What % Do You Charge Your Battery To?

[I Shrugged]

I came across my notes from my recent tests of the battery health.

iPad, usually charged to 100%
Cycles 395
Battery capacity vs design 89.3%

Wife's iPad, always charged overnight to 100%
Cycles 527
Battery 89.8%

iPhone XR, usually charged to <90%
Cycles 557
Battery capacity 97.3%

Seems to make a big difference in lifespan. Does it matter as a practical point? I dunno. I'm using a several year old phone with a great battery. I guess at least the battery won't be what makes me need to upgrade. Another way of looking at it is that the XR came out most likely in 2018 and I only have 557 charge cycles on it. So I'm not a heavy user of the battery.

I think it's a big enough difference to warrant some limit to the charging. In my case though, the 80% limit mentioned in the OP is just too low. It's basically the same as being hobbled with a degraded battery from day 1. I settled on 95% and I've pledged to mentally just walk away forget about it.

From what I’ve picked up, even 90 or 95 will provide meaningful life extension. I guess the bottom line is that if you can do without some power today, you can extend the lifespan of the device.

[dualstow]

I used the app coconutBattery mentioned in this article. (Loaded onto the Mac, then plugged into the iPad from there.)
...

https://9to5mac.com/2024/04/23/see-ipad-battery-health/

Downloaded, thanks!

[Smith1776]

Interestingly, the charge limiter on my iPhone 15 just stopped working today. It's set to 95% as usual, but it's charging to 100% now.

There's some rumblings online that maybe sometimes the OS will ignore the limiter for calibration purposes. Not sure if it's a bug or not. Weird.

[dualstow]

I’ve never heard of a charge limiter. Is it an app?

I have a piece of hardware, just a dead man’s switch that plugs into an outlet. I can plug in devices to charge and set it for a ½ hour. It just cuts the power. Kind of wish it had more options besides ½ hour and 3 hrs, but it’s handy.

[dualstow]

This is a timely thread as my device is getting old and suddenly the battery doesn't last as long between sips as it used to.
Results from coconutBattery app:
The first green bar is to be ignored as it's still charging.
The second, "design" is what counts I guess. Getting close to that 80% threshold.

batterygyro.png (36.48 KiB) Viewed 3310 times

Edit: looking again a minute later, the watts doubled and the temp went up.

[yankees60]

This is a timely thread as my device is getting old and suddenly the battery doesn't last as long between sips as it used to.
Results from coconutBattery app:
The first green bar is to be ignored as it's still charging.
The second, "design" is what counts I guess. Getting close to that 80% threshold.


batterygyro.png

Edit: looking again a minute later, the watts doubled and the temp went up.

This looks like something that is a feature on newer Apple devices but not older ones?

[dualstow]

I’m not sure if you’re talking about increasing wattage during charging since you quoted my entire post, but I googled it and AI says that is not a feature. <shrug>

[Smith1776]

"Charge limiter" is just my way of referring to the built in feature on newer iPhones that allows you to set a maximum charging threshold. iPhones older than the 15 apparently don't have it, even with the latest iOS software. Not sure exactly why.

[dualstow]

"Charge limiter" is just my way of referring to the built in feature on newer iPhones that allows you to set a maximum charging threshold. iPhones older than the 15 apparently don't have it, even with the latest iOS software. Not sure exactly why.

Ah, thank you. Wife has an iPhone that I never touch, and I have an iPad. Over the past few years, I’ve learned just how many features an iPhone has that iPads lack. (A bazillion gazillion fifillion brazilian)