Does Cases on Phone Degrade Battery

[chefwong]

So I'm on my beater iPhone (sold my 7 - awaiting new releases) and my 6S is naked without case.
Granted I've always knew the phone ran hot/hottish when using GPS in the car.

Now that I've been using a phone ~naked~, a thought came to me.
With the heat generated when the hot is CPU intensive or just charging, and the fact that the cases don't allow the phone to thermally dissapate the heat as well as without a case, what camp do you fall in re: the heat that is localized respective to the life of the battery....

 

[canuckRus]

So I'm on my beater iPhone (sold my 7 - awaiting new releases) and my 6S is naked without case.
Granted I've always knew the phone ran hot/hottish when using GPS in the car.

Now that I've been using a phone ~naked~, a thought came to me.
With the heat generated when the hot is CPU intensive or just charging, and the fact that the cases don't allow the phone to thermally dissapate the heat as well as without a case, what camp do you fall in re: the heat that is localized respective to the life of the battery....

If it's a beater phone and you are "awaiting new releases" why care?

 

[chefwong]

The OP was not relative to the phone being used but general discussion sake.
For the most part, charge cycles alone, we probably ~flip~ our phones over before we notice a detriment.

Heat+Batteries is generally not a good combo...

 

[sdwaltz]

Honestly my guess is that the case HELPS to dissipate heat. The case likely absorbs some of it like a heat sink over a CPU/GPU would...but this is pure speculation.

 

[defferoo]

Honestly my guess is that the case HELPS to dissipate heat. The case likely absorbs some of it like a heat sink over a CPU/GPU would...but this is pure speculation.

nope... most cases are made of silicone, which has low thermal conductivity. this means it's a decent insulator and keeps heat trapped. heatsinks are made of metal, which has high thermal conductivity. this is something I've thought about before but I wonder if anybody has done any studies on it. i'm guessing this also depends on how hot your phone gets. if usage is light, it might not have much of an effect, but if you're constantly stressing the CPU/GPU, could be an issue.

 

[Whoakapi]

Honestly my guess is that the case HELPS to dissipate heat. The case likely absorbs some of it like a heat sink over a CPU/GPU would...but this is pure speculation.

Apple actually recommends to remove certain thick cases during charging as the aluminium backside is better at dissipating heat than plastic

 

[JPack]

Heat and li-ion aging effects on are well studied with commercial 18650 cells. Degradation is correlated with heat.

Most phone cases are made from TPU which has poor heat transfer properties. It's effectively an insulator.

I would suggest keeping the cell temperature between 25-35C. Once temperature reaches 50C or higher, the graphs show rapid aging and decreased capacity.

 

[cbreze]

I've always used leather thin minimal cases and generally never remove them except for occassional cleaning the dust out.
I've not noticed any extra heat while charging as others have mentioned tho. the only time I notice heat is when putting my iphone 7 thru some heavy work load and even then it's not enough to make it what I'd call hot. I don't game with it tho. In any case I never worry about it.

 

[noobinator]

The degradation would be extremely minimal.

 

[chefwong]

cbreze - granted hot/warm is subjective....it's always been on my radar as heat+batteries is not a good combo.
Granted we flip/recycle/ go through phone models before it's noticeable to the end user experience...

But with the couple days I've been using the phone naked, it just brings this more to light as I really can feel the heat generated when using NAV...and I literally use Waze when I'm in the car. I don't think I even using the radio on the ever and just bluetooth it .

I'll have to play around when it to report back - since running naked for more observation- , but when the phone is not doing trickle charging at 90% plus, but during bulk charging at like 30-70% range, it does get hot as well....

 

[miamialley]

I live in SoCal and have a job where I have to leave my personal phone in my car all day. It gets over 100 degrees outside easily (like today). Even though my phone is in the center console with a lid covering it, in no case, my phone is so hot when I get out of work it's too hot to touch. I've wondered what that does to the batter or other components day after day.

 

[chefwong]

Ouch, on a ---heatsoaked--- car, def going to see degraded batter life. If you get a new phone every 1-2 years, like it's the new norm....u may not see it's effects.

 

[Whoakapi]

Heat and li-ion aging effects on are well studied with commercial 18650 cells. Degradation is correlated with heat.

Most phone cases are made from TPU which has poor heat transfer properties. It's effectively an insulator.

I would suggest keeping the cell temperature between 25-35C. Once temperature reaches 50C or higher, the graphs show rapid aging and decreased capacity.

Do you have any studies/sources on what's worst factor regarding the degradation of Li-Ion batteries? I often hear the factors such as heat, cycles and keeping the battery at either full or empty are what kills it. But I haven't found any information on how these factors are rated compared to each other.

 

[chefwong]

Just for the wiki....observation.
Fully charged battery on plug - running backup via Wifi/sync to itunes - generates quite a bit of heat as well...
Methinks I'm going to turn off wifi sync and stick with hardwire..