The Scary Downside To Charging Your Phone Overnight

What could be more convenient than setting your phone on a charger and leaving it to power up all night long? The problem with this charging method is that it isn’t the best option when it comes to your phone’s ion-lithium battery — but you may still be wondering why. Your charging habits can make or break your phone battery and they could mean the difference between a phone that lasts a long time and one that will need to be replaced sooner. This is the scary downside to charging your phone overnight. 

Charging your phone overnight can speed up its battery’s degradation process, according to Tech Expert David Wurst, Founder of WebCitz. “When you leave your phone plugged in while you sleep, it will stop charging at 100%, however, the battery will slowly discharge,” Wurst says. “It will use a bit of energy constantly trickling a very small amount of power every time it falls to 99%. It may not be noticeable, but constant trickle-charging takes some life off the battery. Another potential problem is overheating as trickle charges can generate heat.”

You may have heard of phones exploding because of too much heat produced when a battery is overcharged. Fortunately that isn’t the case with newer iPhone models. “No, you cannot overcharge your phone’s battery,” says Tech Expert Steve Anderson, CEO of Junk Yards Near Me. “To avoid this, manufacturers put safety measures in place. But when you charge your gadget completely, ‘trickle charge,’ or enough additional energy to make up for what your device normally uses, is added. You are overusing your battery and pushing it to use energy unnecessarily if you charge it to 100% and leave it plugged in.”