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Gone are the days when lead-acid batteries were the gold standard. Ever since the first-ever commercial lithium-ion battery was made available in 1991, the realm of consumer electronics underwent a silent revolution as these batteries became commonplace in everything from your smartphones to modern electric vehicles. Both the anode and cathode of a battery store lithium, with the electrolyte present in these batteries facilitating the movement of positively charged lithium ions between the anode and cathode. This chemical reaction is what generates the battery’s power and helps current flow through a device. John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham, and Akira Yoshino’s groundbreaking research to make lithium-ion batteries the current standard helped them achieve a Nobel Prize in 2019.
While the general consensus is that lithium-ion batteries can hold more charge and last longer than other types of batteries, that doesn’t mean consumers can be complacent when handling these batteries. Even a phone with the best battery life on the market can lose its capacity without proper preservation measures. People tend to make common mistakes that damage the lithium-ion batteries in their devices, so make sure to avoid these habits if you don’t want your phone or EV to become an expensive, inoperative piece of junk once its battery gives up.
Refusing to turn on smart charging
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Keeping your smartphone battery at 100% for too long can cause undue strain, which is better avoided. This is why most modern smartphones use smart charging protocols to ensure that a lengthy charging period won’t leave the phone’s battery at full charge for too long. The Pixel’s “Charging optimization” and Apple’s “Optimised Battery Charging” are two notable examples of smart charging technology that aim to charge a battery to 100% optimally, after studying your charging patterns and predicting when you’ll unplug your device. Basically, you can safely leave your iPad on charge overnight without worrying about any battery damage. The impact is noticeable, and you can check the battery health of your phone at regular intervals to properly gauge the impact of these features.
However, despite this technology helping increase your battery’s longevity, some people don’t appreciate using a battery that is almost always around 80% capacity when they charge their phone. This is why they turn off these smart charging protocols to enjoy regular charging speeds instead, but this can be a costly mistake in the long run. As unappealing as slow charging may be in this situation, it’s a preventive measure that helps your battery last for years on end without forcing you to either make a trip to the service store for a battery replacement or the mobile store for a brand-new device.
Charging with a low-quality third-party cable or adapter
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For the most part, you should stick to the accessories that come with your phone rather than resorting to third-party tools. Even if your device doesn’t ship with a charging cable or adapter, your phone manufacturer definitely has these products listed on its website or present in an offline store. Not including these critical accessories with the device in question is not ideal, but buying them separately from a trusted outlet is far better than relying on shadier third-party cables and adapters that may not be best suited to unlock the fastest charging speeds possible for your device.
Doing a bit of research before buying these accessories will usually guide you to trusted, affordable outlets that provide quality accessories, even if they might be from third parties. However, buying these accessories from uncertified or untrustworthy sources may even damage the battery if you are unlucky enough to get a faulty product. So, it’s in your best interests to minimize this risk by sticking to official factory equipment or, failing that, well-reviewed cables and adapters with numerous positive reviews from reputable manufacturers.
Letting your battery heat up frequently
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Lithium-ion batteries are very temperature sensitive. They don’t do well in either extreme cold or heat. So, it goes without saying that you shouldn’t leave your phones in direct sunlight, since this will cause the battery to heat up and accelerate its degradation. People tend to make this mistake when they charge their phones in their cars, not realizing that excessive heat can reduce their phone’s battery capacity over time. Another subtle way that people make this mistake is when they place their phone on a soft surface — or, worse, under one like a pillow — while leaving it on charge. Given how laptops heat up exponentially on beds and couches with no hard surface beneath to dissipate heat, it’s easy to see why phones will also face this problem, to the point where they might start exhibiting warning signs that the lithium-ion battery could catch fire!
This issue isn’t restricted to your phone. Electric vehicles are also notorious for experiencing battery degradation when the car is left in the heat for too long. Cells can be damaged as a result of prolonged overheating, reducing your battery’s lifespan by up to 15%. For what it’s worth, most EVs have thermal management solutions set in place to prevent any excessive damage from prolonged exposure to heat — after all, the lithium batteries in EVs heat up when in use, as is — but that doesn’t mean you should leave your car parked in the sun for days. A cool, well-covered garage is typically the best solution to guarantee a long, healthy lifespan for your EV’s battery.
Charging a phone in extremely cold temperatures
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Don’t assume that you’re in the clear when it comes to your phone’s battery in winter. After all, some areas in the U.S. can reach sub-zero temperatures during this season, and it’s not just you who needs to remain warm during this time. There’s a reason your Apple device’s battery life decreases in low temperatures. It can’t handle the cold for too long without risking damage. Samsung phones are also at risk of shutting down if the device temperature is too low.
This problem is exacerbated if you decide to charge your phone in these temperatures without taking the required measures to keep your device warm. Repeatedly charging your device one too many times in these freezing temperatures leads to a permanent coating of metallic lithium on your battery anode. There’s no solution to this — it’s a problem you’re going to have to live with, which will considerably reduce your battery capacity. Make sure that your phone isn’t too cold before charging it, and you should be good.
Letting your device battery discharge all the time
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A device operating at low charge incurs more strain on the battery. Remember the chemical reaction we elaborated on for Li-ion batteries? Well, it leads to a buildup of material at the battery’s endpoints during discharge, and this can form a permanent lithium coating that isn’t affected by the battery’s electrolyte cycle at very low charge levels. Most phones try to avoid this by hiding your battery’s true 0% and turning off your phone when it’s actually at a safe level above this point. Still, that doesn’t mean you should run your battery at a very low charge all the time, since it can lead to faster battery degradation over time if this occurs frequently. This leads to your device going through its charging cycles at a faster rate and lowers battery capacity, eventually showing signs that your phone battery needs to be replaced sooner rather than later.
Don’t assume that your EVs aren’t affected by battery discharges, either. Since these vehicles are also powered by lithium-ion batteries, they’re subject to charging cycles. Run your EV to 0% all the time, and these deep discharges will increase the load on its battery and adversely affect its lifespan. On top of this, the 12-volt battery that governs most critical functions in your car can also be impacted via a deep discharge, preventing you from utilizing basic vehicle functions like turning off the car’s headlights and locking or unlocking its doors. Avoid these problems and charge your EV when it’s nearing 20% battery capacity.
Carelessly handling your battery-powered device
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Perhaps the most obvious mistake you can make with a battery-powered device is irresponsibly handling it. A puncture or severe damage can compromise the battery. If you have a butterfinger problem, then it’s very important that you use a phone cover for greater protection. Try not to use covers that prioritize looks over protection. Covers from reputed brands like Spigen, OtterBox, and Mous are built competently to prevent even the hardest falls from doing major damage to your phone.
For EVs, there’s not a lot we can say other than to practice safe driving and follow the rules. It minimizes the chances of you getting in a crash that not only poses a risk to your battery but also to your own health. If it helps, EVs are built in a manner that protects the battery from external impacts, but don’t assume that this protection is ironclad and become lackadaisical about road safety.
Never conserving battery life
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Lithium-ion batteries have limited charge cycles. Using 100% of your battery capacity counts as one charge cycle, and there are only so many that your device can handle before battery capacity is permanently reduced. This is why battery conservation is important — after all, reducing the amount of time your phone takes to drain its battery will indirectly reduce the number of charging cycles it undergoes. The most obvious solution here is to keep Low Power mode on at all times, since it performs numerous charging optimizations in the background and keeps your phone going for longer.
This is not the only way you can conserve battery life. Reduce your phone’s brightness, periodically manage background apps, keep Dark Mode on if you’re using an OLED screen, and disable or tone down any of the fancy animations and display effects that make your phone look slick at the cost of battery life. These optimizations will reduce the number of charging cycles your phone will endure over time, which goes a long way in determining whether you need to buy a new phone soon after the model you’re currently using or keeping it for a longer time.
Charging your EV to 100% all the time
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Most people who are paranoid about their EVs discharging in the middle of nowhere may be tempted to keep the battery charged to 100% all the time. It may seem like a prudent course of action to take at that moment, but what you may not realize is that keeping your EV battery fully charged at all times negatively impacts battery life and eventually lowers its lifespan.
This is because EV batteries become more volatile at full capacity. There’s a higher chance of lithium dendrites forming on the battery’s anode, which can lead to a potential short-circuit. A fully-charged battery also generates more heat, leading to the problem of lithium plating and lowered battery capacity we’ve already touched upon before. In the absolute worst possible scenario, your battery can fail completely because of this volatility, although this is extremely rare.
Just like phones, an 80% charge is the sweet spot at which your EV’s battery will be fine. The only exception to this rule is if you’re planning on a road trip and want to maximize the range of your EV. In this case, don’t worry about fully charging your vehicle’s battery, as long as it’s a one-off situation.
Leaving your EV battery on full or no charge for too long
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If you’re not planning to take out your EV for some time, make sure that the battery isn’t at full capacity or completely discharged before stowing it away. Leaving EVs idle when their batteries are at these extremes for too long can reduce their overall capacity, leading to a situation where you take out your EV after a long time, only to see that its battery is permanently reduced by a significant percentage.
At full charge, the lithium cells will experience adverse chemical reactions that reduce your battery’s capacity. Meanwhile, a discharged vehicle incurs more stress on lithium batteries, which has a similar effect. To avoid this, if you know you will be stowing your car for awhile, try to keep your battery around 50% when it’s at a standstill. This way, you won’t have to worry about compromising its range if you don’t use the vehicle for too long.
Relying on fast-charging for your EV a bit too much
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Fast-charging technology for phones has been in use for quite some time. As a result, most of the issues that used to plague this new feature have been done away with. Heat generation was the biggest problem here, and a nifty solution to take care of this has been to integrate power management in the adapter itself. What we’re trying to say is that a 100-watt charger won’t destroy your phone’s battery. However, EVs are still a burgeoning technology, and fast charging for these vehicles comes with the risk of battery degradation you should be aware of.
Most EV fast chargers operate between 7 kilowatts and 22 kilowatts and provide an AC current. Since EV batteries hold DC energy, this alternating current needs to be converted before being transferred to the battery, which results in slower charging times. So, for greater convenience, a lot of EV manufacturers now provide fast-charging DC power that can go upwards of 100 kilowatts. While this lets you charge your EV’s battery in less than an hour, the tradeoff is that this higher voltage strains the lithium battery and expedites battery degradation if this becomes a regular practice. Studies have shown that batteries exhibit a degradation rate of 1.5% every year at regular charging speeds, but this is doubled to 3% as a result of stress caused by regular DC-power fast charging. Unless it’s an emergency and your EV needs to be charged in a flash, resort to a regular charging solution to guarantee the longevity of your vehicle’s battery.
Driving your EV in the cold frequently
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Since it’s unrealistic to expect any EV owner to stop driving their vehicle in low temperatures, let us preface this point by stating that the impact of cold weather on your EV’s battery is indirect. However, it’s still something to consider if you are mindful of charging cycles. Since lithium-ion batteries need to heat up to generate charge, colder temperatures mean that your battery will generate more power to maintain these operating temperatures.
This excess energy comes at the cost of driving range, meaning that your EV will travel a shorter distance before needing to be plugged in. This, in turn, increases the number of charging cycles that your vehicle goes through in these colder temperatures, which will inevitably eat into your battery life over time. While that doesn’t mean you should stop using your EV in the winter, you can definitely mitigate any heavy-duty use in sub-zero temperatures.
