3 Smartphone Charging Myths Busted!

Sometimes myths have an element of truth and sometimes they really don’t, especially when it comes to technology.

In this short article, we’ll take 3 smartphone charging myths and see if they hold any truth whatsoever.

Myth 1 – I’ll overload my battery if I charge my smartphone overnight.

This is false, but it is understandable why people worry. Batteries can overload i.e. get very hot and produce an excess of hydrogen and oxygen gas which could cause the battery to burst and in some cases catch fire.

But, smartphones and other devices such as laptops and tablets are all fitted with technology to prevent overload and to stop charging at 100%. That being said, leaving your phone constantly on charge will lower its lifespan (slightly) over time, due to the fact that once at 100% it’ll drop back to 99% and have to start charging again.

Myth 2 – Freezing my phone is good for the battery.

Please don’t do this. Lithium batteries work best and last longest in moderate temperatures. Remember that time you left your phone on your car dashboard on that really hot day and it warned you to cool it off? It’s the same with temperature at the other end of the scale.

In fact, according to Battery University, ‘sub-freezing temperatures can create a permanent plating of metallic lithium on the battery anode’. In short, freezing your phone will shorten the life of your battery and also damage other internal parts of your smartphone.

Myth 3 – I should always let my battery zero out before charging.

This might have been true with nickel-based batteries which had what was called a ‘memory effect’ where they’d remember the point they were regularly charged from and assume that it was maximum capacity i.e. if you regularly recharged when it got to 30%, 30% would eventually become its full capacity.

Modern lithium smartphone batteries don’t have this ‘memory effect’ and are capable of knowing their maximum capacity, so reducing the charge to zero before recharging doesn’t have any beneficial effects, and in fact can actually harm your battery.

Think of it like eating – if you eat too much you feel sluggish and if you eat too little you feel weak. In a simplistic way, this is the same with lithium batteries. Lithium batteries don’t like extremes of charging, and either too much or too little charge puts unnecessary strain on its components.

Remember the 80:20 rule

A simple piece of advice from renowned mobile analyst, Carl Howe, is to charge your smartphone, laptop or tablet to 80% and then recharge once it reaches 20%.

JamCrackers is one of Bedfordshire's leading IT support services helping businesses of all sizes get the most out of their IT.

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