Lithium-ion battery charging myths

Whatever devices we use now, most of them come with lithium-ion. The real catch of using lithium-ion-built devices is that it comes with many relatively unknown conceptions. Smartphones especially have the power in bite-size features to radicalize our lives. Smartphones and tablets make us communicate with the world in our palms. With the different forms of functionality comes the life of the battery that we use for our devices. It’s all great and functional until your battery runs out. There are so many lithium-ion battery charging myths that introduce the cause of battery drain and, well, the massive anxiety that comes with it.

Are some lithium-ion battery charging myths real? Let’s look into it!

Myth 1: You should not charge your phone overnight

A lot may agree that charging the phone overnight can degrade the capacity of charging, which is absolutely not the case. 

It is perfectly fine to charge your device overnight. Charging overnight can help ensure full battery percentage to get throughout the day. You may also think that overcharging would kill the battery. The additional myths also say that keeping your phone in charge for the night can destroy the charger and even start a fire. These facts are not even close to the truth. 

Smartphones that have lithium-ion batteries now are much more stable than the previously used nickel-ion batteries. Another lithium-ion battery charging myths include, the function of charging automatically stops when it reaches 100%. The phone will not charge further when it reaches the maximum point. Hence, there’s no chance of over-charging your device.

However, the myths regarding lithium-ion batteries going to the point of overheating come from legitimate origins. In the past, the initialization of lithium-ion batteries wasn’t too smart to tackle the overheating situation when the phone would be kept in charge for a long time. It would reduce the performance of the phone and damage the battery. But modern devices have built-in circuits with lithium-ion batteries, which prevent the overheating issue from occurring.

Myth 2: Using different brand chargers for a specific phone will cause potential harm to your phone

This myth is completely false. Off-brand chargers can still very much support your phone if it comes from a legitimate brand. Retail chargers like Powergen, Belkin, Vinsic, RavPower, KMs, and Anker can work to charge your phone just as fine!

Off-brand options may not be as similar as the correct brand for your device. However, these brands are very safe to use and do not cause you to reduce the capacity of your battery. Life isn’t always fair per se, and sometimes we lose stuff. If you ever lose your original charger, you can always rely on such off-brand charging products. 

However, one should obviously make sure that the off-brand chargers are authentic. As most products have their replica version available in the market today, one should be very careful about what’s real and what’s fake.

Myth-3: Using your phone with a lithium-ion battery while it’s charging can overheat your device

The myth about using your phone while charging comes from the initial launch of lithium-ion batteries when it would legitimately overheat when functioning during charging. Modern technology has solved this very occurrence, and it is now 100% safe to use your device while it’s on charge. 

There’s only one way your phone can witness overheating, which sure roots from any notable battery defect. So the malfunctioning of the lithium-ion batteries is pretty rare. So there’s no danger in using your phone while charging. However, you do want to make sure that your phone is charging readily. Although there’s no risk of using your device during the process of charging, you’d still like to save the lifespan.

To protect the battery lifespan of your phone, it is best to avoid heavy tasks such as gaming. The maximization of the lifespan of your phone battery depends on how often you use it while it’s charging.

Myth-4: turning off wifi, Bluetooth, and location services will improve battery lifespan

This very myth comes from a long time ago when wifi and Bluetooth would drain the battery on drastic levels, just like Snapchat does today. However, these are services and not specific apps. The devices that come into service now are smart enough to handle any possible drainage from turning on any services. 

The bytes of data it takes to run Wi-Fi or Bluetooth is leaner than what it was 20 years ago. So turning off these services does not have a significant effect on the lifespan of the battery. At best, if you are to switch to airplane mode, you will probably save some battery.

Myth-5: you need to power off your device often to preserve lithium-ion battery life

Again, The modern lithium-ion batteries help your device keep on the energy as long as it’s not in use. So the myth about having to power off your device to save your battery life is total rash. Batteries of this age can very well read their state no matter what their level of charge.

If your device is not in use, you don’t really have to worry about battery strain. The battery tends to remain the same whether or not you switch it off or keep it on.

This myth about lithium-ion batteries also includes some false facts about giving your battery some rest. Many people perceive that switching off your phone would ensure rest for your battery and will eventually improve the charging capacity. This, in fact, is also untrue because the capacity of the battery is not relative to how much break it gets. Lithium-ion batteries are simply built to function as long as you intend to use them.

Myth-6: A brand new phone with a charging lithium-ion battery have to be fully charged before use

The minute we get home with a new phone, we make all the arrangements for a swift shift to using our brand new device. The arrangement of using a new phone also includes the ritual of charging your phone up to 24 hours before using it. There’s no such benefit or necessity to charging your phone up to an entire day before you can start using it.

Lithium-ion batteries do not, in fact, need charging for the very first use. You can casually charge your phone up to a maximum range and start using it. 

Conclusion:

These are some of the very popularly and widely perceived lithium-ion battery charging myths that are still very prevalent. However, the lifecycle of the battery definitely depends on consumer usage. The only thing that is more damaging than the charger itself is the mismanagement of the environmental conditions without properly recycling the used batteries. With growing health and climate concerns, we can step up to cut the carbon footprint and work on the real facts!