I've searched threads but none of the questions were exactly like this one. I realized my cheapie am/fm radio was irritating me with its tinny speakers. I have an old iPhone 3s that is no longer working as a phone, but I still use it as an iPod for general browsing, email etc. It occurred to me I could use it as my radio along with a little plug in speaker that has much better sound than the old radio. But, leaving the phone on all day streaming my fave radio station I assume would drain the batter really quickly. So, my question. Can I leave the iPhone/speaker setup permanently plugged into the wall. I'm concerned by how much the plug heats up while it's charging the phone. Maybe it isn't build for such continuous use. Opinions?
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Leaving iPhone on permanent charge
- Thread starter tritonx
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It's probably ok but not really recommended as it may be a fire hazard. They leave them that way in the Apple store....
Well I doubt the TC cares about the battery health of his 3G. It's well past it's useful service life.
It will take its toll on the battery. Like all lithium batteries keeping them at 100% for long enough will decrease their longevity. Most people notice this with laptops and standalone gps's where they are left charging constantly and finally when removed from a charger months or a year later they only last for 30 - 60 minutes. However if you plan on leaving that setup it won't really matter.
The risk is fairly minimal as explained by various earlier replies, and especially so when we are talking about an older device that isn't important and is being used for simple purposes like a radio/music player and not much more.
I am not talking about the device, I am saying that there are some chances that something might happen to the electric installation in the house. Even though the risk is very minimal...
From that point of view pretty much everything would need to be always unplugged. There are millions of devices always plugged in (charging or using up some electricity in some way) at millions of households for many many years without anything happening.
Plenty do. Cordless phones is probably one of the biggest examples that's is present all over the place for decades now. That said whether or not a device uses a battery doesn't matter much to the electrical system in the house, plenty of devices that are always plugged in without batteries use a different amount of electricity at different times, and that's not really different than a device that charges that simply uses a different amount of electricity at different times when more or less charge is needed.
So many answers, you can tell it is the Apple forum! 
Might as well toss mine in here too.
If the phone and the battery are that old, it could be the battery is not very good and the charger might be applying a charge all the time no matter if streaming or not. This would cause the plug at the phone to be a little warm.
At this point the battery could not suffer any harm by leaving it plugged in all the time. Maybe want to run it down once a month but I see no purpose.
Hope you take all these answers and kinda average them out as they, as usual, are all over the place.
Might as well toss mine in here too.
If the phone and the battery are that old, it could be the battery is not very good and the charger might be applying a charge all the time no matter if streaming or not. This would cause the plug at the phone to be a little warm.
At this point the battery could not suffer any harm by leaving it plugged in all the time. Maybe want to run it down once a month but I see no purpose.
Hope you take all these answers and kinda average them out as they, as usual, are all over the place.
