- You've probably heard people say
that you shouldn't leave your phone plugged in overnight.
Doing so depreciates your battery life
and makes it age faster.
You're killing your battery!
I always charge my phone overnight,
and I always let it reach a full 100% charge.
Am I really killing my battery?
Am I a murderer?
I can't live with this guilt,
so I called up some battery experts to find the truth.
Daniel Steingart, Associate Professor
at Princeton University told me that, actually:
- [Daniel] The easiest thing to do is just
keep it plugged in all the time or as much as you can.
- Did you hear that?
I'll say it again, "as much as you can."
The way he sees is it is that
we all need our phones ready and charged,
so we might as well keep them fully charged forever.
Your phone is pretty smart, and its software recognizes
when it reaches full charge,
so you can't technically overcharge your battery.
Problem solved!
But not really.
I also called Venkat Srinivasan,
the Director of the Argonne Collaborative Center
for Energy Storage Science, and he told me:
- [Venkat] Don't charge the battery
all the way to 100%.
Get it up to 90% and then stop it.
- He never lets his phone reach a full charge, what?
He says we should keep our phones
between 30% and 80% charged because once they reach 100%,
certain reactions occur that degrade the electrolytes
and depreciate our batteries.
So this is probably where that overcharging myth comes from.
Alright, so I went back to Dan, and I asked him to clarify.
Like, Venkat says you're wrong.
And Dan told me that both of them are actually right.
So, awesome, you do damage your battery
when you charge it to 100%.
But if you're going for the full charge already,
keeping it there doesn't harm it.
Basically, if you are a normal human
who just needs their phone out all the time,
feel free to go to 100% and keep it plugged in forever.
But if you care a lot about your battery's life,
like, a lot, a lot,
or you don't use your phone that much,
go Venkat's route and try to keep it
in a narrow charging range.
I admire your discipline, and maybe
you'll extend your battery's lifespan.
Ultimately, though, batteries are meant to be used,
and phones are meant to be used too.
You don't do any damage by leaving it at 100.
You'll probably replace your phone
before your battery totally dies.
Or in a worst case scenario, you replace the battery.
That's not so bad.
Okay, glad we settled this.
Go live your truth, keep it 100, goodbye.