I had a 1st gen iPhone since the day it came out and I let it charge overnight every night for 4 1/2 years (I only upgraded in November) and it didn't seem to affect how well it held a charge or create any long term problems. I don't know if it works the same for other phones or batteries, but it didn't seem to bother mine.

I have several of the Belkins and they're great for phones, laptops, etc. But even better for battery health is to let your phone use up the battery before recharging. Ideally you should run it all the way down - batteries not only have a set number of times they can be recharged, but they also have a memory. If you use your phone enough that you can't make it through a whole day safely, you might try having backup chargers at work or in the car.

my 1st gen nano (still going strong!) goes much longer without a recharge if i run it all the way down and then leave it charging overnight. whenever i unplug it as soon as it reaches 100% it never lasts as long. no idea why.

@Home Body

"One of the worst things you can do to a Li-ion battery is to run it out completely all the time. Full discharges put a lot of strain on the battery, and it's much better practice to do shallow discharges to no lower than 20 percent."

From Ask Ars: What is the best way to use a Li-ion battery?

I'm with KSOULES. I had a 3G for 2 years and left it on the charger overnight, everynight. Never noticed any changes to the battery. My son uses this phone now and doesn't have any complaints. Also, I run my phone almost all the way down every day. Not so much that it shuts off, but it DOES get to 10% before I plug it back in most of the time. I'm sure there are some sort of changes to my battery life, but not enough that I would notice.

I have changed my battery charging habits on my phone and laptop and they do seem to last longer (hold longer charges) than old ones. I can't say if that's all up to my use changes, or better engineered batteries, but I like it regardless.

I'm not changing the nighttime charging routine until I can find two "experts" who agree on how to preserve battery life. Which will never happen, because every time this topic comes up, I hear new and wildly contradictory facts.

@bkhomebody - Completely agree, everytime you read something about best practice, they're saying the opposite of the last thing you read. The only one I abide by is going through at least one charge cycle a month (letting it fully drain). This is a recommendation by Apple, and I've owned iPhones since the first gen and it seems to work for me, and I haven't noticed issues with major drainage or anything. However, my husband is a person who always plugs in at night and never drains his battery despite me reminding him and his 3GS had terrible issues holding a charge by the end of 2 years. So I'm sure there's something to it, though I'm not sure if it's nightly charging or lack of a charge cycle that was the problem in his case.

I dont agree. Most cell phone chargers stop charging when the battery is full.

If you look at the little battery charging icon, once its full the charging lighting bolt goes away. It just says that its plugged in.

Many mp3 players work the exact same way.

Also laptops. People leave their laptops plugged in all the time. The battery is not always charging if its always plugged in.

This article is exactly why I changed up my charging habits about a year ago. I work at computer all day, so I charge my phone while at work. Battery is dead usually around lunch, and fully charged by the time I get off at 5pm. That charge will last me the bus trip home, last through the night, plus the bus trip in the morning to work to start the cycle all over again. Plus there is the added benefit of not using the electricity at home to charge it.

@ryan s thanks for the link - good to know.

I charge mine to 100% before bed, unplug it and put it into Airplane Mode. Overnight it maybe uses 1% of the battery, and i'm not woken up by emails/texts/updates/etc.

@Apeerenb - "this article is exactly why [you] changed up [your] charging habits about a year ago" ?? doesn't that defy the laws of physics somehow? :)

What do you have running on your phone that uses up the battery in less than 24 hours?? Remove some of those apps that always run in the background and suck-up your data and you'll have a longer battery life AND use less energy on a daily basis.

Any decent battery charger will switch off when batteries have reached full charge. As a physicist, I find the suggestion that people get up at 2 am to unplug their chargers just plain silly. Do you really think there are contemporary phone using lithium-ion batteries with chargers which can't detect a full charge?

Though a timer is a good energy conservaion suggestion, and likely better for the charger.

This article could have been written 15 years ago about nickel batteries and it would have made sense. Lithium batteries shouldn't be discharged completely just like Ryans has mentioned.

No genuine charger that I have seen in the last 10 years continues charging any device past 100%, it automatically stops, but it is still a wallwart and therefore continues to suck wattage regardless of charging it or not.

Yeah... Sorry, Apartment Therapy, but this article is completely wrong and the exact opposite of what Apple recommends for the iPhone.

This article is mostly wrong. Most chargers will stop fast charging when the battery has reached about 80-90% charge. Then they will switch to slow/maintenance charge until the battery is truly full. Leaving the phone plugged in overnight will give you fresher and fuller charge in the morning.
Also note that most phones, and other items, have the charger circuitry built in the unit, not inside the transformer (wallwart). Which is one of the reasons you can charge most things from USB ports these days.

Sounds like they're just trying to sell timers and portable batteries, because this information is old bunk. The worst thing to do is fully discharge a lithium battery. I've kept my laptop and phones on chargers whenever I can. My 4+ year old macbook still has a 4 hour battery life, and I'm still on the original battery.

I've always kept the phone on the "charger" at night as an alternate power source rather then using my battery...

There's no other way my phone will be charged and ready to go in the morning, and it wont go near a charger again until the evening.

With modern smartphones with push email, push notifications and constant internet access it's not like they get days of use. The only people I know who get semi decent life out of their smartphones are the ones who should just have dumbphones anyway, they'll use it for SMS, phone calls, and a tiny bit of internet.

I haven't made the switch to a smartphone yet, but I've never had a problem with the battery life of my dumb-phone. The battery charges to full, and the charger then goes into "maintenance mode" so it is no longer charging.
I charge when it's down to one bar of battery life left, and I can usually go two or three days without plugging in (I'm at 4 out of 5 bars of battery now, and I charged on Saturday night). So, I'm completely happy with what I have been doing.

As many others have already pointed out this article is dead wrong.

EDITORS: Please delete this article and stop spreading this FUD.

When was this article written? Modern recharging tech stops charging the battery when fully charged.

i re-charge my mobile only when the low-battery warning starts beeping and during the day when i remember to un-plug it. our mobiles beep incessantly that they are fully charged, very annoying but helpful.

i recently saw a tv program that it's about saving energy... and money, always a good thing :)

I realize this is an old post, but wanted to update in case anyone reads this incorrect info.

Lithium batteries do not have memory, and experience more wear and tear when fully discharged. They function best when charged mid-way through the battery's life, at low voltage (limits heat damage over time), and for relatively short periods of time (i.e. not all night).

Nickel cadmium batteries, which are bulky and typically used in older power tools, have a memory and require full discharging in order to avoid harm. Most tools, devices, etc use lithium ion or polymer batteries.

I agree with Liz!
This is what Ive experienced just last night. I charged my phone (1 yr old droid) completely and then turned it off and unplugged it, woke up this morning and it was completly dead.
Anyone experience this?
My conclusion is either I have a horrible battery (which I seriously dought since it works normally when charged stays all day depending on use) or my apps are using my juice as I sleep without the phone being on.
I suspect this is the reason because why would they put in the permissions spot of most apps now say they can access the internet and all of my data, phone lists, posting to the internet on my behalf and even over write any of my info or programs. It makes me really suspiscious of what the hell is going on when Im not using my phone.
Try this yourself, especially if you have a bunch of apps.
Most people do like I have for the last several years, they leave their phone plugged in overnight ( I know I did for years with no notice of battery issues, even now) So why was my phone dead in the morning when it was turned off???

APPS!!

SO now Im gonna clean my phone of apps that require any admin access to my personal info, internet, phone features like my camera or audio or allowed to overwrite my info , post on my behalf, or even power on if turned off.
No app needs to access my passwords, personal info contacts, data and certainly dont need full access to the internet camera or audio when the phone is off!
I really think something aweful is happening here without our knowledge.

Any ones insight would be appreciated here, especially anyone willing to experiment with me to find out the real issue be it battery or juice theft by app.
Please reply is you want to help me figure it out.