Is it safe to charge your phone overnight?

Is it safe to charge your phone overnight?

    Well, in today's world all the phones are based on lithium-ion batteries and looking at the increasing usage of smartphones, we are always under the need to charge the phone. Most of us don't get enough time to charge the phone during the daytime, unless you have a power bank. So, is it safe to leave the phone on charge overnight? Will it affect the battery? These are the common worries we have. After doing a bit of a research I found following things about these worries. Let's have a look!

This picture is for representation purpose only! 

What are charge cycles?

    According to Wikipedia article, a charge cycle is the process of charging a rechargeable battery and discharging it as required into a load. The term is typically used to specify a battery's expected life, as the number of charge cycles affects life more than the mere passage of time. Discharging the battery fully before recharging may be called "deep discharge"; partially discharging then recharging may be called "shallow discharge".

In general, number of cycles for a rechargeable battery indicates how many times it can undergo the process of complete charging and discharging until failure or it starting to lose capacity.

Apple Inc. clarifies that a charge cycle means using all the battery's capacity, but not necessarily by full charge and discharge; e.g., using half the charge of a fully charged battery, charging it, and then using the same amount of charge again count as a single charge cycle.

So, your lithium-ion batteries too have limited number of charge cycles. But it's better not to let the battery die completely and also not to charge it fully all the time. 

Charging between 40% to 80% is considered as optimum. 

So? Yes or No?

“Leaving your phone plugged in overnight is okay to do, it will not drastically harm your device,” says Shane Broesky, co-founder of Farbe Technik, a company that makes charging accessories. “Your phone is very smart. Once it’s fully charged, it knows when to stop the current from coming in to protect your phone from overcharging.”

      

Lithium-ion battery warms up as you charge your phone.  As it gets warmer, it charges faster. But since a battery can’t hold more than its capacity, after reaching a full charge the battery expends the excess power by giving it off as heat. Overnight charging becomes a problem when a battery has no way to reroute the incoming current after reaching its capacity.

But smartphones have gotten smarter. They can stop charging when the battery has reached its full capacity and begin using the charger as its primary power source. So, the heating problem of the batteries is resolved.

So, in conclusion there is no harm in leaving the phone on charge overnight!

Some Tips for optimum battery usage :

• Keep your charge between 40% to 80%. It's okay if it drains further, but do not let it drain completely.
• Avoid using the fast charging often. Use regular charging for day to day use.