Stop Charging your Phone Overnight!
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2019-05-06
·
1,198 words · ~5 min read
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when we started working on this video it was supposed to be a psa about the
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dangers of using fast charging and wireless charging
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and we had this whole plan worked out where we were going to use a thermal camera to measure how hot our devices
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were getting discuss the detrimental effects of heat on phone batteries
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complain that they're not user replaceable etc etc but as it turns out
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if you're using a modern charger like these ones from anker that they
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unwittingly sent over for us to crucify it's basically a non-issue
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but don't stop watching yet because your
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non-replaceable phone battery is still at risk of a premature death and
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strategically applied wireless or fast
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charging could actually help prevent that death
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and i'm going to tell you how as long as you've got enough juice to
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make it through this really long segway to today's video sponsor private
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growing up i was always taught that when my rechargeable discman and game gear
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batteries died i should charge them all the way
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and then discharge them all the way because if i didn't they might not last
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as long the next time because they would remember the lower capacity so
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fast forward you know what forget how many years it
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is fast forward to today and generally speaking i charge my phone with the same
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mentality leaving it plugged in overnight so that i have a hundred
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percent when i start my day and then only plugging in again when it is almost
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dead that evening but here's the problem as your phone
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charges its battery's acceptance of ions
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actually becomes more and more labored
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as the battery gets close to a full charge
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kind of like how packing in passengers is easy at the start but as a car gets
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more and more full it takes a lot of pressure to get the last couple of
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people in and it's a slow process so in the world
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of electricity voltage is a lot like
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pressure and the last five percent charge from 95 to 100 takes
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significantly more of it but with very
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little current actually flowing in that's why it's so slow and it's not by
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choice if you go too fast towards the end you'll end up with a
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unwanted gases that can cause the battery to swell and b an effect called
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polarization that makes your phone think that the battery is full when it's not
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well okay so i'm asleep the phone's fully charged
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well everyone knows that it can't overcharge what's the big deal going back to our
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car analogy sitting at a hundred percent capacity is really uncomfortable for
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your battery and well everyone so if you want your battery to
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stay healthy for years and years you should only allow it to charge to its
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less stressful voltage about 3.9 volts
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which means stopping charging once your phone reaches 60 to 65
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which isn't nearly enough for me to get through a whole day so this is where
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fast charging and the wireless chargers that we mentioned before come in
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this might seem counter-intuitive because fast charging works by forcing
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in a ton of electrons at high voltages i mean we're talking 14 and a half volts
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on the iphone 10 when the battery is near empty
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but that is why fast charging is only
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activated while your battery is under 50 or 70 percent
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that's while it is still accepting ions very readily rather than turning them
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into wasted heat so what do you do
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if you're the type of person who needs as much screen time as possible each day
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and you plan on upgrading every one or two years anyway
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then charge it overnight you'll be reducing
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your battery's health but i guess that's whoever buys it on
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ebay's problem however if you're the type of person who wants their phone to
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last three four or even five years then you
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want to charge your battery in a way that preserves its health and this is
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where it gets tricky because even the act of discharging your battery ages it
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according to the depth of discharge
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therefore if you really want to optimize its longevity you should only let it
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drain down to say 50 before charging it up to just 60
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a depth of discharge of only 10 percent
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now that sounds like a gigantic hassle
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but lots of people do try to stay between 25 and 80 percent and fast
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wireless chargers like the ones we were planning to tell you not to use are
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actually really helpful for that you just set your phone down on the pad
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whenever you're at your desk and let your battery graze rather than gorge and
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that's without the inconvenience of messing with a power cable
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just make sure that you put your phone down correctly
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so i like this design in particular because
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it's actively cooled for faster power delivery and it forces you to line up
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the phone correctly for maximum efficiency less wasted electricity means
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less heat which is better for your battery
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just don't leave it on the pad for too long because as of right now only
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Android phones and only rooted ones in
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particular support apps that let you avoid the discomfort of a 100 percent
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charge speaking of discomfort it can be a
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pretty uncomfortable feeling when you drop your phone and break your screen
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and that's where ifixit comes in they are leading the charge in the
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electronics repair industry with both their guides on their website and their
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tools including their iconic black and blue protect tool kit and it's now only
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60 bucks it stores in a nice compact little roll it comes with their 64-bit
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driver kit a wide variety of plastic opening tools spudgers and picks so you
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can safely poke and pry a suction cup with a fancy handle to remove display
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assemblies their own jimmy pry tool esd safe tweezers and more and it's all
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backed by ifixit's lifetime warranty so why pay someone else to fix your devices
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when you can check out their free repair resources over at ifixit.com and go to
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ifixit.com Linus to snag your own fully loaded protech toolkit again it's now
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only 60 bucks so thanks for watching guys if this
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video sucked you know what to do but if it was awesome get subscribed hit that like button or check out the link to
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where to buy the stuff we featured in the video description also down there is
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our merch store which has cool shirts like this one and our community forum
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which you should totally join