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Other Charging wattage and long-term battery health recommendations? Also, stats!
- Thread starter FeliApple
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Fuggedaboutit. This is 2025. Just let the OS manage the battery and do not waste time agonizing about battery health.
Yeah, that’s my exact point. I’ll never do the 40-80% thing because I am not interested, but there’s (probably) a significant difference between charging with a 5w and a 20w.
Considering I keep my iPhones for years on end… I don’t know. Maybe I’ll start by charging with a 5w and I’ll see how annoyed I am.
I have an odd charging pattern in that I like to start my day with 100%, so I’ll charge it even if I have 97%. I am also a very efficient and light user who gets excellent SOT (16 hours on my iPhone Xʀ on iOS 12, probably around 27 hours on my iPhone 16 Plus), so as you can imagine, I don’t use a lot of battery life. That means my phone is at high SoC for the vast majority of its lifespan, which may not be that good for the health-to-cycles ratio (356 cycles with 89% health in 5.5 years for my Xʀ on iOS 12, always charging with 5w).
My reasoning is that if my health-to-cycles ratio due to my usage pattern is already iffy with the best charging pattern (always wired, always 5w with Apple’s original chargers), why push the issue further with fast charging?
Your health-to-cycles ratio is practically unattainable for me, so why (further) worsen it with fast charging?
Very importantly, I use and keep my iPhones for years on end. I’m not changing my charging pattern because I like it, even if it’s not the best for the health-to-cycles ratio.
I used to be like you: charging with 5w wired, but I’ve since discovered that the greatest determinant of long term battery health is capping the max charge. I currently use a 20w wired charger daily but set my charge limit to 80%. I also make sure to not let my charge fall below 20%. My 1.5 year old iPhone 15 is still at 100% batt health.
My last phone was an X that I used for just shy of 6 years. I charged that for the first two years with the 5w charger from 20-100% whenever it needed it, then for a year almost exclusively with 7.5w wireless charging. By the end of the third year I was at 83% capacity and was showing the "battery needs service" notification. I had Apple replace the battery and for the next three years only used 5w corded charging sticking to the 35-85% I do now. When I traded my X in for the 15PM, my phone was showing 94% capacity. I get the hanging on to devices for as long as possible. I'm going to hold onto my 15PM until it doesn't work anymore or if Apple releases something that I really feel is a worthwhile upgrade. I had no problem using my X but after I replaced it with the 15PM the difference in features, size and performance made it a noticeable upgrade so I was happy with the purchase..
Fast charger if I want to top it off in a hurry, slow charger otherwise is how I do it.
Realistically the increase in convenience is probably far more noticeable.
Realistically the increase in convenience is probably far more noticeable.
I charge my phone, Apple Watch and AirPods on an 18w Amazon Basics charger for the most part. Sometimes I use the 12w iPad charger. I have a 15PM and worry less about charging and more about the other factors that lead to battery degradation.
It’s a two port usb-c delivering 36 watts total.
- overheating in hot days
- charging to 100 unnecessarily
- letting the charge go below 20%
In charge to 80% for the most part. I charge to 100 when needed. The 80% lasts me the day. Letting the charge go to 0% strains the battery.
Wired, no heat, and avoiding repeated 0% drops is the vast majority of the equation.
It’s super interesting to see people’s results especially with the 15 and 16 models, which have on-board cycle count. You see that this is super unpredictable, with many 40-80 or 20-80 5w getting mediocre results (cycles-to-health ratio) and then you see somebody going “I charge with an 85w MacBook charger and with the fastest non-Apple wireless charger and I have 230 cycles and 99% health”.
Sometimes I think it’s so variable it’s practically irrelevant…
…except for heat. People who have exposed their iPhones to extreme heat have seen pretty much immediate degradation.
I personally use 5W wired for regular charging. I use 18W Fast Charging Power Bank(from Meko) when I am outside and don't have an outlet nearby. My iPhone is an iPhone 12(81% Battery Health). Its been in use for over 4 years.
For further reading, read this https://support.apple.com/en-us/101575
For further reading, read this https://support.apple.com/en-us/101575
At the beginning of last year, I started charging all my devices using the 80/20 method, i.e. charging up to a maximum of 80% and plugging them in as soon as they reach 20%. I use the CoconutBattery software to monitor the charge of all my devices so that I can intervene as soon as necessary. My MacBook Pro M1 13" lost capacity drastically, but since I've been using this charging method, there has been virtually no further loss in the battery. My iPad Pro M1 still has 97% capacity, my iPad Air M2 is still at 105% capacity, and I was able to limit charging to a maximum of 80% in the system. I charge all devices with the 67W power adapter that Apple included with my MacBook.
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I have a 14 PM bought 15 days before the release of the 15 series (September 2023), so maybe it was a few months in storage, although according to CoconutBattery the battery is manufactured in June of that year.
I love technology and devices from apple and other manufacturers, I always try to take care of them as much as possible and follow the manufacturer's instructions. Maybe it's the education I was given to take care of everything I received from my parents or relatives, or maybe I'm just a freak of conservation and maintenance.
I find it very curious the comments that always come up in these types of threads, some say “hey, just enjoy your iPhone and live life” or “here we go again with this thread about battery health craziness”....
I find it fun and enjoy watching and looking for patterns in device usage, charging, discharging. I want my device to last as long as possible and to that end I try not to overheat it and learn from other users who look for positive usage patterns for long term maintenance of the battery and thus the device.
Responding to the original poster:
I have 309 charge cycles and 90.7% battery health, I only charge from 20 to 80% (I have a shortcut that warns me). For a few months I was charging it with the official 5W charger but didn't see an advantage to it so I went back to charging with the official 20W which doesn't heat it up at all.
My plan is to wait for the latest iteration of IOS 18 and that's it. right now in 18.3.1 I do without problems about 7-8 hours of screen time (if I don't use BRAVE).
I am very interested in the use case in which the firmware is never updated, if you only use Apple apps you will not have problems but if you use third-party apps there will come a time when they will no longer be supported by an old firmware, although I think this takes a long time to happen.
I use more and more Safari and Apple native apps for almost everything, trying to do without dedicated apps in favor of services through the browser.
In my usage I have observed the following(...which will surprise no one):
- IOS 18 was the trigger for the battery health drop (I remember it was at 97% when I installed it and dropped to 95 the next day and kept dropping and dropping).
- App Store updating apps makes the iPhone quite hot.
- I did a fresh Install of 18.2 and for 2 months I was at 93% until suddenly without changing habits it went down to 90-91%.
In my family circle there are 2 iPhone 13, 1 13 mini, 1 iPhone 11, 1 12 PM and 1 12 Pro. Without a doubt the one that is performing the worst (without being dire) is my 14PM in terms of charge cycles/battery health ratio. In the time I've been reading about this stuff I've come to realize that the generation from X to 13 has been very good and the IOS's have done good power consumption management, something that in IOS 18 I don't think is a priority for Apple. I have read too many threads about 14 being the worst generation to date in power management.
I am not an expert, I am only expressing my opinion based on facts that I have been able to verify for myself and after reading a lot about this matter. As you can see, my care and pampering of my iPhone is not bearing much good fruit but I am sure that if I didn't take care of the charging and settings of the phone things would be much worse in terms of battery life.
Attached is an image with the usage history of my 14PM. As a curiosity you can also see an iPhone 4 with 1200 charge cycles and an iPad 2 with 317. I also add the battery health/cycle history of my wife's 13 mini.
I love technology and devices from apple and other manufacturers, I always try to take care of them as much as possible and follow the manufacturer's instructions. Maybe it's the education I was given to take care of everything I received from my parents or relatives, or maybe I'm just a freak of conservation and maintenance.
I find it very curious the comments that always come up in these types of threads, some say “hey, just enjoy your iPhone and live life” or “here we go again with this thread about battery health craziness”....
I find it fun and enjoy watching and looking for patterns in device usage, charging, discharging. I want my device to last as long as possible and to that end I try not to overheat it and learn from other users who look for positive usage patterns for long term maintenance of the battery and thus the device.
Responding to the original poster:
I have 309 charge cycles and 90.7% battery health, I only charge from 20 to 80% (I have a shortcut that warns me). For a few months I was charging it with the official 5W charger but didn't see an advantage to it so I went back to charging with the official 20W which doesn't heat it up at all.
My plan is to wait for the latest iteration of IOS 18 and that's it. right now in 18.3.1 I do without problems about 7-8 hours of screen time (if I don't use BRAVE).
I am very interested in the use case in which the firmware is never updated, if you only use Apple apps you will not have problems but if you use third-party apps there will come a time when they will no longer be supported by an old firmware, although I think this takes a long time to happen.
I use more and more Safari and Apple native apps for almost everything, trying to do without dedicated apps in favor of services through the browser.
In my usage I have observed the following(...which will surprise no one):
- IOS 18 was the trigger for the battery health drop (I remember it was at 97% when I installed it and dropped to 95 the next day and kept dropping and dropping).
- App Store updating apps makes the iPhone quite hot.
- I did a fresh Install of 18.2 and for 2 months I was at 93% until suddenly without changing habits it went down to 90-91%.
In my family circle there are 2 iPhone 13, 1 13 mini, 1 iPhone 11, 1 12 PM and 1 12 Pro. Without a doubt the one that is performing the worst (without being dire) is my 14PM in terms of charge cycles/battery health ratio. In the time I've been reading about this stuff I've come to realize that the generation from X to 13 has been very good and the IOS's have done good power consumption management, something that in IOS 18 I don't think is a priority for Apple. I have read too many threads about 14 being the worst generation to date in power management.
I am not an expert, I am only expressing my opinion based on facts that I have been able to verify for myself and after reading a lot about this matter. As you can see, my care and pampering of my iPhone is not bearing much good fruit but I am sure that if I didn't take care of the charging and settings of the phone things would be much worse in terms of battery life.
Attached is an image with the usage history of my 14PM. As a curiosity you can also see an iPhone 4 with 1200 charge cycles and an iPad 2 with 317. I also add the battery health/cycle history of my wife's 13 mini.
Attachments
The statistics part is fun for me, too! Like I said, as I don’t update iOS I don’t really need to follow any battery conservation techniques.
It’s a little odd, your monthly cycle count isn’t low. 17 cycles/month is definitely decent, yet your cycles to health ratio is not great 309/90.7% in 18 months vs my Xʀ’s 356/90.4% (according to Coconut, 89% health per iOS) in 67 months. So you have a worse health ratio with a far better cycle count to time ratio.
I haven’t followed the 14 specifically though, so I can’t comment on that.
As far as updating goes, I have found that health is irrelevant because the device always has good battery life even with poor health, and that it typically takes 5 to 6 years for the original iOS version to suffer. By then, it’s likely that you will want to update your iPhone or upgrade. My Xʀ on iOS 12 was the first time I was six versions behind and by the time it ended it wasn’t great. Maybe 4-5 years are comfortable. More than that it’s pushing it.
It’s odd that battery health plummeted with iOS 18. Two major versions in is a LOT more than one (the first one is typically great), but by now it should have a bit more resilience. You did not update it through five major versions. It shouldn’t have suffered like that.
In fact, as you comment, 14PM came out with IOS 16, then 17, and now 18.
That's only 2 major software iterations.
My wife still charges strictly from 20 to 80% with a 5W charger on her 13 mini and gets better results than I do.
You can see from my history that I get 142 cycles at 100% charge, which is fantastic, but getting down to 90% in just 160 more cycles is a complete disaster for the care I devote to the phone.
Without being curious and investigating further, I have to say that either I have a battery unit that is not one of the best that came out of the factory that day, or that IOS 18 to this day does not prioritize battery management as perhaps the older IOS did to a greater extent.
But I'm afraid it's both. ....