If you love your cell phone, you don’t charge it all night – right? This is no longer entirely true these days. We explain why.
Is it harmful to charge your cell phone overnight? (Source: yalcinsonat1 / depositphotos.com)
If you love your bike, you push it and if you love your cell phone, you don’t leave it on the charger all night. We hear such phrases again and again in everyday life, but what is the truth behind the myth that the cell phone battery is damaged when charging at night?
It is clear that the lithium-ion battery in your smartphone does not last forever. It has a maximum number of charging cycles and the capacity of the battery gradually decreases. The result: the cell phone is getting empty faster and faster, so it has to be charged more and more often. The myth that charging at night is harmful is no accident.
What happens: The battery of your mobile phone is charged to 100 percent when it is plugged in, after which the electronics stop the power supply. If the capacity drops again, the charge flow begins again. The constant charging and discharging stresses the built-in battery and makes it age faster.
Hardly a problem with modern mobile phones
However, this problem mainly occurs with old devices, because most manufacturers now integrate a battery protection mode into their smartphones, smartwatches or tablets. If this is activated, your smartphone learns when it is usually charged and when it is disconnected from the power supply.
The cell phone adjusts its charging mode accordingly. Example: You always charge your mobile phone at night and disconnect it from the charging cable when you get up around 6 a.m. As a result, the smartphone will in future charge its battery to a maximum of 80 percent overnight and only refill the remaining 20 percent just before 6 a.m. – this protects the battery.
Leaving the cell phone cable plugged in: is that dangerous?
Inform yourself and feel safer
Which one of you dutifully unplugs the mobile phone charging cable from the socket immediately after charging and puts it away? You can find out here whether leaving the mobile phone charger plugged in is dangerous.
However, there are two things to note: Firstly, you may have to activate optimized charging in the settings first. You can find the function in the mobile phone settings under “Battery”. Also note that your phone can only optimize charging if you charge it in roughly the same periods of time. So if you charge it at a different time each day, optimized charging will not work.
Some Android devices do not have an optimized charging mode. However, they sometimes offer an alternative. If you can’t find an optimization mode on your smartphone, see if you can find the “Battery care” function in the battery settings. This will charge your cell phone’s battery to a maximum of 90 percent. Compared to a full charge to 100 percent, this also extends the life of your battery.
However, if you are using an older device without any optimization features, conscious charging can indeed extend the life of your battery. In this case, it is better to avoid charging at night.
In the following linked articles you will find more information about cell phone batteries.
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