Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Other Timed charging to maintain battery health?

Paco II

Paco II

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Sep 13, 2009
2,288
706
I am toying with the idea of using a homekit outlet to control my overnight charging. Disable the outlet a couple hours after I go to sleep and turn back on maybe 1 hour before I get up. Any thoughts as to whether or not this would maintain battery health longer, or hurt it instead?
 
It might help but it seems like a lot of trouble when the battery replacement is so cheap. That or do you keep your devices for a long time? Are there no Apple certified tech in your area that can change the battery and do a good job?
Your method might help as I compare it to electric cars because that’s the line of thinking for maintaining an EV battery’s health which is not let the battery sit with a high charge level for too long. I practice that. So timed charging your phone, then taking the phone from the charger seems in theory to work. But the difference is $79 Apple battery and a $15,000 battery.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Plett and doboy
1rottenapple said:
It might help but it seems like a lot of trouble when the battery replacement is so cheap. That or do you keep your devices for a long time? Are there no Apple certified tech in your area that can change the battery and did a good job.
I compare it a lot with electric cars because that’s one of the line of thinking with maintaining an EV battery health which is not let the battery sit with a high charge level for too long. But the difference is $79 Apple battery and a $15,000 battery.
Click to expand...

I have no issues replacing a battery. I have multiple apple stores nearby. My question is more about better understanding battery health, and if this kind of action would theoretically help, or if my understanding is wrong and if this approach would actually hurt. In my homekit scenario it's not a lot of trouble since it is all timed. Nothing I need to do once the automation has been set up.
 
Paco II said:
I am toying with the idea of using a homekit outlet to control my overnight charging. Disable the outlet a couple hours after I go to sleep and turn back on maybe 1 hour before I get up. Any thoughts as to whether or not this would maintain battery health longer, or hurt it instead?
Click to expand...
For my curiosity; isn’t that what “optimized battery charging” feature supposed to do?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Peter K. and doboy
Paco II said:
I have no issues replacing a battery. I have multiple apple stores nearby. My question is more about better understanding battery health, and if this kind of action would theoretically help, or if my understanding is wrong and if this approach would actually hurt. In my homekit scenario it's not a lot of trouble since it is all timed. Nothing I need to do once the automation has been set up.
Click to expand...
I believe your method will work. I say go for it. You might have 98% battery health in 1 year.
 
Paco II said:
It is, which is where my idea originated. But Apple's implementation is poor IMO. It regularly does not do the optimized charging.
Click to expand...
I agree and actually asked the question some time ago here on why it does not work yet as I go to sleep pretty much the same time every night and bedtime feat is already setup yet the feature is not enabled yet on my iPhone 12 Pro.

Honestly, I am planning to do the same and I already ordered a smart plug expecting to receive tomorrow. Though I plan to always charge it up to 80% via automation and never charge over that. Also never go below 20% of possible. I am planning to keep the phone at least 4 years and have the maximum performance from battery as much as possible.
 
Last edited:
My plan is charge with the 5 watt charger overnight with my 12 pro max, and that might maintain my battery health. We shall see. I fast charged the hell out of my xs max, usually 3x a day, and my battery health dropped pretty quickly.
 
  • Like
Reactions: nmeed
1rottenapple said:
My plan is charge with the 5 watt charger overnight with my 12 pro max, and that might maintain my battery health. We shall see. I fast charged the hell out of my xs max, usually 3x a day, and my battery health dropped pretty quickly.
Click to expand...
I used wireless charger most of the day at work with my iPhone X that I bought on release day and I was on the second battery with 87% battery health the day I ordered my iPhone 12 pro. That’s why I returned my magsafe charger at the end of the first day of use. I’m going 5w only and never wireless again.
 
If you're charging it for a couple hours at bedtime... and an hour in the morning... will that charge it to 100% ?

But I thought charging a phone to full every night is what wears down a battery... not the duration of the charging.

I was under the impression that the phone stops charging once it reaches 100% anyway. If so... the phone won't continue to pump electrons into the battery once it's full.
 
FreeStyLeMaSTeR said:
I used wireless charger most of the day at work with my iPhone X that I bought on release day and I was on the second battery with 87% battery health the day I ordered my iPhone 12 pro. That’s why I returned my magsafe charger at the end of the first day of use. I’m going 5w only and never wireless again.
Click to expand...
Ya that’s the other issue. With the MagSafe charger the heat it generates wonder what the effects will be. I tried the MagSafe at the Apple store and it’s pretty neat but I won’t buy it.
 
I recently setup a Homekit smart plug that my wireless charger is plugged into. I then setup a personal automation/shortcut to turn the smart plug off when the battery charge gets to 80%. This can be done in the Shortcuts app. It’s working great so far.

I had an 11 Pro that ended up at 91% battery health after a year. I had no issues with battery life but this turned off numerous buyers when I sold it before getting my 12. Hopefully this measure will keep the battery health up for when I sell it next year.
 
  • Like
Reactions: cub4bearin, Stev150 and Paco II
Imho and people will disagree wired slow charging is best for battery health. Wireless generates too much heat.
 
1rottenapple said:
Imho and people will disagree wired slow charging is best for battery health. Wireless generates too much heat.
Click to expand...
Yes wired slow charging is the best, but also making sure that you don't have a tight case on it as that can trap the heat it generates when charging the phone.
 
1rottenapple said:
Imho and people will disagree wired slow charging is best for battery health. Wireless generates too much heat.
Click to expand...

What about low watt wireless charging? I have been using a 5w wireless charger and the health of my 11 pro from launch day was 93% capacity when I traded it in.
 
bmac4 said:
What about low watt wireless charging? I have been using a 5w wireless charger and the health of my 11 pro from launch day was 93% capacity when I traded it in.
Click to expand...
I've used the 7.5 w wireless charger for my 11PM from launch day and still at 100%.
 
Shadowbech said:
I've used the 7.5 w wireless charger for my 11PM from launch day and still at 100%.
Click to expand...

Yeah I think mine was 7w. I used a cord charge for over half the life of the phone and it was a high watt, so I think that’s were the lower capacity came from.
 
So much worrying over battery health by everybody. Such a waste of time. I have a launch day 8 plus at 85%. I have charged it nearly every night on a cheap Amazon wireless charger and it still lasts me all day long.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Plett
B.A.T said:
So much worrying over battery health by everybody. Such a waste of time. I have a launch day 8 plus at 85%. I have charged it nearly every night on a cheap Amazon wireless charger and it still lasts me all day long.
Click to expand...

Let me be clear that my thread is not about worry. My XS that I replaced for a 12 was a bit over 2 years old with 90% health and I charged it without any concern to wattage or wireless or anything. What I am trying to understand is what is best for health because I am curious. Is charging to 100% every night all night with 5w better than only charging to 80% with a 10w charger, for example?
 
Lol we’re not worrying. There’s more to life than worrying about battery life. Just a fun thread; what’s the point of forums like this when we can’t over analyze our tech. But you know if all I worried about is battery life on my phone than my life isn’t that bad. Other parts of my life must be going pretty good.

Edit: I’m Jez and my biggest worry in life is my XS Max Battery life.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: doboy, FreeWoRLD83 and BigMcGuire
1rottenapple said:
My plan is charge with the 5 watt charger overnight with my 12 pro max, and that might maintain my battery health. We shall see. I fast charged the hell out of my xs max, usually 3x a day, and my battery health dropped pretty quickly.
Click to expand...
Just a notice - when I tried using the old 5w Apple charger on my 11 Pro Max it got REALLY REALLY hot lol. Enough for me to just use an old iPad 12w charger instead. But I may be overly sensitive to that stuff. (Battery OCD).
 
Since my MBP 16" gets warm, I do this.

I have a 100W USB C adapter that is on a WEMO outlet that turns on for 10 hours during the day and then turns off until the next day.

Keeps the heating of the MBP to a minimum even with a laptop cooling fan pad I use w/ external Apple Thunderbolt display....
 
  • Like
Reactions: richwilliams
1rottenapple said:
Lol we’re not worrying. There’s more to life than worrying about battery life. But you know if all I worried about battery than my life isn’t that bad.
Click to expand...

Let me say again, it is not about worry. It is about curiosity. I would like to learn and understand. It is the spice of life, as they say.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1rottenapple
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back