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iPhone 12 Is it bad to charge iPhone 12 with the small block?

ssledoux

ssledoux

macrumors 601
Original poster
Sep 16, 2006
4,450
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Down south
I typically charge my phone with one of my larger charging blocks (sorry, don’t remember the wattage), but last night, there was a regular block charger and cord by the bed, so I just plugged it in there. It was right around 20% when I plugged it in, and this morning, it was still not at 100%.

It made me wonder if it’s bad for the phone/battery to use that small charger. Certainly that would be an exception for me, since I don’t normally use that, but I don’t want to do anything that would damage my battery.
 
ssledoux said:
I typically charge my phone with one of my larger charging blocks (sorry, don’t remember the wattage), but last night, there was a regular block charger and cord by the bed, so I just plugged it in there. It was right around 20% when I plugged it in, and this morning, it was still not at 100%.

It made me wonder if it’s bad for the phone/battery to use that small charger. Certainly that would be an exception for me, since I don’t normally use that, but I don’t want to do anything that would damage my battery.
Click to expand...

It just charges slower because of the lower wattage. Technically, that's actually better for the phone since fast charging puts more stress on the battery, but that's unlikely to make a difference in the long run either.
 
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ssledoux said:
Honestly, if I’m sleeping I don’t care how slow it is, so if it’s better for the phone, I guess I’ll just do that more often. ;-p
Click to expand...

It’s not that it’s better for the battery. It just charges slower.
 
ssledoux said:
Honestly, if I’m sleeping I don’t care how slow it is, so if it’s better for the phone, I guess I’ll just do that more often. ;-p
Click to expand...

You buy multiple devices throughout the year though. Does it really matter?!

macher said:
It’s not that it’s better for the battery. It just charges slower.
Click to expand...

It is better for the battery in long term if someone’s going to keep the device for 2 or more years. The less voltage pushed in the better it is. This is why fast chargers kill lithium ion batteries faster and degrade battery life.
 
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akash.nu said:
You buy multiple devices throughout the year though. Does it really matter?!
Click to expand...

Actually, no. I typically do not. I have actually never purchased more than a single phone in a year with the exception of this year. I also like to keep my phones in the best shape possible in case I do sell them or pass them on.
 
akash.nu said:
Ah I see. Apologies I had no bad intentions if it came across like that.
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It’s fine. I guess I just see so many posts from people buying 3-4 phones, knowing they’re going to return all but 1, or swapping phones back and forth, and I did it this year over a few month period, for the first time ever, because I was really struggling with phone size, and people have hounded me to death. I’m usually not thin-skinned, but just kinda flew off the handle there. Sorry for that.
 
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I doubt it will make too much of a difference for the battery health in the lifetime of the device. Generally speaking I tend to not care about the battery anymore. My 8+ is more than three years old, has been fast charged, slow charged, wirelessly for the last almost 2 years, and battery health is still 87%.
 
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macher said:
Depends on the heat. Warm isn’t bad for a short period. You keep posting about this and you don’t get it.
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I do get it. What i said is true. If a phone fast charges from 0 or even 20% - to 80%, that is a lot of excess heat in a short amount of time. It doesn’t matter if the charging slows after 80% because the battery has already experienced the initial excess heat from the fast charging.

And don’t presume to tell me what I know and don‘t know. You don’t know me at all.
 
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ericwn said:
I doubt it will make too much of a difference for the battery health in the lifetime of the device. Generally speaking I tend to not care about the battery anymore. My 8+ is more than three years old, has been fast charged, slow charged, wirelessly for the last almost 2 years, and battery health is still 87%.
Click to expand...

Yeah I don’t care either. But if you’re constantly fast charging then it’ll degrade faster for sure. I tend to just plug in when I feel like it. That’s why even the optimise charging thing doesn’t work well for me because I don’t have a schedule.
 
akash.nu said:
You buy multiple devices throughout the year though. Does it really matter?!



It is better for the battery in long term if someone’s going to keep the device for 2 or more years. The less voltage pushed in the better it is. This is why fast chargers kill lithium ion batteries faster and degrade battery life.
Click to expand...

The newer Apple 20w charger is better at fast charging.

Plus it won’t be a significant difference after 2 years anyway.
 
ssledoux said:
last night, there was a regular block charger and cord by the bed, so I just plugged it in there. It was right around 20% when I plugged it in, and this morning, it was still not at 100%.
Click to expand...
I'm always rather stunned by the speed of the 5 watt charger on my Mini - way faster than it was on my 6S. And other than my first night of ownership, for the first time ever in 20 years of owning cellphones, I'm not plugging it in at night. An hour during the during the day, or twenty miles in my car plugged in to USB is more than I need for the entire day. Mind you, if I was working, my needs might be higher.

More directly, charging the last few percent of any lithium battery not only takes a lot of energy relatively, but is also harmful to battery longevity. It would be nice if Apple, like most electric cars (or their charging equipment) could schedule charging limiting it to say 80% (or whatever is needed for your daily usage pattern). They do have some predictive algorithm that does just that, but is not under your full control. It is possible that that stopped your phone from a full charge. But the language on this option (in Battery Health) suggests it still charges past 80%, but it tries to time full charge for your wake up time.

Check to see if this option is enabled as that might be what happened: Apple failed to predict your wake time well enough (or really is limiting charge). The 5 watt charger certainly is capable of charging your phone overnight - I'd bet 3 hours or so would be typical amount of time needed.
 
yticolev said:
I'm always rather stunned by the speed of the 5 watt charger on my Mini - way faster than it was on my 6S. And other than my first night of ownership, for the first time ever in 20 years of owning cellphones, I'm not plugging it in at night. An hour during the during the day, or twenty miles in my car plugged in to USB is more than I need for the entire day. Mind you, if I was working, my needs might be higher.

More directly, charging the last few percent of any lithium battery not only takes a lot of energy relatively, but is also harmful to battery longevity. It would be nice if Apple, like most electric cars (or their charging equipment) could schedule charging limiting it to say 80% (or whatever is needed for your daily usage pattern). They do have some predictive algorithm that does just that, but is not under your full control. It is possible that that stopped your phone from a full charge. But the language on this option (in Battery Health) suggests it still charges past 80%, but it tries to time full charge for your wake up time.

Check to see if this option is enabled as that might be what happened: Apple failed to predict your wake time well enough (or really is limiting charge). The 5 watt charger certainly is capable of charging your phone overnight - I'd bet 3 hours or so would be typical amount of time needed.
Click to expand...

I notice when I charge with my 20w Apple charger it seems like 80% is sort of the stopping point. It gets to 80% pretty fast then it takes forever if you want a full charge. I normally take my phone off at 80%. If I need another charge again during the day on a weekday, I just charge again to 80%.

Got to love this 20w charging.
 
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ssledoux said:
I typically charge my phone with one of my larger charging blocks (sorry, don’t remember the wattage), but last night, there was a regular block charger and cord by the bed, so I just plugged it in there. It was right around 20% when I plugged it in, and this morning, it was still not at 100%.

It made me wonder if it’s bad for the phone/battery to use that small charger. Certainly that would be an exception for me, since I don’t normally use that, but I don’t want to do anything that would damage my battery.
Click to expand...
Wasn't it a optimizing charging ? Keep 80% whole night and then 1 hour before wake up (iphone learn your habits) charge to 100%...
 
Optimizing charging show information on lockscreen when you will have a 100%

optimized-battery-charging.jpg


And looks like that

optimized.png
 
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ssledoux said:
I typically charge my phone with one of my larger charging blocks (sorry, don’t remember the wattage), but last night, there was a regular block charger and cord by the bed, so I just plugged it in there. It was right around 20% when I plugged it in, and this morning, it was still not at 100%.

It made me wonder if it’s bad for the phone/battery to use that small charger. Certainly that would be an exception for me, since I don’t normally use that, but I don’t want to do anything that would damage my battery.
Click to expand...
Nothing wrong. I charge my pro max 12 with the 5 watt charger (smaller iPhone charger) and it reaches 100% by the morning.
 
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macher said:
Depends on the heat. Warm isn’t bad for a short period. You keep posting about this and you don’t get it.
Click to expand...
Theoretically heat does degrade the capacity of charges the battery can hold. My previous iPhones (7,8 and XR) all had about 98% battery capacity left after about a year. I was charging them with the 12W (iPad charger) power brick on a daily basis. However, my 11PM has dropped to 92% and I have been charging it with the 18W brick for a year now. I’d rather change my battery yearly than to put up with slow charging speed daily.
 
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