5% is the new 20%

[SaberSerene]

Recently I went to my local apple store and had my 5 swapped out for a new one. I was having issues with my antenna and battery. I talked to an Apple genius for quite some time. He mentioned he has great battery life and has LTE in his area. I asked him what his usage is and said 8 hours+ I asked him when I should charge my phone. He mentioned he always ran down his phone until its dead or 3%. Daily. This is something you do once a month? I generally run my down to 20% daily, but I guess running it down further won't hurt? So 5% is the new 20%

 

[Nophix]

Run it down until you go to bed or you need to charge it. The batteries in modern phones don't have the memory problem the old ones do.

 

[coltsbr]

Your information is a little inaccurate, I don't care what "they" say about old batteries and new batteries. Yes, new batteries are much better than the older generation.
But they all have memory. Conditioning the battery by running it down to 5% or about will ensure that you will be using the most of each cell in the battery. You don't have to do this everyday but once a month will help.

 

[SaberSerene]

Your information is a little inaccurate, I don't care what "they" say about old batteries and new batteries. Yes, new batteries are much better than the older generation.
But they all have memory. Conditioning the battery by running it down to 5% or about will ensure that you will be using the most of each cell in the battery. You don't have to do this everyday but once a month will help.

I agree with what you said. Why did the apple genius tell me to run it down 5% or less daily? To me that is poor battery management.

 

[Massie]

This topic comes up regularly, and people always have their own take on how to treat batteries. This is the advice from the Apple website:

"Use iPhone Regularly
For proper maintenance of a lithium-based battery, it’s important to keep the electrons in it moving occasionally. Be sure to go through at least one charge cycle per month (charging the battery to 100% and then completely running it down)." (Apple - Batteries - iPhone)

Note that it's a bit different for notebook batteries:
"An ideal use would be a commuter who uses her notebook on the train, then plugs it in at the office to charge. This keeps the battery juices flowing. If on the other hand, you use a desktop computer at work, and save a notebook for infrequent travel, Apple recommends charging and discharging its battery at least once per month." (Apple - Batteries - Notebooks)

 

[anon(4698833)]

lol...i have literally never done this "conditioning" stuff, if my mac or iPhones battery runs low, it's because i wasn't paying attention to it or didn't have a charging cable available to me at the time.

 

[coltsbr]

I agree with what you said. Why did the apple genius tell me to run it down 5% or less daily? To me that is poor battery management.

I don't think it would hurt anything to do this on an everyday basis. It would just be a pain in the butt to have to drain it that far down everyday. I get pretty good battery life out of my iPhone 5 and I have to use it pretty hard to get it down that far. But I do get it that low a couple times a week. Most people that I know that have iPhone's no matter which version run there batteries down on a daily basis just using and playing with their phones.

 

[Ipheuria]

Here's what I do and there is no scientific reasoning behind it. I use my devices everyday the way they should be used. I don't have time to do anything special it's meant to be used. However once a month I will kill all running apps hook it up to power then power the device off and let it sit for a normal charge cycle. On my iPad it is usually at around 10% when I charge it anyway but my iPhone it might be 5%, 20% or whatever. I've owned a 3G for 3 years until it wouldn't last past half an hour on a charge. Until then it always worked like clock work, most of us wont own our devices especially the iPhone for 3 years.

 

[ThePinkChameleon]

lol...i have literally never done this "conditioning" stuff, if my mac or iPhones battery runs low, it's because i wasn't paying attention to it or didn't have a charging cable available to me at the time.

My husband is the saaaaaame way. Regardless of how little/much he uses his phone daily, he still plugs in during the day when in his work vehicle, or docks it in his office, and then at home turning in for the night charging over night as well. I think he's done a cycle charge MAYBE 3 times since owning his i4 since last July, and he gets great battery life (5.0.1)

I, on the other hand, will cycle the battery MAYBE once every 3 months(if i even rem to do it). Also, i'll charge after 1-1/2......2days, when i hit the 20% warning OR sometimes i won't even wait that long. I really have no rhyme or reason as to when i charge, lol. and my battery life is good

 

[SaberSerene]

I have always plugged my phone in daily when it is down to 20%. Once a month I will run it into the ground. Compared to my iPhone 4 the battery is an hour and a half better.

 

[Ipheuria]

Here's my question why do you do it? Like I said most people don't own their iPhone long enough for the battery to be dead. If they did no amount of discharging would help anyway. So why do you do it? for battery life?

I've found that the data on the phone is actually more probably to affect battery life. I'm not saying don't discharge the battery I've already said I do about once a month. I'm just saying that sometimes also unsyncing everything off the phone rebooting and putting it all back can work wonders for battery life.

 

[Peligro911]

Why not just use your phone and charge it when 1. It's dead
Or 2. You go to sleep

That's what I do some days I run it dead because I might just use it more that day and some times I plug it in and it's at 20 percent

Don't stress about it the phone is suppose to make your life easier just use it and enjoy

Now if your battery is draining really fast then that is a complete diff issue

 

[Massie]

Yep?I use mine all day and plug in when I sleep. Never worried about getting a longer lasting battery ?sure I'll upgrade long before it's an issue.

 

[SaberSerene]

Yep?I use mine all day and plug in when I sleep. Never worried about getting a longer lasting battery ?sure I'll upgrade long before it's an issue.

Which iPhone do you have?

 

[John Yester]

Plug it in when needed, Topping it off is never a bad thing at all....

Though as per Apples website

"Use iPhone Regularly

For proper maintenance of a lithium-based battery, it’s important to keep the electrons in it moving occasionally. Be sure to go through at least one charge cycle per month (charging the battery to 100% and then completely running it down)"

 

[Fit24]

We charge our phones overnight but are able to go 1 - 1 1/2 days without charging. I'll cycle the batteries once a month, if I remember.

 

[SaberSerene]

Plug it in when needed, Topping it off is never a bad thing at all....

Though as per Apples website

"Use iPhone Regularly

For proper maintenance of a lithium-based battery, it?s important to keep the electrons in it moving occasionally. Be sure to go through at least one charge cycle per month (charging the battery to 100% and then completely running it down)"

I see. I actually use an app sys- activity to fully charge my phone and then it does a trickle charge. What is your opinion on trickle charging the iPhone 5?

 

[Timhewitt]

Plug it in any time. The charging circuitry handles trickle charging just fine.

 

[Massie]

Which iPhone do you have?

I have the 5 right now but did the same with my iphone 4 and 3G, both of which I had for over two years.