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Other Is wireless charging detrimental to battery life? [MERGED]

No, what's bad for your battery life is quick charging. Had a Nexus 5 under constant charging daily in office the whole day. Did that for like 4 years and the battery health was still in very good condition after that.
 
I have been using wireless charging exclusively on my iPhone 13. After almost 14 months my battery health is at 89% which is probably average for a user who charges their phone once per night from 10%-20% back to 100%.
 
i have a weak basic QI charcher stand i use with my iphone 13 pro. what would wear out my battery more. charging via lightning with weak 5V charger or my slow QI charger i think 7.5w standard. Some people say the qi charger would be worse for battery health because wireless charging creates more heat. is this true?
 
kofman13 said:
i have a weak basic QI charcher stand i use with my iphone 13 pro. what would wear out my battery more. charging via lightning with weak 5V charger or my slow QI charger i think 7.5w standard. Some people say the qi charger would be worse for battery health because wireless charging creates more heat. is this true?
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It’s true but it’s very marginal. Your battery will degrade badly within 2 years if you charge it with either so just charge the device whichever way you wish.
 
I used to be firmly in the "wireless charging is bad" camp, but then I read this article that interviews Isidor Buchmann who contributes to batteryuniversity.com which is a very thorough resource


Here he says:
Isidor Buchmann of batteryuniversity.com said:

Is it OK to use a wireless charger?​

Using a wireless charger is fine for your phone’s battery life, especially if you maintain a charge that’s between 20 and 80 percent.

While lithium-ion batteries don’t like to be hot when they’re full, Buchmann says recent studies on vehicle batteries suggest they do like to be warm while they charge and discharge, so your wireless charger is probably not terrible for your battery’s health even though it may create additional heat. And if it helps you stay within the 20 to 80 percent power band, that’s a very good thing.

“For charging and discharging, the battery likes to be warm. Between 25 and 40 degrees Celsius (77-104 F),” Buchmann says. “But in storage, the battery should be cool, maybe 15 or 10 degrees Celsius (59-50 F).” Monitoring these temperatures constantly is a tall order and probably not feasible, but you can find apps that will take note of your battery’s temperature and warn you if it hits extremes, which will at least help you avoid the worst scenarios
Click to expand...

So if the wireless charger does warm up the battery a bit, it is actually a good thing


Personally I don't worry about it anymore, but I do try to avoid the extremes of charge like above 80% and below 20%. I use the 80% limit option, and usually I have a charger nearby and just charge the phone for 10-20 minutes at a time. At home, I have the Shortcut automation which turns off the overnight charger at 75% even. That's fine for me since I rarely use up more than 50% of my battery during a regular day.

There was one time my phone did pause itself charging because it reached high temps, that only happened once on that wireless charger, maybe the phone was somehow doing some intense background activity?
 
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My Ford EV car built in wireless charger gets so hot, it shuts down.

I just plug into the USB-C port and get a faster charge.
 
I think wattage matters. Apple’s wireless charger should be used with lower wattage bricks to avoid using it at 15W as it might introduce additional heat. Generally speaking induction is always a little heat in and between the elements, thus the less powerful the charging brick the less heat is being generated.

On the other hand, wireless charging is future. Cables will be completely gone in next 2-5 years. It is very convenient. I would just hope Apple introduced more efficient design which protects battery from excessive induction plate heat.

I had some Baseus old wireless charger. Although I don’t like quality that this company makes, this charger is not bad, especially given that I got it for free as a gift at store. It cannot output more than 7.5w and works nicely with 5w brick, almost no heat. I use it sometimes tho, not that often
 
My 12 pro from launch day still has 93% battery health. I avoid wireless charging, though I have 3 mag-safe chargers. I also disconnect around 80% when charging and charge regularly.
 
shadowboi said:
I think wattage matters. Apple’s wireless charger should be used with lower wattage bricks to avoid using it at 15W as it might introduce additional heat. Generally speaking induction is always a little heat in and between the elements, thus the less powerful the charging brick the less heat is being generated.

On the other hand, wireless charging is future. Cables will be completely gone in next 2-5 years. It is very convenient. I would just hope Apple introduced more efficient design which protects battery from excessive induction plate heat.

I had some Baseus old wireless charger. Although I don’t like quality that this company makes, this charger is not bad, especially given that I got it for free as a gift at store. It cannot output more than 7.5w and works nicely with 5w brick, almost no heat. I use it sometimes tho, not that often
Click to expand...
Cables will be gone completely? I doubt that very much. A lot of people, me included, still use cables all the time. I don't like wireless chargers.
 
Lesimac said:
I disagree! it generates a lot more heat, also heat = wasted energy so less efficient.
Click to expand...
Exactly. In many ways, it is a stupid solution. It is not really wireless and with MagSafe magnets to position it, it could as well just be pogo pins.

I have only used it when my lightning port is not working.
 
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It would appear to be so. I have never wirelessly charged my launch day iPhone 14PM and it's on 97% battery health at the moment. I also tend not to charge past 80-84%.
 
My 1 year old iPhone 15 Pro Max has been charged with MagSafe / Wireless all this time and it had 100% battery health until last week (it's now 99% after 1 year doing nothing but MagSafe / Wireless charging).

MagSafe / Wireless charging is perfectly fine.
 
Reggaenald said:
To say it’s not less efficient than wired charging us just wrong. Just, wrong.
Which is obvious if you’ve ever felt your charging cable or the port compared to the wireless charger or the back of the phone in terms of temperature.
Heat means inefficiency.
Click to expand...

many factors come into play here:
  • high power charging aka fast charging does lower the lifespan of the battery. It doesn't matter if it is done by wire or wireless.
  • when there's a thicker case around the iPhone that increases the distance between iphone, it can lower the efficiency of the power transfer. That often translates into extra heat production by the electronics.
  • some charger pads also produce a lot of heat by themselves due to inefficient design. The USB-C standard does allow several voltages to be used and some combinations certain power adapters and charger pads make the charger pad heat up more. Unfortunately you'll need the right measuring equipment to see this (I have).
  • heat produced by the charger pad isn't good for the lifespan of a battery too.
  • Where you live: any mobile phone in use in warmer areas of the globe do deteriorate quicker than in colder regions.
  • And last one: some apps simply use a lot of power, especially those apps that have lots of background processes running like those social apps. That also degrades batteries.
My iPhone 13 mini is currently just below 89% after two years. I charge it usually once a day and most of the days the charge hasn't dropped below 20% by the end of the day since I don't use any chat crap like WhatsApp or Facebook. I almost never use public wifi or company wifi; both of these networks are usually very busy and drain the battery. I mainly use 4G/5G when I'm not home.
I use a wireless charging that only supports slow charging. In fact, when I have to use the lightning cable I use a standard USB-A port only to keep the charge power at 7W. And on those days where I use my iPhone more, I only do short charging up to 75% during the day and when possible not let it slide below 20%.

I've done a similar charging regime with my Macbook and Powerbook in the last decades. My last Macbook Pro still has its original battery after 10 years. It's below 40% of its original capacity - it runs around 1.5 hours on battery with Photoshop in use. Not bad I think.
 
Some claim Mag Safe hurts battery life Compared to Wired charging. It all depends on the usage of the iPhone in most cases. I had the same problem with QI and Mag Safe. Then again, (hard users) I use my iPhone daily for video chatting, messaging apps, etc. There is no difference. All in the user experience
 
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