85. Resident Exclusive Miniseries- Battery Technology and Charging

A full demonstration is available on our website. 

In this episode, James Peck, Resident Support Manager at Parasol Alliance, talks about something we all deal with—battery life.

Ever feel like your phone dies way too fast? Or maybe your laptop can’t survive an hour without being plugged in? That’s because batteries wear out over time, but the good news is, you can slow it down!

In this exclusive, we’ll cover:
🔋 Why batteries degrade and how to check their health
⚡ Charging habits that actually help (and common myths busted!)
💡 Simple tricks to make your battery last longer
♻️ When to replace a battery and proper disposal

By making a few small changes, you can keep your devices running longer and save money on replacements. 

Learn more about Parasol Alliance's Tech@Home program on our website.

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Transcript

Hey everyone. My name is James Peck, and I'm the resident support manager here at Parasol Alliance. And thank you for joining me today, and we're gonna learn about battery technology and charging. Can your laptop survive an hour without being plugged into the wall? Is your phone's battery life shorter than it used to be?

Do you know somebody who complains about their phone always being slow or unresponsive, and maybe you are that person and that's okay. These are all signs that your device, battery, life and health may be deteriorating. Understanding battery life and health is the key to getting the most outta your device.

And we're gonna take a closer look at why this happens and how you can take control of your device's performance [00:01:00] and longevity.

Learning about how modern batteries work can drastically improve your experience with technology by increasing your device's useful lifespan through some simple habits. And in the long run, this can save you hundreds of dollars in device replacements. A lot of people don't even know that their old phone can run just like new with a battery replacement. 

Lithium based batteries are standard in cell phones, tablets. Laptops and electric vehicles. We'll be focusing on this type of battery throughout the presentation.

However, you may have heard of some other batteries, like nickel-based or NiMh. These are used in the battery systems of hybrid electric vehicles, low power tools and landline headsets, just to name a few. These are typically cylindrical in shape and are seen as a pretty good alternative for disposable batteries like AA or AAA.

Another type is lead acid. These are your typical car batteries very large and heavy, and they're also used in battery [00:02:00] backups or generator systems. These are very power dense and can be used for long periods of time. An emerging technology is solid state batteries, and these are compact and very efficient, but they are very expensive at the time of recording.

Currently these are used in small quantities in devices like pacemakers, so why don't we use one type of battery for everything? Chemists have been working tirelessly on this for decades, but it usually comes down to cost. Expensive. Technology is compact, but it's used in small quantities, while cheaper technology is typically used in large quantities in order to balance the cost of the end product.

Most portable electronics like your phones, tablets and laptops use lithium ion batteries. These are small gel pouches and they can be made to fit any shape or size as devices get thinner and smaller [00:03:00] year over year, batteries are made to be thinner and wider to fit inside. They store and release energy through a reversible chemical reaction, which we're gonna take a look at.

Now, brace yourself if you're a science person. So how does all this work? The batteries contain two electrodes on opposing sides of the battery and are filled with a liquid gel that helps lithium move between the electrodes, lithium ions, store energy and chemical bonds, which can be converted into electricity.

To power your device as each lithium ion discharges its energy, it returns to a natural state at the opposite electrode waiting to be recharged. Battery manufacturers typically guarantee 300 to 500 full charge cycles before the lithium ion battery begins to degrade. Now, this is a very conservative estimate and most smartphones especially can survive many more charge cycles than [00:04:00] 300 to 500 without any noticeable issues.

So why do batteries degrade? There's a couple of reasons, but the big one is regular aging and usage. All batteries will degrade over time, even the unused ones. And typically batteries will have a shelf life of about two to five years. Another thing that can contribute to this is the charging cycles.

A battery wears out after a certain number of charges, and this is tracked by devices to regulate usage. Another common killer of batteries is heat exposure. This will speed up the degradation of a battery significantly, and in general, you can start to see signs of battery degradation within one to three years of regular usage of your device.

This is most commonly seen first in smartphones.

Smartphones are smart and they know when your battery health is poor. As a result of this, they will purposefully [00:05:00] run slower in order to reduce the effects of battery degradation. And as a user, this can be frustrating to see that device that you have slow down due to an aging battery. This is a controversial practice by manufacturers and famously Apple was sued for this because of a new update pushed to their iPhones, which slowed down battery performance on older models.

To some, this was seen as a push for companies to get you to buy the newest phone, and for others they see this technological reason to keep the batteries on for a longer period of time as the phone ages. Despite all of this, you can slow down the rate of your battery degrading through some simple habits, which we'll discuss later.

So let's assess your battery. So how do we check your battery health? So thankfully battery health is measurable on iPhones. You can open the Settings app, navigate to Battery. Battery [00:06:00] Health on Android devices for Samsung users. You can open the device care app or you may need to install a third party app from the app store in order to read this information.

Battery health is shown as a percentage relative to the devices capacity as new. For example, if your laptop lasts 10 hours with 100% battery health at 90% battery health, your same laptop will only run for nine hours on a full charge. Has anybody ever checked this before? This is how you can do it.

And

speaking of laptops, the easiest way to gauge how long your laptop,

and speaking of laptops, you can check battery health on them as well. Now most people will go by how long their laptop can stay unplugged before the battery is low and needs to be charged again. But there's also a technical way to do this, and if you're a bit savvy, you can follow the [00:07:00] instructions below.

So on a Windows laptop, you'll need to open up Command Prompt, and you can type in the following command as written there on MacBook, you can open up the system report and go to the power menu. In this, you'll be looking for some information. It might be called cycle count. There might be a percentage of battery health that's shown, but this varies wildly from manufacturer to manufacturer.

And if you are curious about this, tech at home can help you.

When do you need to replace a battery? Typically in the industry, a battery is considered worn out when its capacity drops below 80%. If a laptop lasts less than two hours on a full charge, the battery is significantly degraded and you should consider a replacement battery. Replacement costs for phone batteries is around 50 to a hundred dollars and laptop batteries can cost anywhere from [00:08:00] 20 to 50, but again, very wildly based on the brand and the replaceability of the battery.

Let's go through some tips on repairing and recycling batteries. The first and most important thing is never open a lithium ion battery. This is very dangerous and can result in lots of heat or fire. Some internal batteries can be replaced, but it depends on how easily your device can be opened up. Most of the time.

I would recommend you never open a device yourself and take it to a repair shop or a professional to do this. Many laptop batteries can also be replaced, but they require a very specific battery that can typically be purchased Online. Tech at home can help you research this and get assistance. Next.

Don't throw batteries in the trash. You need to recycle them properly. Lithium batteries, like I said before, can cause fires in garbage trucks and in [00:09:00] landfills especially if they're exposed to any physical abuse through the waste management system. If you need to recycle these, there are many stores that you can do this at most commonly, best Buy Staples and some cities even offer local battery recycling programs at minimal or no cost to you.

So you should take advantage of those.

Let's go through some common battery myths. One that I hear frequently is that you need to drain your battery all the way to 0% before charging, and this is not necessary just to reiterate. We do recommend though that you allow your battery to drain to approximately 20 to 30% before charging it, and this way you can minimize the amount of full charge cycles that your device is exposed to and it will make your battery last a lot longer, and we'll talk more about that later.

Another myth that I hear is that overnight charging can ruin a battery, and this one is completely false, especially with the [00:10:00] latest devices. Modern devices will stop charging at or before 100% capacity. And again, this is just a smart protection that they have to increase the longevity of your battery. Another common battery myth that I see is that cheap chargers are fine to use. Sometimes this is true, sometimes not. I always recommend that you use the charger that came with your device or you get a suitable replacement that is made specifically for your phone. Although using nonofficial Chargers most of the time is fine.

And lastly, a myth that I see is that people think that fast chargers ruin batteries. Now this is mostly false. Recharge speed doesn't necessarily affect how quickly your battery will degrade, but faster charging can increase the temperature of your phone relative to slower charging, which can have some implications on your battery health.

So under what conditions should you charge your [00:11:00] phone? I can tell you what to avoid and you definitely wanna stay away from extreme heat or cold. High temperatures will degrade batteries faster while in use. If your phone ever feels hot to the touch, you need to turn off the screen and let the device cool down.

Next. Don't use a swollen battery. Now if you're not looking at the inside of your phone, you might not be able to tell when a battery is swollen. However, on the pictures here, you can see some signs that a swollen battery is physically separating a phone. So there on the right you can see the screen is starting to bulge away from the frame of the phone.

That is not normal and that's not water damage. If you see a phone like that, you definitely need to stop using it and look at getting a replacement immediately.

And lastly, recycle your batteries properly. Take these to recycling centers like we stated before.  

So what can you do now to get the most out of your phone's battery? [00:12:00] First, you'll wanna dim your screen to the lowest setting that's visible to you. The dimmer that your screen is, the longer your battery will last, and thus the less wear you're putting on it.

Now this can be difficult, and for some people this isn't an option. But if your phone has an automatic dimming feature your phone will control the brightness based on the ambient light. So in light conditions like out in the sun, it'll run at max brightness, so you're able to see the screen, and later at night when the ambient lighting is lower, it will dim your phone screen accordingly, and your eyes should be able to adjust and see the screen without issue.

I highly recommend you do this because your phone will run at lower dimming settings without you having to even change a slider manually, and this has very good battery implications. Next, you wanna avoid your using your phone for long periods of time while it's charging, to put it simply, if you're sitting down on the couch or on [00:13:00] a chair.

And you're using your phone while it's plugged in. Just unplug the phone and use it like normal and allow it to get down to that 20 to 30% range before you plug it back in and let it charge. Next. Piggybacking off of that, let your battery drain significantly low before recharging it. I typically recommend the 20 to 30% range and.

By doing this, you'll reduce the total amount of charge cycles on your battery, which will greatly improve your health and make your battery last potentially an extra year or more. Don't expose your phone to extreme heat or cold while it's charging or being used. Now, you might think this is silly. How often is your phone in an extreme cold or heat situation? But let me pose you with this. Phones exposed to sunlight can get very hot quickly because not only is the sun beating down on a dark device, but that device itself is also generating heat.[00:14:00] 

So one common thing that I see that I encourage people don't do is be mindful of where your phone is charging. For example, if it's on a window sill and there's direct sunlight through the window on it, or if your phone is charging in a vehicle, these are all common circumstances that you might not think of as extreme heat, but to the phone itself, these are very hot conditions and they will drastically depreciate your battery.

So be mindful of those. And lastly, avoid using wireless chargers especially in cars. But with this, wireless chargers are an alternative to plugging your phone in with a regular cable. If your phone is able to be charged through a regular cord, you need to do that because wireless chargers will put extra heat.

Goodness. It's the end of the day brain fog. I think that's what it is.

And lastly, you'll wanna avoid [00:15:00] wireless chargers. So the difference between a. Corded charger and a wireless charger is that one will plug into the charge cord and the other one doesn't. Wireless chargers use a lot of extra energy and subject your phone to a lot of unnecessary heat, which is bad for the battery in the long run.

And if you can use your phone with a regular charge cord, always wanna choose that route because it will stay cooler while it's charging.

As a cool anecdote my mom and I actually both owned Motorola phones and we had the identical make and model, and I practiced very good charging habits. She unfortunately did not her phone ended up lasting her around three years with the regular battery before it started showing very bad signs of wear.

And I actually got to use my phone for upwards of five years and just through regular battery maintenance habits. I was able to get an extra two [00:16:00] years out of the exact same device under very similar circumstances.

Some other questions that I get are, should I always charge my phone to a hundred percent? And there's nothing really wrong with doing this especially since modern phones, they do a lot of the heavy lifting for you at making sure that your phone isn't overcharging itself. So this isn't always necessary, but if you wanna charge your phone up to, 80, 90% and take it off the charger.

That's probably ideal and you can make your phone battery last longer by doing that. Another question I get is how long should a battery last? For phones it's typically two to three years, and laptops it can be four to five, but it depends on how often you use those devices and how much heat or cold they're exposed to.

And lastly, can I use my laptop plugged in all the time? And yes you can, and mostly this [00:17:00] is fine, but it's good to unplug it and let the battery drain like normal occasionally, whether it be once a week, couple times a month. It's always good just to have that regular battery drain on the laptop. 

As we come to a conclusion here, thank you all for joining me today. If you learn something, please like the video and share it with somebody that you know and consider subscribing to our YouTube channel to get notified on new resident exclusive videos. Thank you.