Re-charging interval for light use

[holstein]

My wife and I recently upgraded from our Droid RAZRs to Turbos. Loving the battery life. We are not heavy users in general as evidenced by we are currently using about 20-30% battery per 24 hours. We have both gone multiple days (me 2.5, her 3) without recharging and have battery to spare (~40%) before doing an overnight charge. Our battery drain may increase some in the future as we have also been home more than usual through the holidays using primarily WiFi.

With that information, would it be wiser to charge overnight every night, whether it's necessary or not, or just charge every other night? I thought I remember reading these batteries only last for so many charging cycles, If we space them out to every other night, would this result in the battery life be extended by a measurable amount or is this not worth the trouble.

 

[FoxKat]

This has been a heated topic (no pun intended as you'll eventually see why), but the type of batteries used in these phones is unique in many respects to other rechargeable batteries we're accustomed to. As such, the manufacturers had had to make them as close to "user-proof" as possible. In fact, if certain charging system protections weren't incorporated these batteries would be highly unsafe to use.

Charging these batteries each night to 100% is completely acceptable and for most users will result in the performance that they would expect. In other words, it won't "damage" the battery and it will last the expected lifespan of the phone, about 1.5 to 2 years. I'll continue in a moment.

Sent from my Droid Turbo on Tapatalk.

 

[FoxKat]

OK, here's where the above is not necessarily accurate. If you're a power user like I am, and only get one day out of this phone because you use it heavily, you might be concerned about the battery's longevity - i.e. lifespan, and how it affects the time that it lasts on one charge.

Since these batteries aren't user replaceable, having them last their expected lifespan is all that much more critical for some. Many people will keep their phones for more than the 2 year . For those people, a battery that's not replaceable is actually somewhat detrimental, since even if cared for properly, their expected life span is only about 3 years max.

Since these batteries prefer to be in the middle of their charge range, it is actually better to boost the battery's charge perhaps 20, 30, or 40 percent during the middle of the day as needed, than it is to discharge it completely and then charge completely overnight. The optimum charge range for these batteries is to keep them between 30 percent and 70 percent of a fully rated capacity charge. So they "like" partial charges. Of course this isn't practical for most people, which is why proper safeguards have been put in place in the charging system to prevent over charging when left on the charger overnight or under charging of the batteries when used for extended periods of time away from a power source.

Since are using our smartphones far more and for more purposes now than in the past, foregoing the desktop, laptop, notebook or tablet, we're demanding longer run times from our cell phone batteries, and yet also want faster and more powerful devices. Manufacturers have struggled and strived to meet those demands through engineering to reduce power consumption and increase performance by making both hardware components and the operating system more power efficient. They have also moved towards larger batteries, and have even innovated the charging process to allow us to quickly charge the batteries during the middle of the day and gain a significant amount of charge with a relatively insignificant time on the charger. Its all three innovations which have brought us the Droid Turbo.

Unfortunately, there is a trade off between charging quickly and charging slowly with respect to a battery's lifespan. The trade off is that charging quickly creates higher battery temperatures, and heat is a battery's enemy, accelerating the aging process. This is why I have a minor complaint I have regarding the Turbo Chargers (or more accurately described Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 compliant chargers).

At least for me, quick charging isn't necessarily an important feature in most situations. For what seems to be the greatest percentage of users, charging once at the end every night while we sleep is the standard operating procedure. And since the batteries are now so large, and the hardware and OS so much more power-efficient, being able to Turbo Charge in the middle of the day isn't even necessary in all but the most extreme users' profiles.

Also, since charging overnight gives the phone the entire duration of your sleep to charge, there is really no need for it to charge rapidly overnight. As a result, it is Quick Charging (a feature you can't turn off), all for the purpose of completing the charge in a matter of less than 2 hours verses the 3.5 to 5.5 hours it may normally take with a standard charger. This creates excess heating of the battery and the damage it does to the battery overtime is really an unfortunate side effect.

Personally, I would rather see the chargers come with a button on them which allows you to select the Turbo Charging charge rate only for those times when you really need it, and instead have it default to the standard trickle charge rate of earlier chargers. The alternative would be a selection on a pop-op menu on the phone when you plug the charger in that would ask "Do you wish to Turbo Charge?", and a button to choose "YES". Then after a certain period of time with no button press, perhaps 15 seconds it would default to the standard charging rate.

Getting back to your initial question, in your situation specifically, charging it every couple of days to 100% overnight will actually result in less damage to the battery over time versus every night as many people are doing, and you'll likely experience the longevity from your battery that you will expect. In other words, I recommended charging as needed rather than just as a routine. If you end a 2-day stint with c. 40%, then I'd recommend every other night.

Think of it this way... The Droid Turbo is touted as having a 48 hour lifespan with average user, so if people used it that way they would be charging half as often and that alone would allow the battery to last longer lifespan-wise.

Sent from my Droid Turbo on Tapatalk.

 

[mountainbikermark]

If it's below 85% full st the end of the day you'll be fine charging every day. If it's above 15% at the end of every other day, you'll be fine doing it that method. As long as you keep your battery between those parameters , no matter how many/few days you go before charging, when starting a charge you should get between 500 and 800 charge cycles (aka charges) before noticing a discernible drop in battery performance. It won't matter as much as how often you charge as where the battery is at, energy wise, when you charge it.
Hope that helps

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