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YOU can always have too much of a good thing – it’s as true for cake as it is for phone charging.
Your handset – be it an iPhone or Android – can be charged too much, which can wreak havoc on your battery lifespan if you’re not careful.
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iPhones and Androids use lithium-ion batteries, which Ritesh Chugh, Associate Professor of Information and Communications Technology at CQUniversity Australia, says can be overcharged “in theory”.
“This can lead to safety risks such as the battery overheating and catching fire,” he warns in a recent report published in The Conversation.
“The good news is most modern phones have an in-built protection that automatically stops the battery from charging further than 100 per cent – preventing any damage from overcharging.
“However, each time a battery drops to 99 per cent (due to apps running in the background) it will ‘trickle charge’.”
Trickle charging is when a device will start charging again to maintain a fully charged state.
Theoretically, once a phone hits 100 per cent and stops charging, the percentage will eventually drop to 99 per cent and start the charging procedure again.
But this process is terrible for your overall battery health.
“Trickle charging can wear a battery down over time,” explains Chugh.
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“That’s why many manufacturers have features to regulate it.
“Apple’s iPhones offer functionality to delay charging past 80 per cent.
“Samsung’s Galaxy phones provide the option to cap the charge at 85 per cent.”
While you can make sure these features are enabled on your phone, Chugh recommends avoiding this by not charging your device overnight.
Instead, Chugh suggests charging your phone up to 80 per cent and not allowing it to dip under 20 per cent to better maintain your battery’s lifespan.
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