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ajm222

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 19, 2012
968
171
So we’ve all heard the stuff about keeping your iPhone charged between 40-80% to extend the overall life of the battery. Does anyway try and do anything similar with their watch? Seems far less practical, but just curious as I don’t recall this being mentioned frequently. I had my series 2 for ages and never really noticed the battery life dropping much over time.
 
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I do it, but I have multiple watches. I use my S6 SS during the day (around 7 AM to 7 PM) and it drops around 40%. So charge it up around 40%. Use my S4 Alu for sleep tracking so that also only drops 30% or so during the night. Do the same thing with my S5 SS that replaces the S6 during weekends. I don't know how I would do it if I was only using one as it will be inconvenient.
 
Cool, thanks! Makes sense. I’m thinking given how fast the new ones charge up, it might be feasible to keep it charged in the optimal zone, at least for a while, by just popping it on the charger for 20 Minutes here or there.
 
I don't keep the apple watch long enough that I don't care...
It is amazing though that apple watch 2 is still going strong for OP. Wow..
 
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Stoopid question, how do you limit the watch charge to 80%? Have I missed a setting somewhere?
 
Stoopid question, how do you limit the watch charge to 80%? Have I missed a setting somewhere?
You setup an automation and use a smart plug.. I use one for my iPhone but I don't care to do the same with my S6. I charge my watch when it gets around 30-35% and let it charge to 100%. My S6 is a year old and battery capacity is at 98%.
 
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Not sure who came up with the 40 figure, but you definitely don’t have to worry about your lithium ion batteries dropping below 40%. A more realistic range for optimal battery health is 25-80%, or even 20-80%. Even if you drain the battery completely, it’s not going to do much damage as long as you don’t charge it from 0 to a high percentage.

When it comes to charging for battery longevity it’s avoiding regularly exceeding ~80% avoiding charging more than ~50% at once that you want to worry about. Idk who came up with the 40% thing that but it sounds like they just pulled it out of their ***. 0% to 50% is perfectly fine.
 
Not sure who came up with the 40 figure, but you definitely don’t have to worry about your lithium ion batteries dropping below 40%. A more realistic range for optimal battery health is 25-80%, or even 20-80%. Even if you drain the battery completely, it’s not going to do much damage as long as you don’t charge it from 0 to a high percentage.

When it comes to charging for battery longevity it’s avoiding regularly exceeding ~80% avoiding charging more than ~50% at once that you want to worry about. Idk who came up with the 40% thing that but it sounds like they just pulled it out of their ***. 0% to 50% is perfectly fine.
You setup an automation and use a smart plug.. I use one for my iPhone but I don't care to do the same with my S6. I charge my watch when it gets around 30-35% and let it charge to 100%. My S6 is a year old and battery capacity is at 98%.
How do you know precisely what the remaining life is on your battery? The watch doesn’t have battery health now, does it?
 
How do you know precisely what the remaining life is on your battery? The watch doesn’t have battery health now, does it?
I didn’t realize this until like a week ago but it actually does. On the watch navigate to Settings -> Battery -> Battery Health
 
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I created a shortcut so when the watch hits 75% it will ping my phone and I can go and grab it.
I do occasionally charge to 100% too.
 
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I created a shortcut so when the watch hits 75% it will ping my phone and I can go and grab it.
I do occasionally charge to 100% too.
Wait… how did you do that for the watch? That’s exactly what I do but the other way around (I have my phone ping my watch when my phone rises above 75%). I’ve been trying to figure out how to get a notification when the watch exceeds 75% but haven’t been able to figure that out. Could you please share the details of the shortcut? That would be much appreciated.
 
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Too busy using it to start wasting time worrying about battery %'s constantly. Another one of these fear-mongering subjects.
It is not fear mongering; it is the chemistry of lithium ion batteries, which none of us can magically overcome. While I can see it being inconvenient for some people, it is not inconvenient for me in the slightest because:
  • I charge my phone at my desk, so it’s sitting right next to me (I can unplug it without getting up)
  • I get a ping to my watch when my phone exceeds 75%, so I don’t need to monitor it manually
  • My phone never dies on me or even gets close to dying (ever since 11 Pro Max)
  • I fast charge my phone, so if it’s ever low I can juice it up really quickly
These factors make it really easy for me to greatly extend the battery lifespan of my devices, which is especially important for me now because I plan on keeping my 13 Pro Max for a long time. I pay a lot of money for my Apple devices and I like to take good care of them. :) I am not saying that everyone should be doing this but if you’re in a situation where it’s easy and convenient, it does make a huge difference.

What was a waste of time for me was getting my old MacBook Pro’s battery replaced after only a few years because I didn’t take good care of it. It degraded to the point where the computer would just randomly shut down. 30-minute drive to Apple store, took them a full week to replace it, then another 30-minute drive to pick it up. Wasn’t fun being without my computer for a week.

For reference, I unplug when it rises above 75% while my family members (like most people) do not do this. All of us got the 12 Pro Max when it was released (I just bought it myself whereas they had some sort of carrier deal). We have all had the exact same phone for just over a year now, and here are the battery health stats:
  • Brother (93%)
  • Mom (92%)
  • Dad (92%)
  • Me (100%)
 
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That’s awesome! Thanks! And great tips.
Np! Btw if you want more info on this topic here is an excellent article from Battery University. They basically recommend 25-75%. That is what I do (shortcut to ping my watch when my phone exceeds 75), but if it does end up falling below 25% (which is rare) I don’t worry about it and just let it charge all the way to 76 anyway. I provided some battery health stats from my family and me in the comment above this one, and the results are quite interesting.
 
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Do you think 99% of watch owners care about this? 10/10 you are deluded.
Thank you for keeping it civil instead of being really rude for no reason whatsoever. I appreciate it. :)

If we asked a room of 100 people “do you care about the longevity of your Apple Watch?”, I would be interested to see the results. Something tells me it would be higher than 1%.
 
I think you're confusing optimized battery charging and battery health/capacity..
Not confusing, but see them in the same boat but yes technically not one and the same. It's about managing the battery health/charging optimizations which i do like on the phone side but i don't want my watch to be throttled when charging.

Give me full juice!
 
Funny, I've never given this kind of thing any thought with my Apple devices, and I have yet to have any batteries dip into low performance. Even my 2012 MBA battery was going strong when I sold it earlier this year after 9 years of use. The battery technology is at a point where you don't really need to bother worrying about this stuff.
 
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Thank you for keeping it civil instead of being really rude for no reason whatsoever. I appreciate it. :)

Wasnt intended, a hastily typed attempt to add a bit of humour to my reply. Apologies if it came across that way.

If we asked a room of 100 people “do you care about the longevity of your Apple Watch?”

If that was the question asked then I would expect 100 would reply yes. Ask it a different way:

"Are you willing to monitor your watch battery levels to ensure it is charged in a certain way at a specific % in order to extend its life?".

Let's say at best 5 reply "yes" and everyone else replies either "No" or "Not when I can only get 18 hours out of a single full charge".

The masses charge things when it needs to be charged, just like their phones, laptops and other devices. That is not changing.
 
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