regular schedule, so that may help.
 
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my onion is every other night is fine depending on if you do things like GPS directions or more than an hour of exercise.

My habit how is about every third day I put it in the fast charger, take a shower. make coffee. by the time I remember to put it on its full.
 
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I've gotten in the habit of charging my watch for 20-30 minutes twice a day and haven't seen it fall below 20% ever. I charge it in the morning while I get ready for work and while showering in the evening. It never gets to 100% but that is fine. I do wear it for sleep tracking.
 
Same for me, I wear my watch day and night. Take it off in the morning and fast charge while in the shower and getting ready which gives it a 30% boost in just over 20 mins which is pretty much what I use in a day.
 
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so many different use cases/opinions/habits ...whichever charging schedule one thinks is best for one's case is fine, the best advise I can give is to get AC+ and just don't worry about battery health (since this is what's driving most people's charging schedules)
 
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I wear my watch overnight with sleep tracking, and all day. I charge every other day when I shower, or as needed. The watch gives a notification if it needs charging to make it through the night as well. I haven't done any testing with low power mode, as Apple delayed the supercharged 6 day low power mode.

In addition to the higher battery capacity, and optimized charging, I'm curious how much longer of a lifespan the Ultra will have. If you only charge half as often (or even less with low power) the battery degradation is reduced I believe. While a series 5 may have stopped holding a charge in three years, Ultra could be 5 years or something 🤷‍♂️
 
I charge it when it's not in use. So basically when I got to sleep. I left it off charger once... Friday at 1:44pm it was 100% charged. Lasted until Tuesday at 1:45am with 7%. Charged it after that.
 
Thanks for all the replies guys, i think i'll do what a lot of you do and put it on the charger whilst I'm having a shower/getting ready. The battery is so good on the ultra it doesn't matter if it gets to 100% or not.

i do have AC+ as well, had it on my phone and macboook air, never needed it before so hopefully the same here.

dave
 
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metman888 said:
So i recently got my first apple watch, I've liked the idea of one for a while but never really clicked with the design. My wife's had a few and I've tried them on but didn't like them enough, that was until the ultra.

Anyway, we all know the battery life on the ultra is much improved, I'm regularly at 75% at the end of the day which leads me to my question...

I'm not interested in sleep tracking, I work very irregular shifts and it seems a pain to keep setting it up, I can go from going to bed at 9pm one night to 1am the next. Anyway seeing I'm only using say 25% of the battery per day would I be best off charging it at night every night or waiting till say its at 25% and charging it then. Either way I guess doesn't make a difference to me but just wondering what the general opinion is for say the health of the battery.

If it makes any difference i'm using the supplied charging puck and a 20w charger. Optimized charging is on but with my wildy changing patterns I don't expect much from it.

Dave
Click to expand...
It won't hurt anything to charge every night.
 
metman888 said:
Thanks for all the replies guys, i think i'll do what a lot of you do and put it on the charger whilst I'm having a shower/getting ready. The battery is so good on the ultra it doesn't matter if it gets to 100% or not.

i do have AC+ as well, had it on my phone and macboook air, never needed it before so hopefully the same here.

dave
Click to expand...
And, if it matters to you, batteries that spend less time at full charge tend to have longer lifespans.

I’m actually starting to wonder if Apple might have made this watch too good for their own good. It’s easy to see these things lasting ten years still in pristine condition, and quite a few still having more runtime after 20 years than a new S8 does today out of the box. But these things are computers, and need software updates! So there’s likely to be quite some howling several years from now when Apple tries to “obsolete” them.

b&
 
I charge mine every third night. When I don’t charge overnight I put in low power mode.
 
If it were mine (I have a Series 6), I'd charge it every night. As long as you're not using it for sleep tracking, I think that having it topped off every day gives you flexibility if something were to happen and you needed to not charge it unexpectedly (power goes out, traveling, charging cord breaks, etc). With optimized charging turned on, there really isn't a downside. And from my perspective, it's easier to charge it every night than to have to remember if tonight is the night you charge it, or tonight is the night you don't charge.

But there really isn't a wrong answer, you're not damaging it by charging it every day or letting it run down on multiple days (at least not to a level that anyone will notice in the normal lifespan of an Apple Watch), so whatever is most convenient.
 
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Using it at 100%, when I go to sleep after a day around 80% is left. I don’t charge it then. The next day I wake up it is at 70% and when I go to sleep it is at 45%. Then I charge it.

So every other day at night. Charged my AW6 every day, but no need for that with the Ultra.
 
I charge mine every night because my battery will be around 40%. I have the large modular face & all of the complications are weather related (weather geek). They update frequently along with tracking my location which uses a lot of battery
 
I think it's a waste to charge it every night or morning as then you're replicating the necessary charging pattern of the standard watch. I'm luxuriating in the extended battery time and am charging it for an hour every second morning, by which time the battery is usually down around 25%.
 
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