Samsung Transform Ultra

[Dellea]

How often should I plug my phone in for recharging? I plugged my phone in every night after work and after about 9 months I ended up having to plug it in 2-3 times per day to charge. Now the original battery has swelled up in the middle and I have four replacement batteries on order from Amazon. My wife has the same phone and her battery is getting worse and is about the same age so I figured a handful of replacements would be good to have on-hand. So how many charges can a battery handle in its lifetime? Is daily charging too much, even though the phones pretty much die after about 8 hours of use?

 

[Rukbat]

So how many charges can a battery handle in its lifetime?

That depends on the temperature it's subjected to, the (electrical) stress it's subjected to and how deep a charge. LiIon batteries used in phones today can take about 250-300 full discharge/charge cycles, but if you only discharge them 50%, they can take over 1,000 cycles. (And the less you discharge them at each cycle, the more total life you get.) There's an article with graphs at Battery University.

Is daily charging too much, even though the phones pretty much die after about 8 hours of use?

My phone sits on the charger when I'm at the computer and all night. (Some days it sits on the charger for 24 hours.) I usually get more than 2 years on a battery. (And I have one phone, a Motorola V551, that's still on its original 2003 battery - that's almost 10 years now).

A swelling battery sounds like a factory defect.