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Your cell phone charging habbits

hr Offline enki_ck

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Your cell phone charging habbits
on: January 10, 2013, 08:43:10 PM
How do you guys and gals charge your cell phones? With these new smartphones every day charging is necessary and I used to just plug my phone in the charge at night before I went to bed for a long time but then I read that it could reduce the life of the battery. A fully depleted battery charges 3+ hours. That leaves cca 5 hours (best case scenario for us insomniacs ::) ) the battery remains on the charger after it's been fully charged. Now I believe the fancy oh so smart cell phones should have some charging cut off function in them but I seem to remember reading that the cell still continues to charge at a lower rate even after that. Well it must as the battery is always at 100% when I unplug it but in 5 hours it should use up some of the charge from the initial 100%.


I don't leave my flashlight batteries in the charger 5 hours after they have been fully charged. Why do we do it with cell phones then? I try to charge it now before I go to bed. Just in case ;) What are your cell phone charging habits?


dk Offline AHB

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Re: Your cell phone charging habbits
Reply #1 on: January 10, 2013, 08:52:44 PM
I plug it in at night and unplug it in the morning.. When the battery needs replacing, I'll pay whatever it costs.. :)


ca Offline Syph007

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Re: Your cell phone charging habbits
Reply #2 on: January 10, 2013, 08:55:03 PM
I loathe having to remember to plug in my phone.  Luckily the way we work is that in the office there is a charging station of batteries, so when I go in in the morning i trade my dead ones for new ones.  I typically carry 3 batteries as spares in my bag.
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ca Offline Landrew

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Re: Your cell phone charging habbits
Reply #3 on: January 10, 2013, 08:55:24 PM
A good quality product should have a charging circuit which keeps the battery in good condition while left on the charger constantly, and this includes most smartphones.  New products which receive a constant, unregulated charge are almost absent nowadays.  A few years ago, the "quick chargers" could ruin your battery in short order by overcharging.

Some of the older advice is still around from the NiCad days; such as run your battery all the way down once in awhile to clear the "memory effect." This is largely no longer true, and a lithium-ion cell can be harmed that way, or even made useless.

I'm sure some much more knowledgeable opinions will appear shortly, but this is what I've learned from experience.


gb Offline AimlessWanderer

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Re: Your cell phone charging habbits
Reply #4 on: January 10, 2013, 08:59:03 PM
I plug it in at night and unplug it in the morning.. When the battery needs replacing, I'll pay whatever it costs.. :)

This! Mobile phones are there for our convenience, not the other way round. Keep it simple. If I had a phone where I had to adopt a new charging routine of charging and checking it during the day and removing from the charger immediately ... I'd get a different phone. Sometimes I've put my work phone on charge Friday night and not unplugged it till Monday morning ... still working  :tu:


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fr Offline Whoey

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Re: Your cell phone charging habbits
Reply #5 on: January 10, 2013, 09:00:34 PM
I generally charge my smartphone overnight every night... just in case it gets heavy use the following day, but it usually copes pretty well regardless.
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cy Offline dks

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Re: Your cell phone charging habbits
Reply #6 on: January 10, 2013, 09:01:18 PM
Mine lasts for nearly a week, though I charge it every 3- 4 days. Came with 2 batteries, 3 years ago and I still only use the 1st one.

For lots of information on batteries also have a look here :

http://batteryuniversity.com/
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ca Offline wndrstrck

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Re: Your cell phone charging habbits
Reply #7 on: January 10, 2013, 09:03:23 PM
I use the 80-30% rule for taking the best care of my lithium batteries. I try my best to not let it get lower than 30% before putting it on to charge, and don't put it on the charger if it's above 80%. Lithium batteries don't like to be be completely discharged. Lithium batteries don't have a memory per say but they do have a limited number of charge cycles. As you use up charge cycles battery life degrades.

Most fancy electronics do have fancy shot off circuits when the battery reaches 100%. The problem is that some devices while plugged in still use battery power, therefore the battery needs to be topped up. This is one of the leading causes of premature laptop battery depletion.
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gb Offline nuphoria

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Re: Your cell phone charging habbits
Reply #8 on: January 10, 2013, 09:11:08 PM
Hardly ever let it get much below 20%, charge it mostly at night as I use it quite a lot when I can't sleep anyway.

Occasionally throw it on charge in the car if I've been burning it up using satnav etc.

iPhone 4s for reference :)
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ca Offline jzmtl

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Re: Your cell phone charging habbits
Reply #9 on: January 10, 2013, 09:13:54 PM
Charge every night, it's not as if I have any choice if I want to last through the next day.


ca Offline Landrew

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Re: Your cell phone charging habbits
Reply #10 on: January 10, 2013, 09:16:07 PM
Back in 1990, I bought a brand new 386 laptop computer. At 14 pounds, it didn't sit on my lap, I can tell you.  It had a large shrink-wrapped battery pack which looked to me like about 8 D-sized cells soldered together inside, which accounted for a good portion of the total weight.  It had a roaring fan blowing hot air out the vent all the time, and from day one, it didn't have nearly the battery run time that was advertised.  I timed it at about 12-14 minutes on battery before it had to be recharged.  Not much good for anything on battery but booting it up, checking a few things and then shutting it down.  Still worth something I suppose, even at $3000 USD new list price.  Apparently my employer thought so, because they bought it from me for that price.  I considered myself lucky.


bg Offline N_N_R

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Re: Your cell phone charging habbits
Reply #11 on: January 10, 2013, 09:20:22 PM
I used to wait for the battery to reach only one out of 5-6 levels and then put it to charge. It always charged for 80 minutes, then I unplugged it, it never happened to me to charge it at night somehow. Then after my first.. real emergency situation when I ended up with only 2 levels of the battery for a whole night and no place to charge it and really needing a phone, I started waiting for the battery to get empty by half and plug it in immediately... My phone was 2.5 years old, with the first battery and it would still last for 3-4 days with... normal treatment i.e. not too much talking. I use other apps mostly rather than talking :X.

And only a week ago I read that the right way to unplug your phone was actually first detach the charger from the phone and then unplug the charger from the socket... I'd been doing it the other way round for .... since I got my first phone :X


ca Offline jzmtl

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Re: Your cell phone charging habbits
Reply #12 on: January 10, 2013, 10:12:27 PM
I've always left the charger plugged in, nevwe thought I'd have to unplug it.


ca Offline Grant Lamontagne

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Re: Your cell phone charging habbits
Reply #13 on: January 10, 2013, 10:52:04 PM
I plug in my phone every chance I get.  I use it very heavily at work from photos to emails to text messages to the forum and Facebook.  Because of this, even the extended battery I have for it drains quickly so it's almost always plugged in when I'm in the Jeep or the car, and often when I'm at home too.  My charger is always plugged in too as it's plugged into an outlet behind the couch.

I will be sooooooo happy the day they manage to make a battery that can keep up with modern devices. 

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hr Offline enki_ck

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Re: Your cell phone charging habbits
Reply #14 on: January 10, 2013, 11:00:09 PM
I used to carry at least one backup battery too, but my new phone only came to the market recently, and I can't get any replacement batteries for it yet. :(


gb Offline nuphoria

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Re: Your cell phone charging habbits
Reply #15 on: January 10, 2013, 11:24:04 PM
I never leave chargers plugged in (or on anyway) when not in use. They get hot, can cause fires and are still running up your bills!
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ca Offline Landrew

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Re: Your cell phone charging habbits
Reply #16 on: January 10, 2013, 11:33:17 PM
I'd welcome someone to weigh in on whether the modern solid state chargers do indeed consume power when they aren't charging the phone.  I'd really hate having to unplug it every day when I get up in the morning.


ca Offline wndrstrck

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Re: Your cell phone charging habbits
Reply #17 on: January 10, 2013, 11:37:53 PM
All devices that are plugged in use "Phantom Power". This term describes the amount of non-use power used to stay in standby mode.
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ca Offline Landrew

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Re: Your cell phone charging habbits
Reply #18 on: January 10, 2013, 11:51:34 PM
All devices that are plugged in use "Phantom Power". This term describes the amount of non-use power used to stay in standby mode.
All? For sure?


ca Offline wndrstrck

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Re: Your cell phone charging habbits
Reply #19 on: January 11, 2013, 12:24:32 AM
All devices that are plugged in use "Phantom Power". This term describes the amount of non-use power used to stay in standby mode.
All? For sure?

Well maybe not all. Some electronics such as lamps can be considered "dumb" electronics, which means they are not using electricity waiting for interaction from the user. Other devices however, like televisions use small amounts of energy to stay in stand by mode, either waiting for human interaction or some other event. It is also referred to as "No Load Power".

Since around 2010 governments made it a priority to have manufacturers reduce this phantom power consumption of their devices to a more energy conscious level like one watt. However, count up all the devices you have plugged in and multiply that against the greater population and you begin to see the problem is still there, and will only get worse as the amount of consumer electronics in each home grows year by year.
"To be prepared is half the victory" Miguel de Cervantes


ca Offline Landrew

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Re: Your cell phone charging habbits
Reply #20 on: January 11, 2013, 12:32:52 AM
All devices that are plugged in use "Phantom Power". This term describes the amount of non-use power used to stay in standby mode.
All? For sure?

Well maybe not all. Some electronics such as lamps can be considered "dumb" electronics, which means they are not using electricity waiting for interaction from the user. Other devices however, like televisions use small amounts of energy to stay in stand by mode, either waiting for human interaction or some other event. It is also referred to as "No Load Power".

Since around 2010 governments made it a priority to have manufacturers reduce this phantom power consumption of their devices to a more energy conscious level like one watt. However, count up all the devices you have plugged in and multiply that against the greater population and you begin to see the problem is still there, and will only get worse as the amount of consumer electronics in each home grows year by year.

Well, that's the truth, but I have half a mind to do my own testing. I have a meter for that around somewhere.


ca Offline jzmtl

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Re: Your cell phone charging habbits
Reply #21 on: January 11, 2013, 12:43:25 AM
Look at it this way, most of that power used is converted to heat, which at the moment is used to heating the house and not wasted at all. Same as how incandescent bulbs are 100% efficient in winter and fluorescent bulbs don't save nearly as much as claimed energy in northern climate.  :D


ca Offline derekmac

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Re: Your cell phone charging habbits
Reply #22 on: January 11, 2013, 01:20:50 AM
I plug my phone in every night, and the charger is always plugged in to the wall.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2



us Offline THE_LONGBOW

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Re: Your cell phone charging habbits
Reply #23 on: January 11, 2013, 02:09:01 AM
I never leave chargers plugged in (or on anyway) when not in use. They get hot, can cause fires and are still running up your bills!

I have to agree. The black box at the start of the cord on some of my chargers gets warm if left plugged in. My phone is tethered to my computer (for internet) and charges that way so I leave my phone plugged in over night.


us Offline stealth007s

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Re: Your cell phone charging habbits
Reply #24 on: January 11, 2013, 06:58:02 AM
To my knowledge of phantom power, the only plugs that draw it are the type with indicator lights on them. I'm no expert in this, only from my reading knowledge about this. Anyone else know?

:b2t:

I plug my phone in at night when I go to bed. When I had the iPhone 4S, I had the Mophie Juice Pack Pro that was an external battery that also provided ruggedized protection like an Otterbox. With the Mophie, I could charge on the spot if the power got too low (usually at 10%). They don't have this for the iPhone 5 yet :think: Mophie will have this available soon though hopefully.

As for the extended charging, I was told that when the iPhone gets to 98-99% it goes into a deep cycle charging mode. I don't recall the length of time that takes to get it to full charge after that. I've never heard of the iPhone shutting the charging down once fully charged. Maybe the Android OS or other phones do that but I have zero experience with them.
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bg Offline N_N_R

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Re: Your cell phone charging habbits
Reply #25 on: January 11, 2013, 08:08:25 AM
The reason for me to also unplug everything I see when I go out is the same like nuphoria said :D I don''t trust technology as much as to believe it won't cause fire or something if left for longer in the socket... :D:F

Also, Do you think it's true that modern phones, even new, due to all of their applications, ave a shorter battery life and need to be charged more frequently than, let's say, simpler phones? If you don't overuse the phone, or if I use it... normally and don't talk for hours or take ten pictures a dy, I think my phone's perfectly capable of living without charging for 3-4 days and if I don't even talk or do try to save the battery for 5-7 ..


ca Offline wndrstrck

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Re: Your cell phone charging habbits
Reply #26 on: January 11, 2013, 08:10:06 AM
To my knowledge of phantom power, the only plugs that draw it are the type with indicator lights on them. I'm no expert in this, only from my reading knowledge about this. Anyone else know?

While not an expert, I did cover pantom power, standby power and no load power while attending school for electrical engineering. It is also an interest of mine as I would like to reduce my carbon footprint as much as I can. It can also save a few bucks a year on the energy bill.

As far as power adapters for cellular phones and the like, most manufacturers have made great improvements to reduce the amount of no load power used by such a device. To the point that anyone should not be concerned about leaving their cell phone adapter plugged in when not in use:tu:
"To be prepared is half the victory" Miguel de Cervantes


ca Offline KDX

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Re: Your cell phone charging habbits
Reply #27 on: January 11, 2013, 08:10:43 AM
My charger is always plugged in and my phone gets plugged into it before I go to bed every night.


ca Offline derekmac

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Re: Your cell phone charging habbits
Reply #28 on: January 11, 2013, 11:26:26 AM
I just unplugged my phone and the charger is cool, just like it hadn't been plugged in.

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ca Offline jzmtl

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Re: Your cell phone charging habbits
Reply #29 on: January 11, 2013, 11:48:57 AM
Wasn't there some gadget that sit between appliance and socket to measure the standby power? Somebody must have one to test a phone charger.


 

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