What % Do You Charge Your Battery To?

[Smith1776]

Being battery longevity aware is all the rage these days. From smartphones to electric cars, it seems like everyone has their own policy and ideas about how to take care of their device's battery.

Do you set a limit to what % you charge your batteries? It seems like the general consensus to best take care of the battery is 80%, but I find that that charge level is too low for me to be confident that my phone will last all day, practically speaking. As a compromise, I charge to 90% for most of my devices.

What do you guys do?

[I Shrugged]

I found an app for my Mac desktop that enables me to read the battery stats on my iPhone and iPad (via cable). Apparently this function is already available on the latest iOS devices. Anyway, my phone, I never charge it overnight. Instead I charge it for a while in the morning to start my day. And I stop it before 90%. But I always charged my iPad overnight. I'm a heavier user of the iPad than of the phone.

The battery health of the phone is much stronger than the iPad, for about the same number of charge cycles. A cycle is defined as a full cycle, so if you discharge and charge for two half cycles, that equals one cycle. But two halves are easier on the battery, hence the difference between my two devices.

I hope I made this understandable. And to be clear, I'm far from an expert. The above is just about my total knowledge on the topic.

[I Shrugged]

But as you point out, an 80% phone charge will inconvenience you if you are out and about all day. I would not let the battery longevity tail wag the dog.

[yankees60]

Doesn't one have to constantly monitor the device to stop it from going to 100%.

I always charge my phone, iPads, iPad mini, Amazon Fire tablet to 100%.

The two iPad 1's are still going strong, each with excellent battery life.

However, my phones.

Bought my first Motorola in 2018. Second in 2021. In both cases the battery expanded so that the front and back case separated. In the case of the 2018, they eventually totally separated.

I asked GoogleFI (who I bought both from at bargain prices) why I should be buying another Motorola phone from them.

That led to them making an exception and sending to me a reburbished version of my 2021 phone. Received it yesterday and have not yet done the transfer.

As part of the deal I have to return my old phone to them.

I, of course, don't want to send it back to them with anything on it. After I do that transfer, how do I remove all on the phone I will be sending back?

[I Shrugged]

The newest models of some brands let you set charge limits.

[dualstow]

I usually sip at 40% and let it go to 70%. I think I learned that here, this forum.
But more often than not I leave the house without my phone. That’s what I said, yup.

[Mountaineer]

I usually charge to 100% and top off to 100% when battery charge level drops to 70% to 80% during the day. My iPhone 11 Pro Max is a bit over 4 years old and battery max capacity is now 85%. I prefer to have a "fully" charged phone in case of emergencies - which rarely happen.

[yankees60]

https://www.aarp.org/home-family/person ... DH3w%3d%3d


10 Ways to Save Your Smartphone’s Battery Life
Go longer between charges and replacing the battery. Tips also work for laptops, tablets
By Marc Saltzman, AARP

/ Updated September 23, 2024

[Smith1776]

But as you point out, an 80% phone charge will inconvenience you if you are out and about all day. I would not let the battery longevity tail wag the dog.

Wise. Alright, I upped my charge limit to 95%. This should be a mostly negligible difference compared to 100% in day-to-day use. And I think I'm just going to stop letting my battery-obsessed tech friends give me a hard time about it haha.

From what I understand, the benefits of charging limits follow a typical curve of diminishing returns. The majority of the benefit is avoiding 95% to 100%. There is less benefit in avoiding 90% to 95%. Even less benefit in avoiding the 85% to 90% threshold, and so on.

[Smith1776]

I usually sip at 40% and let it go to 70%. I think I learned that here, this forum.
But more often than not I leave the house without my phone. That’s what I said, yup.

No wonder you take so long to respond to messages sometimes.

[Smith1776]

Oh, and yeah, I have an iPhone 15 which appears to be the first generation of iPhone that has the charge limiter natively built into the operating system.

[dualstow]

I usually sip at 40% and let it go to 70%. I think I learned that here, this forum.
But more often than not I leave the house without my phone. That’s what I said, yup.

No wonder you take so long to respond to messages sometimes.

It’s really hard to notice when there’s a message from Signal!

[boglerdude]

New gizmos have battery optimization software. dont fight it. At low batt warning I charge full and unplug so it doesnt keep topping up

Random content:
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/frec-250 ... 0-minimum/
https://frec.com/resources/blog/three-e ... -in-action
https://www.double.finance/

What sites are y'all using for current and past weather (temperature)

[Mountaineer]

New gizmos have battery optimization software. dont fight it. At low batt warning I charge full and unplug so it doesnt keep topping up

Random content:
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/frec-250 ... 0-minimum/
https://frec.com/resources/blog/three-e ... -in-action
https://www.double.finance/

What sites are y'all using for current and past weather (temperature)

Carrot app for iPhone, Premium Ultra. You can select the weather source; I use Apple weather.

[yankees60]

New gizmos have battery optimization software. dont fight it. At low batt warning I charge full and unplug so it doesnt keep topping up

Random content:
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/frec-250 ... 0-minimum/
https://frec.com/resources/blog/three-e ... -in-action
https://www.double.finance/

What sites are y'all using for current and past weather (temperature)

Thanks for all this battery talk. Reminded me that yesterday I saw that my Garmin watch was low. Just looked it now and it was depleted. If I'd not just plugged it in now I'd be without all day today while out and I need to know the time at certain points today.

[dualstow]

my Garmin watch

My first really great stock pick. Except I failed to get out in time.

[yankees60]

my Garmin watch

My first really great stock pick. Except I failed to get out in time.

Yes. If you are any kind of timer you have to be right twice. When to get in / out. And, the opposite.

[Mountaineer]

Being battery longevity aware is all the rage these days. From smartphones to electric cars, it seems like everyone has their own policy and ideas about how to take care of their device's battery.

Do you set a limit to what % you charge your batteries? It seems like the general consensus to best take care of the battery is 80%, but I find that that charge level is too low for me to be confident that my phone will last all day, practically speaking. As a compromise, I charge to 90% for most of my devices.

What do you guys do?

I charged the battery in my iPhone to my Visa card along with the included phone to 100% of necessary funds. I do set a limit. I'm not positive, but I think my limit was around a thousand dollars for the battery plus phone and the included accessories several years ago. I may have to raise the limit the next time I purchase an iPhone.

Sorry, I couldn't resist when I reread the post title. ;-)

Hope everyone had a marvelous weekend.

[boglerdude]

Some things will brick if the battery gets way too low eg left sitting for months at 1%

I store batteries in fridge. Added advantage of knowing where they are

[dualstow]

Some things will brick if the battery gets way too low eg left sitting for months at 1%
..

Yeah, I read somewhere that it’s good to get electrons flowing through devices at least once a month.

[I Shrugged]

I came across my notes from my recent tests of the battery health.

iPad, usually charged to 100%
Cycles 395
Battery capacity vs design 89.3%

Wife's iPad, always charged overnight to 100%
Cycles 527
Battery 89.8%

iPhone XR, usually charged to <90%
Cycles 557
Battery capacity 97.3%

Seems to make a big difference in lifespan. Does it matter as a practical point? I dunno. I'm using a several year old phone with a great battery. I guess at least the battery won't be what makes me need to upgrade. Another way of looking at it is that the XR came out most likely in 2018 and I only have 557 charge cycles on it. So I'm not a heavy user of the battery.

[Smith1776]

I came across my notes from my recent tests of the battery health.

iPad, usually charged to 100%
Cycles 395
Battery capacity vs design 89.3%

Wife's iPad, always charged overnight to 100%
Cycles 527
Battery 89.8%

iPhone XR, usually charged to <90%
Cycles 557
Battery capacity 97.3%

Seems to make a big difference in lifespan. Does it matter as a practical point? I dunno. I'm using a several year old phone with a great battery. I guess at least the battery won't be what makes me need to upgrade. Another way of looking at it is that the XR came out most likely in 2018 and I only have 557 charge cycles on it. So I'm not a heavy user of the battery.

I think it's a big enough difference to warrant some limit to the charging. In my case though, the 80% limit mentioned in the OP is just too low. It's basically the same as being hobbled with a degraded battery from day 1. I settled on 95% and I've pledged to mentally just walk away forget about it.

[yankees60]

I came across my notes from my recent tests of the battery health.

iPad, usually charged to 100%
Cycles 395
Battery capacity vs design 89.3%

Wife's iPad, always charged overnight to 100%
Cycles 527
Battery 89.8%

iPhone XR, usually charged to <90%
Cycles 557
Battery capacity 97.3%

Seems to make a big difference in lifespan. Does it matter as a practical point? I dunno. I'm using a several year old phone with a great battery. I guess at least the battery won't be what makes me need to upgrade. Another way of looking at it is that the XR came out most likely in 2018 and I only have 557 charge cycles on it. So I'm not a heavy user of the battery.

How does one do a reading on one's iPad?

[I Shrugged]

How does one do a reading on one's iPad?

I used the app coconutBattery mentioned in this article. (Loaded onto the Mac, then plugged into the iPad from there.)


https://9to5mac.com/2024/04/23/see-ipad-battery-health/

[I Shrugged]

Supposedly Apple says the battery is toast when the capacity is 80% of design. I read that on the internet, so....