Iphone Charging Tips

[avt123]

I charge my phone every night and occasionaly when I am home for a certain amount of time and charge it for a bit. I don't know harm it does to the battery.

 

[JustinHorn]

It's good every once in a while to do a full drain / full recharge, but for normal usage you will probably wind up upgrading to a new iPhone before you kill the recharge cycles of the battery

 

[taylorh]

Topping off doesn't hurt the battery.
If you had 95% battery and topped it off with 5% recharge, that 1/20th of a charge cycle.
Let it run down to 20% and recharge it, that's 80% of a charge cycle.

Also, above 80%, it does a slow charge. Below 80% it does a faster charge. I think slower charges are more gentle and produce less heat.

So each partial charge is only a partial charge cycle.

Apple - Batteries

I just plug it in whenever I can. I also leave it plugged in overnight so it charges, tops it off, then runs on A/C all night instead of on battery. Then it's full in the morning.
I also typically plug it in on the way home from work in the car.

They say about 400 charge cycles.
They do offer an Applecare extended warranty for about $70. You can add it any time before your 1 year warranty expires, and this extends it to 2 years. It covers the battery. So within 2 years, if it can't retain more than 50% of it's capacity, they'll replace the battery for you.
So Applecare pays for itself.

I'm going to get it at month 11 in to my first year if I think It will be necessary. By they I may be upgrading to a new phone or something so we'll see.