Although it seems like an unusual fate – how can you actually hurt your iPhone battery when you charge your device? — the truth is: it happens. If you aren’t taking proper measures while charging your device, you could be making some of the most common mistakes that can actually cause more battery drainage over time. Whether you are undercharging your phone, overcharging it, or using the wrong accessories to charge it, errors in judgment happen. This is the worst charging mistake tech experts say you could make —it’s so bad for your battery.
Using Your Phone While Charging It
You day and life are busy and so much of what you do — from scheduling appointments to paying your bills — is done from your iPhone. So it makes perfect sense that you would find it difficult to stay off of your device even while you’re trying to charge it. But tech experts say using your phone while it’s being charged can back fire.
“When your iPhone is charging you are actually engaging the device in electron transmission, which then creates a lot of heat, this heat must be directed away from the device,” says Tech Expert Eloise Tobler of Wisetek. “However, when you’re using your iPhone whilst its plugged in you’re creating even more heat again which is seriously damaging your battery and shortening its lifespan.”
Wireless chargers are another source of intense heat — and they aren’t great for the planet either, Tobler says. “These pads use far more energy than a standard cable,” Tobler says. “Some tests have found that wireless chargers actually need around 45% more power than a traditional cable to charge a device, generally speaking when using these pads your phone has to work that bit harder, which in turn generates more heat and can actually shorten the overall lifespan of your battery. Wireless charging pads also have a far bigger environmental cost and are quite difficult to recycle.”
Phone batteries naturally degrade over time, Tobler says, losing their ability to hold a charge. There are a few steps you can take to stave off this decline.
“We always recommend keeping your device between 30%-90% at all times, it’s actually between the 80-100% bracket where your phone is under the most charging strain,” Tobler says. “With lithium ion batteries you’re better off keeping them somewhere in the middle, don’t allow them to get too low and don’t necessarily always charge them to 100%, this should ensure some semblance of longevity.”
