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Is it ok to charge iPhone 4 every night?

hoogen

hoogen

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 22, 2010
167
30
like the title states, is it ok to charge the iphone 4 every night? sinse i have gotten it i have waited untill it has gotten to around 20% (30ish hours) before i charge it. my battery life has been pretty consistant and long lasting, but by the time my phones battery gets low (the second day), its the middle of the day and i am not always around a computer or a wall socket and so on. i just want some input on what yall do and if charging it every night has effected how long your battery holds a charge.

P.S. if this has already been talked about i apologize, i did a search and didnt come up with anything helpful. thank you
 
Treat it like a car. Don't wait until you have a couple gallons left to fill it up. Just fill it whenever you feel like it. Gas is a metaphor for gas in this scenario.
 
Life is short....

I believe that the Apple literature says that the battery retains 80% of its capacity after 400 charges, so depending on how long you plan on keeping the phone, charging it every day may decrease the battery's lifespan more quickly than if you charge it only when the battery runs down to a certain percentage. That said, life is short, and the last thing I want to be worrying about is the charge of my phone, so I say just charge it every night. Not sure if Apple still has a battery replacement program for the iPhone (or if it ever did; I thought that they had something for the iPod), but you could always resort to that if your battery dies, or buy Applecare.
 
It's ok to charge your iPhone 4 every night. It has no weird effect like it did on the 'old days' :p
 
Drain 1 time a month

Apple's support pages say to completely charge and drain the battery at least once a month. Im bad about having mine plugged in a lot. While at work, driving (my car charger has an FM transmitter that I use for music) and on an klipsh speaker dock at home (actually my wife's but I snag it sometimes). Trying to make an effort with the new phone to drain it completely every now and then, even though my old 3g phone still had great battery life and I never made a conscious effort to do anything particular with regards to charging it.
 
thanks for the quick responses guys. i know that batterys have gotten a lot better about this problem, but i guess i am still a little sceptical about it.
 
JulesK said:
I believe that the Apple literature says that the battery retains 80% of its capacity after 400 charges, so depending on how long you plan on keeping the phone, charging it every day may decrease the battery's lifespan more quickly than if you charge it only when the battery runs down to a certain percentage. That said, life is short, and the last thing I want to be worrying about is the charge of my phone, so I say just charge it every night. Not sure if Apple still has a battery replacement program for the iPhone (or if it ever did; I thought that they had something for the iPod), but you could always resort to that if your battery dies, or buy Applecare.
Click to expand...

Thats 400 deep 100% charges. If you keep charging your battery little by little, that doesn't count towards the 100%.
 
I usually try and work my battery down to 20% or down to 0 sometimes also but noticed it takes FOREVER as well.. :) but it's not a problem at all to charge every night.
 
tjwaggoner said:
Apple's support pages say to completely charge and drain the battery at least once a month. Im bad about having mine plugged in a lot. While at work, driving (my car charger has an FM transmitter that I use for music) and on an klipsh speaker dock at home (actually my wife's but I snag it sometimes). Trying to make an effort with the new phone to drain it completely every now and then, even though my old 3g phone still had great battery life and I never made a conscious effort to do anything particular with regards to charging it.
Click to expand...

http://www.apple.com/batteries/

read up.
 
jp700p said:
Thats 400 deep 100% charges. If you keep charging your battery little by little, that doesn't count towards the 100%.
Click to expand...

Actually, it does. The effect is cumulative.

Run the down the battery completely and then charge it all the way back up: 1 charge cycle.

Run the battery down to 50%, then charge it fully, then 50% and charge it again: 1 cycle.

Run the battery down to 80% and charge it back up, 5 times: 1 cycle.

This is also how other Apple products, like the MacBook line, treats charging (and you can actually retrieve that count from a MacBook/Pro).

You are still going to want to go through a full deep cycle once a month though.
 
Here you can find the most comprehensive battery info available. Everything you could ever need to know plus much more is there just for the reading.

Also the answer to the OP question is yes as long as he/she calibrates it every month or two.
 
Li-Ion batteries don't have a "memory effect". They also work best and retain the most of their battery life over time if you always keep them as charged up as possible. This means to not waste the battery down every time. The reason you should discharge and charge completely once a month/every 45 days or so is because the battery display indicator becomes less accurate over time and a complete discharge and charge resets this properly.

Battery University have a very good article about Li-Ion batteries and how you should treat them for the charge to remain for the longest period of time. The article should be easily found through Google, it's been around for years.
 
Keep it above 20% and don't charge until it dips below 80%. Improve the accuracy of the percentage by depleting and fully charging once a month.
 
F123D said:
I usually try and work my battery down to 20% or down to 0 sometimes also but noticed it takes FOREVER as well.. :) but it's not a problem at all to charge every night.
Click to expand...

Never drain it down to 0. It is bad for the battery. There is a reason why the battery warning is at 20%.

You should do a deep discharge/charge cycle only to calibrate the battery every couple of months.
 
karansaraf said:
Li-Ion batteries don't have a "memory effect". They also work best and retain the most of their battery life over time if you always keep them as charged up as possible. This means to not waste the battery down every time. The reason you should discharge and charge completely once a month/every 45 days or so is because the battery display indicator becomes less accurate over time and a complete discharge and charge resets this properly.

Battery University have a very good article about Li-Ion batteries and how you should treat them for the charge to remain for the longest period of time. The article should be easily found through Google, it's been around for years.
Click to expand...
THIS.
 
elistan said:
I've been charging my first-gen iPhone nearly every night for over three years now, over 1000 days, and it still has a like-new capacity.
Click to expand...

Of about 28 minutes. :D
 
elistan said:
I've been charging my first-gen iPhone nearly every night for over three years now, over 1000 days, and it still has a like-new capacity.
Click to expand...
I wish this were the case for mine. My first-gen iPhone dies in less than two days even when it is not used at all and is in airplane mode.
 
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