Battery Drain Goes Up When Phone is Hot

[schatzy62]

Has anyone noticed a higher than normal battery drain when the phone is warm. I have a temp monitor on my phone that displays in the notification bar and it seems to me that if the phone is running above 110 degrees fahrenheit the phone battery drains much faster in like more than twice as fast.

The phone normallly runs about 95-96 degrees under my normal use. But the last few days have been really hot here and the phone has been running over 110 degrees and the battery only lasts about 5 hours compared to the 12-15 i normally get out of it.

 

[zomnomnombie]

This is a fact of all batteries. Heat prevents charging, increases discharging and reduces max charge.

 

[schatzy62]

This is a fact of all batteries. Heat prevents charging, increases discharging and reduces max charge.

I do understand that and my old Droid X would also use the battery faster when hot but no where near as much as the Droid 4. On the X if it was running at 110-120 it would still last at least 80% of the normal length of time not the 40% that the Droid 4 is lasting. It seems very strange to me. I also have friends with Samsung and LG phones that again drain faster but not at the rate mine is draining when that hot.

I just feel that this is way beyond the normal drain.

 

[zomnomnombie]

I do understand that and my old Droid X would also use the battery faster when hot but no where near as much as the Droid 4. On the X if it was running at 110-120 it would still last at least 80% of the normal length of time not the 40% that the Droid 4 is lasting. It seems very strange to me. I also have friends with Samsung and LG phones that again drain faster but not at the rate mine is draining when that hot.

I just feel that this is way beyond the normal drain.

Have your usage habits and/or phone settings changed?

If not I would try a battery meter calibration.

-Use your phone until 15% battery remains.
-Turn off phone.
-Charge to 100%.
-Repeat once more.

 

[schatzy62]

Have your usage habits and/or phone settings changed?

No change in habits or normal usage, no setting changes and no new apps to cause the problem.

If not I would try a battery meter calibration.

-Use your phone until 15% battery remains.
-Turn off phone.
-Charge to 100%.
-Repeat once more.

Already done all that a few times including clearing that battery stats file to start fresh.

The ONLY thing that has changed is the outside temperature has gone up to more than 95 degrees. In the evenings when the outside temps are in the high 70's low 80's or i am inside the phone returns to normal battery usage. It all has to do with and only with the temp of the battery and phone.

It is just crazy how much more power it uses during the high temps.

 

[nowell29]

I would bet it is a background process or program that is running. The battery and cpu only heat up if they are being used. So if it is getting warmer, something is using it. Did you recently install a program that has a background service looking to the internet for updates, or an ad-funded game/program? Did you start using wifi, gps, bluetooth, when you weren't before?

I have had my battery drain like that a few times when the phone gets hot (nothing to do with the weather). The simple immediate solution is to turn the phone all of the way off and back again (reboot). It will stop any runaway processes. In older androids sometimes the camera process was left running even though it wasn't the active program, and it would spin away at the battery until some other app finally kicked it out of ram. They fixed this in most cases now.

Sent from my DROID4 using Tapatalk

 

[schatzy62]

I would bet it is a background process or program that is running. The battery and cpu only heat up if they are being used. So if it is getting warmer, something is using it. Did you recently install a program that has a background service looking to the internet for updates, or an ad-funded game/program? Did you start using wifi, gps, bluetooth, when you weren't before?

I have had my battery drain like that a few times when the phone gets hot (nothing to do with the weather). The simple immediate solution is to turn the phone all of the way off and back again (reboot). It will stop any runaway processes. In older androids sometimes the camera process was left running even though it wasn't the active program, and it would spin away at the battery until some other app finally kicked it out of ram. They fixed this in most cases now.

Sent from my DROID4 using Tapatalk

Obviously you did not really read my comments in the post just above yours.

I am still working on testing and have talked to Motorola about this issue.

Testing is done as follows.

1. Stock phone straight from verizon no added apps.
2. Phone on
3. phone in airplane mode (all radios off)
4. Screen on full brightness
5. temperature control environment Sealed box with temp controls.

Run tests for 8 hours in temperatures of 60, 70, 80, 85, 90, 95, 100, 105 degrees.

On tests over 95 degrees battery level was significantly lower, the higher the temps the worse the battery drain.

Next week I will be testing the same phone with one added app that can give me data points at 1 minute increments. The app is called Battery Monitor Widget.

 

[640k]

I don't know that I would even consider 95° a significantly high temp. Given how hot processors and chipsets typically run, the phone should be able to accommodate such temperature variations. While I haven't tested your theory and I applaud your effort to control your environment, something is definitely amiss.

 

[schatzy62]

95 is not the phone battery or processor temp it is the ambient air temp around the phone.

At 70 degree air temps the phone battery temp runs approx 5-7 degrees above that or about 75-77 degrees. Yet at an air temp around the phone of 95 the battery runs about 25-30 degrees higher or 120-125. And with an air temp of 100 degrees the phone runs almost 40 degrees higher or 140 degrees.

The cool down mode cuts in at 152 degrees so it is getting very close to the max temp the phone likes.

So there is something up. I just need the data to as a starting point.

 

[640k]

95 is not the phone battery or processor temp it is the ambient air temp around the phone.

At 70 degree air temps the phone battery temp runs approx 5-7 degrees above that or about 75-77 degrees. Yet at an air temp around the phone of 95 the battery runs about 25-30 degrees higher or 120-125. And with an air temp of 100 degrees the phone runs almost 40 degrees higher or 140 degrees.

The cool down mode cuts in at 152 degrees so it is getting very close to the max temp the phone likes.

So there is something up. I just need the data to as a starting point.

I realized that was the statement that you were making, I didn't mean to misguide you into thinking otherwise.

there's just no cooling on these devices. there's another thread that stated the user got their phone to go into "cool down mode" by leaving it in his car, powered on and in car dock mode. he posted that the temp was over 160°. makes me wonder if there's a correlation.

 

[schatzy62]

I realized that was the statement that you were making, I didn't mean to misguide you into thinking otherwise.

there's just no cooling on these devices. there's another thread that stated the user got their phone to go into "cool down mode" by leaving it in his car, powered on and in car dock mode. he posted that the temp was over 160°. makes me wonder if there's a correlation.

That post was mine as weel. But i have had this problem from day 1 with this phone so more than 3 months. I am in contact with Motorola on this matter but they seem to think it is normal. And really i dont think it should be that way. I can see a few degrees above the ambient air temps but not this crazy high stuff at 95 and 100. I mean what if the phone is in someones pocket. It is going to be at a higher ambient temp for the case. And if it really causes the phone to heat up that much. It could be a safety issue.