Thoughts on Reducing Charging Heat for Apple Watch

[BigMcGuire]

Some thoughts on my new Apple Watch Ultra 3 ... the charging speed is insanely fast but it gets quite hot. My Apple Watch Ultra 2 would often complain about being too hot (using same charger) and pause charging...

For fun - I've played around with putting my Ridge wallet (metal) on the charging puck to draw off some of the heat and noticed with my AWU2 it would prolong the time I could rapid charge before getting the too hot message. I also put the Ridge wallet on the top of the watch face as well as also experimenting with turning the watch upside down so the charger's rear was facing up - and then put the wallet on the charger. These seemed to have a marginal impact on the overheating message appearing (it still appeared) - and I wonder if this setup made it worse since once the wallet's metal surface got saturated, the heat had nowhere to go instead of bleeding off? Not an expert here.

I do have a slow USB A watch charger and it charges 4x slower but interestingly enough, gets almost as hot regardless of the slower charging speed.

I have yet to get an overheating message on my Apple Watch Ultra 3 but it has gotten fairly hot the few times I've charged it so far.

Thoughts?

 

[jz0309]

Some thoughts on my new Apple Watch Ultra 3 ... the charging speed is insanely fast but it gets quite hot. My Apple Watch Ultra 2 would often complain about being too hot (using same charger) and pause charging...

For fun - I've played around with putting my Ridge wallet (metal) on the charging puck to draw off some of the heat and noticed with my AWU2 it would prolong the time I could rapid charge before getting the too hot message. I also put the Ridge wallet on the top of the watch face as well as also experimenting with turning the watch upside down so the charger's rear was facing up - and then put the wallet on the charger. These seemed to have a marginal impact on the overheating message appearing (it still appeared) - and I wonder if this setup made it worse since once the wallet's metal surface got saturated, the heat had nowhere to go instead of bleeding off? Not an expert here.

I do have a slow USB A watch charger and it charges 4x slower but interestingly enough, gets almost as hot regardless of the slower charging speed.

I have yet to get an overheating message on my Apple Watch Ultra 3 but it has gotten fairly hot the few times I've charged it so far.

Thoughts?

are you using the puck that came with your U3? The U3 is designed to be charging fast, I'd expect Apple to have tested this type of fast charging and found none or very minimal impact to the battery/watch.

If it is a big concern, get AC+.

Me, I charge bot my U2 and my S7 on the puck that came with the S0, over night, so I have no idea how hot they get.
I do charge the U2 on a U1 puck plugged into my Studio Display, it's charging after but I only do that when watchOS updates are installed (the stupid 50% and on charger requirement), it gets warm but never it felt "hot", to me.

 

[BigMcGuire]

are you using the puck that came with your U3? The U3 is designed to be charging fast, I'd expect Apple to have tested this type of fast charging and found none or very minimal impact to the battery/watch.

If it is a big concern, get AC+.

Me, I charge bot my U2 and my S7 on the puck that came with the S0, over night, so I have no idea how hot they get.
I do charge the U2 on a U1 puck plugged into my Studio Display, it's charging after but I only do that when watchOS updates are installed (the stupid 50% and on charger requirement), it gets warm but never it felt "hot", to me.

Yeah using the Apple one - my AWU2 had 99% health after 2 years too so - I don't think it hurt anything to get those messages either. So probably overthinking this. (More of a fun hobby - not out of necessity).

 

[jz0309]

Yeah using the Apple one - my AWU2 had 99% health after 2 years too so - I don't think it hurt anything to get those messages either. So probably overthinking this. (More of a fun hobby - not out of necessity).

FWIW, I've lived in SoCal for 20 years now, I do not recall ever seeing a "too hot" message on any iPhone or AW I ever owned.
I know that Qi charging in cars can drive temps quite up, but I rarely do that.
My old Bolt EUV had a Qi charger that was quite good, didn't heat up the phone much and charged fast, haven't tried the wireless charging in my Ioniq 5 in the past year
Good thing, just like computers, the OS knows when the device is getting too hot and throttles or even shuts down, built-in safety guard.
I haven't looked at the operating temperature range for my U2, but there is a reason there is that spec.

And not that you said anything about it, but the battery obsession here on MR is just that, an obsession. computing devices are tools, and tools get repaired/replaced when they don't do the job anymore, just my take.

 

[BigMcGuire]

FWIW, I've lived in SoCal for 20 years now, I do not recall ever seeing a "too hot" message on any iPhone or AW I ever owned.
I know that Qi charging in cars can drive temps quite up, but I rarely do that.
My old Bolt EUV had a Qi charger that was quite good, didn't heat up the phone much and charged fast, haven't tried the wireless charging in my Ioniq 5 in the past year
Good thing, just like computers, the OS knows when the device is getting too hot and throttles or even shuts down, built-in safety guard.
I haven't looked at the operating temperature range for my U2, but there is a reason there is that spec.

And not that you said anything about it, but the battery obsession here on MR is just that, an obsession. computing devices are tools, and tools get repaired/replaced when they don't do the job anymore, just my take.

Was in SoCal from 89 - 2023 - hah! We're in NorCal here for 3 years (this should be our last year (till Sept 2026)). We'll see where life takes us after that but... /wave from a fellow socal

Yeah I'm very happy Apple is taking a pro-active approach to this - I'd rather have them stop the charging than harm the battery. I only get it in the summer here - my tiny little apartment in NorCal faces the sun (even with the blinds closed it gets hot!). And despite 2 years of that with my Apple Watch Ultra 2 - health was still 99% - so yeah you're right, best not to think about it too much. Also, pretty sure me trying to dissipate the heat with my wallet only made things worse (saw the warning more).

Yeah, it's cheap enough I shouldn't worry or think about it. My wife gave me this AWU3 for my birthday so - hoping to make it last a long time (I'll just replace the battery when it gets low - like you said).

I appreciate the help and encouragement to reality

 

[Jackbequickly]

I charge my S11 every night using an old Apple 5watt charging block and it never even gets warm. I am in no hurry and it is always fully charged in the morning.