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Should I be worried about leaving my cell phone charging overnight?

Some material is very old and may be incorrect today

© September 2015 Anthony Lawrence

Anonymous asks:

Should I be worried about leaving my cell phone charging overnight? Will it harm my battery life to overcharge it?

Don't blame you for worrying - there is a ton of stuff on the web that warns against this. Even the Battery App I use on my iPhone warns ominously about overcharging!

But apparently that's all hogwash with today's devices. Wouldn't you think that the phone would be smart enough not to overcharge itself? Well, apparently it is. However, what it may not be so good at is protecting itself from excess heat and that WILL reduce your battery life. For example, Apple warns that ambient temperatures in excess of 95 degrees will lower your battery life and that charging it in such circumstances is even worse. They warn that some protective cases may add to the problem too.

As far as wasting energy, yeah, you'll waste some, but today's chargers aren't all that dumb either, so it's not all that much. I do try to avoid leaving stuff plugged in, but I don't get too upset if I forget.

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