vB Easy Archive - IPhone 3G battery - should I keep it plugged in or not?

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IPhone 3G battery - should I keep it plugged in or not?
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Posted by: sgrossfe

Since the battery has a limited number of full charge cycles is it better to keep it plugged in when sitting at a desk or continue to charge it to full and then recharge when needed. What happens when you plug in the iphone and it gets fully charged. If you keep it plugged in does it run off the battery or off the power from the plug?

Given the number of times a day (2-3) I have to charge this thing I can imagine I am going to need a new battery fairly quickly (ie 1 year).

Posted by: BarberJA1

Quote:

Originally Posted by sgrossfe

Since the battery has a limited number of full charge cycles is it better to keep it plugged in when sitting at a desk or continue to charge it to full and then recharge when needed. What happens when you plug in the iphone and it gets fully charged. If you keep it plugged in does it run off the battery or off the power from the plug?

Given the number of times a day (2-3) I have to charge this thing I can imagine I am going to need a new battery fairly quickly (ie 1 year).

Unless you're using it nonstop, 2-3 times charging it a day would make me return it without a second thought

Posted by: Quake97

This was discussed a lot with the first gen iPhone. You may find out more on this by searching. The basic idea is that it'll be a long time before your battery completely dies. Sure, in a year or two it may only have 80% of the life it had when new, but that may not matter. You also have the option of replacing it via Apple.

With the battery in the iPhone, you don't need to completely drain and recharge it nor do you need to worry about leaving it on the charger for hours at a time.

Joe

Posted by: hellphone

Myth: frequent charging uses up cycles.
Fact: a cycle is defined as the equivalent of one full discharge/recharge, spread over however many smaller, partial charges/discharges. Charge when convenient.

Myth: using lots of cycles means the battery is shot in one year.
Fact: After approx. 500 full cycles the capacity will drop to around 80%. If you use about half the battery every day, then recharge, that will be in about 3 years.

Myth: leaving it on charge will overcharge the battery.
Fact: No, it is smarter than that. But two things to avoid: never using the battery (plugged in ALL the time), or leaving it very low and uncharged for many days.

-dan

Posted by: sgrossfe

Thanks. I didn't realize it had 500 full charges. That makes me not worry about it and just charging it as needed. It should last awhile or at least until iphone v3.

Posted by: hellphone

You're welcome. Note that the 500 and 3 years are approx. figures. My first iPod (one of the first on the market) went 30 months until its battery was not very useful. My latest iPod is into its 29th month and still very strong.

-dan

Posted by: [TheBORG]

I thought one of the Apple videos or specs said that the battery can take 5000 charge cycles?

Posted by: Mark_K

Quote:

Originally Posted by BarberJA1

Unless you're using it nonstop, 2-3 times charging it a day would make me return it without a second thought

No!

How can you say that?

It's based on his usage.

How do you know he's not downloading 5 gb of data twice a day.

"I'd return it"....... please.

Posted by: kupe

Quote:

Originally Posted by [TheBORG]

I thought one of the Apple videos or specs said that the battery can take 5000 charge cycles?

Only a battery built from Unobtainium can perform like that.

A battery cycle is defined as a full discharge to empty and a subsequent full recharge. If you let your iPhone discharge 10% and recharge it, you will have consumed 1/10 of a cycle. Therefore, if you only ever discharge your battery 10% and always recharge it, you'll get 5,000 recharges in your 500 cycles.

Posted by: XFF

To answer the OP's question, leaving the iPhone fully charged on the charger is the best thing you can do to your battery (albeit probably not the most practical), since in this configuration the battery is neither charging nor discharging, so it doesn't reduce the battery's total lifetime charge cycles, not even partially.

Posted by: shortcut3d

AppleTV has it, we need it. It would be very nice to have Wifi sync for the iPhone. We would not have partial charges and it's just plain convenient.

Posted by: RF9

I leave mine plugged in at home and at work. Being that it's running off of AC after the charge is complete, it's actually NOT using the battery at all. Therefore those hours that it's plugged in are hours you're saving in battery usage/cycles, especially if you're using it while it's plugged in so it's not running down the battery otherwise.

So if it's plugged in 1/2 of every day, then that's like 132.5 days of battery use in a 365 day year (of your usage level that is.)

Also, while it's plugged in, it will keep wifi active. Not that I care, but the data is going over wifi instead of cellular.

This is the way I've used my Plam Treos (keep it pluged it in when I can) in the past and I got years out of those batteries. Never had to replace one and they still perform very well, except for my wife's and she only charged hers once every 3-4 days. Eventually her battery just stopped charging one day and started heating up. Luckily I had a spare (that I never had to use) brand new in the package.