charging when phone dies or whenever you have a chance?

halfmonkey · Mar 12, 2012

Curious to know if there's any harm being done to the phone by continually letting the phone completely die before plugging it in to charge? I know this helps maintain the battery but I was wondering if this actually harms the phone's electronics in any way. For example, if you're at 1% power and in the middle of performing some functions or playing a game, would it actually hurt the phone if the power went out in the middle of your function or does the phone leave just enough juice to properly shut down to 0% battery life?

Skull One · Mar 12, 2012

halfmonkey said:
Curious to know if there's any harm being done to the phone by continually letting the phone completely die before plugging it in to charge? I know this helps maintain the battery but I was wondering if this actually harms the phone's electronics in any way. For example, if you're at 1% power and in the middle of performing some functions or playing a game, would it actually hurt the phone if the power went out in the middle of your function or does the phone leave just enough juice to properly shut down to 0% battery life?

Short answers: No (yes if you do raw chemistry with temps involved), Yes.

The much longer answer.

Lithium-Ion batteries work on a simple premise. They have a finite recharge life. They base this recharge life on the 80% rule. From the initial charge at the factory till X number of recharges later (between 300 to 500) your battery should be able to maintain 80% or better of that first charge level. This allows the average consumer grade Lithium-Ion battery to last approximately 24 to 30 months. Now remember I answered your first question with a double answer. Constantly doing a complete discharge isn't considered "the safest" method due to temperature issues. IE if you are in certain temp ranges during a recharge you can cause the anode to start oxidizing. Which is what kills a batteries ability to charge. So they actually recommend that you recharge at 40% or higher if possible. The reason for 40%? That is the optimal charge for long term storage of a Lithium-Ion battery.

As far as enough juice to shutdown properly, yes the current iPhones all shutdown with enough power to preserve the on board memory for 12 to 24 hours so you can get it on a charger. That is just a "nice feature" of the iPhone and but isn't needed for proper operation.

halfmonkey · Mar 12, 2012

Skull One said:
Short answers: No (yes if you do raw chemistry with temps involved), Yes.

The much longer answer.

Lithium-Ion batteries work on a simple premise. They have a finite recharge life. They base this recharge life on the 80% rule. From the initial charge at the factory till X number of recharges later (between 300 to 500) your battery should be able to maintain 80% or better of that first charge level. This allows the average consumer grade Lithium-Ion battery to last approximately 24 to 30 months. Now remember I answered your first question with a double answer. Constantly doing a complete discharge isn't considered "the safest" method due to temperature issues. IE if you are in certain temp ranges during a recharge you can cause the anode to start oxidizing. Which is what kills a batteries ability to charge. So they actually recommend that you recharge at 40% or higher if possible. The reason for 40%? That is the optimal charge for long term storage of a Lithium-Ion battery.

As far as enough juice to shutdown properly, yes the current iPhones all shutdown with enough power to preserve the on board memory for 12 to 24 hours so you can get it on a charger. That is just a "nice feature" of the iPhone and but isn't needed for proper operation.

When you say, "they" who are you actually referring to? Is this mentioned in the "manual" or are you just saying "they" as in a general concensus?

Skull One · Mar 12, 2012

halfmonkey said:
When you say, "they" who are you actually referring to? Is this mentioned in the "manual" or are you just saying "they" as in a general concensus?

The major makers and patent holders of Lithium-Ion batteries. The analysis was done years ago and is consider one of the "facts" of the industry.

halfmonkey · Mar 12, 2012

Skull One said:
The major makers and patent holders of Lithium-Ion batteries. The analysis was done years ago and is consider one of the "facts" of the industry.

Interesting. Would you by any chance have any links to share where I can read the information that you're referring to? Thanks.

Skull One · Mar 12, 2012

Please start with batteryuniversity.com and then you can cross reference the data with Google searches by using specific keywords.

crowd pleaser · Mar 12, 2012

Skull One said:
Short answers: No (yes if you do raw chemistry with temps involved), Yes.

The much longer answer.

Lithium-Ion batteries work on a simple premise. They have a finite recharge life. They base this recharge life on the 80% rule. From the initial charge at the factory till X number of recharges later (between 300 to 500) your battery should be able to maintain 80% or better of that first charge level. This allows the average consumer grade Lithium-Ion battery to last approximately 24 to 30 months. Now remember I answered your first question with a double answer. Constantly doing a complete discharge isn't considered "the safest" method due to temperature issues. IE if you are in certain temp ranges during a recharge you can cause the anode to start oxidizing. Which is what kills a batteries ability to charge. So they actually recommend that you recharge at 40% or higher if possible. The reason for 40%? That is the optimal charge for long term storage of a Lithium-Ion battery.

As far as enough juice to shutdown properly, yes the current iPhones all shutdown with enough power to preserve the on board memory for 12 to 24 hours so you can get it on a charger. That is just a "nice feature" of the iPhone and but isn't needed for proper operation.

excellent reply - i wanted to say well done