Battery Life Question

[khaos526]

Well I've finally after 2 years had my first faulty battery. Had no clue why my Otter Box wouldn't fit for over a month. I just assumed I tore the clue part when I removed the Otter Box a month back. Anyways finally decided to Google and found out it was most likely caused by a bad swollen battery after seeing photos and where the back part of the phone was separating near the left side.

Got it replaced for $70 which was fine and now talking to the guy at the repair shop & looking online I was trying to figure out the best practice to not have this happen in another 2 years.

I've always left my phone on my Samsung wireless charger at all times, meaning it's always at 100% when at home. When I'm travelling, I'm always using the Samsung adapter to keep my phone topped off at pubs or the hotel as well. Not to mention, there have been times in the Summer for the past 3 Summers where I've sat outside in the sun playing music on my phone in direct sunlight (oooops).

My question though is I'm finding a million different answers about how the best way to charge the phone is. The only thing that seems to be consistent from all the different sources of websites is don't drain it down to 0% (which I never have). Some say always keep it between 20% and 80% and don't go under or over, others say it's fine to leave it on your Samsung official fast charger at home since it's built not to over charge and generate as much heat, others say just keep it around 50% at all times and so many other things.

From very experienced smart phone users, what is the method people use? I have an S9, but think it might apply to other phones as well. Just curious how I should now alter my charging habits and confused as to what really is the best way?

 

[svim]

A lot of those points you brought up are commonly recommended things to do to make your battery's overall longevity better but keep in mind they apply to lab conditions in test research facilities. In the real world, most of us don't have to time or just aren't willing to monitor our phones the entire time they're being charged. So it's a matter of degree how much time and effort you want to spend each day charging your phone. There is of course no shortage of 'battery do and don't' articles floating around online -- some are based on out-of-date info, some just opinions posted as fact, some are relevant and data-based. I'll suggest you go to the Battery University site:
https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/
Unfortunately all smartphone batteries will fail at some point. Most just lose their ability to hold a charge (and will take longer to charge up) but some like yours also swell up. Hopefully there's no physical damage to your S9. After a couple of years it's not uncommon to at least start seeing a battery lose some capacity, but most will last longer. You should avoid letting it drain down to the point your phone shuts itself off. Not an issue if this does occur every so often but don't to it intentionally on a repeated basis as that will drastically shorten a battery's life. Every smartphone battery only has a determined number of charge cycles so the goal is to make that number last longer, not shorter. Leaving your phone on your charger isn't the best way to leave it all the time. Once the battery is charged it will stop receiving power from your charger but leaving it on the charger plate creates a situation where your battery is going to a repeated charge - no charge cycle. Once the battery drains down a few percent it will start charging again. Again, there's the issue of the set number of charge cycles. It's also cumulative so when the battery is down to say 50% if you charge it to 100% that involves one half of a charge cycle. If you charge it only up to 80%, that would only be less than a third of a charge cycle. Plus there's a number of other variables involved (i.e. a faster charger involving USB will involve more generated heat than a slower charging wireless plate). Anyway, leaving your phone on the charging plate isn't the worst thing to do but it's not the best thing to do. Read through some of the articles at the BU site like this one:
https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries

You might also want to install this AccuBattery app. Note that this app isn't claiming to make your battery last longer by implementing some kind of 'fix' to the existing Android power management (avoid those kinds of apps, they're basically just snake oil), it's just an enhanced information utility. The Settings >> Battery in your phone is good for the basic stats it provides but AccuBattery is much more comprehensive and extensive. It also includes a simple alarm -- you set the level (i.e. 80%, and it's just an alarm, it doesn't halt the charging process so it's still up to you to remove your phone from the charging plate). So it doesn't interfere/manipulate how your battery gets charged, it's just providing you with more data so you can determine how you want to charge it.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.digibites.accubattery&hl=en_US

 

[khaos526]

Well I actually did notice the battery draining about a year ago and thought it was due to a update, but it was just probably past the charge cycle limit since it was always left on the charger. The year after until now it was the same thing, but the battery didn't drain anymore faster this past year which was good).

I'll check on that site, but I figured a lot of the controversy was structured testing and not how every day people use or charge their phones. I will be sure not to leave my phone constantly when at home on the wireless charger though. I don't use any battery apps, tried that out when I first got the phone and realized it didn't do anything as you mentioned so I just stick to the built in batter monitor in the settings instead. The heat issue I've heard a lot of contradicting things depending on what site I read, from some saying the heat with the fast chargers isn't any different as USB due to it not charging as fast once you get to 80% and this is why it takes about as much time going from 80% to 100% as it does from 10% to 80% or so. Couldn't get a finite answer on USB vs Wireless fast charging as 50% of the sites said yes there's more heat and the other 50% said there wasn't any difference...

 

[Fox Mulder]

Leaving it on charge all the time is not a good idea. Let the phone run on the battery (which it is anyway even when on charge), charge it when needed and unplug it or take if off the pad.
At home I charge my S9 almost exclusively on the Samsung wireless fast-charge pads which have a built-in fan to reduce heat while charging. This is important as it's the heat that kills the battery over time. WIreless charging can actually produce more heat than cable charging because it is less efficient, the phone and charging pad are essentially the two halves of a transformer and the power transfer is nowhere near 100% so some is lost as heat. Even standard-rate wireless charging can significantly heat up the phone and pad so it's important to monitor this while charging and take the phone off the pad if it gets too warm.

 

[khaos526]

Thanks for that summary. I'll just start training myself now to leave it off the wireless or USB chargers as a habit from now on and only start charging it up to 85-90% when it gets to be around 20-30%. Heat is a big thing that I've been bad with in the summer time sitting outside and will have to stop having it out listening to music unless I can find a cooler spot to put it.

The good news is, when I'm allowed to travel internationally again after the virus, it will save me a lot of time as I'm constantly always bringing my USB and portable external batter to keep my phone topped off at 100% as much as possible, which not only wastes time, but as I found not, not good anyways...