5 common myths about charging your mobile phone battery

Last updated on May 23rd, 2022

As iPhone 5 owners are scrambling to find a solution for their dying batteries, we started to wonder what's true and what's not true about mobile phones and their batteries.

Your phone's specs may say your phone gets hours and hours of talk time, but in reality the life of your battery never seems to live up to its expectations. Are you doing something right? Are you doing something wrong? You'll never know if you believe the myths we've listed below.

In the meantime, if you own an iPhone 5, we want to fight on your behalf. We believe if you pay a lot of money for a phone, you should get your money's worth from the battery. Click here to join our iPhone 5 Battery Replacement Drive. You fill out a simple form and we'll do the rest.

Myth 1: Charging your battery overnight is bad

Your mobile phone is equipped with software which stops charging the battery when its full.

We recommend - Plug in your phone, rest easy and wake up to a full charge. Don't stress out about leaving your cell phone plugged in overnight.

Myth 2: You must use the manufacturer's charger for your phone

We've got news for you. Your phone isn't going to go into meltdown if you don't use an Apple iPhone charger even though Apple is notorious for pressuring their customers to use Apple-only accessories.

We recommend - Buy an off-brand cable which meets Australian safety standards from an electronics store– it will save you money and you'll find the cord will work just as good as its brand-name counterparts.

Warning - Steer clear of knock-off cables. People have been injured using chargers that don't meet safety standards.

Myth 3: Only charge your phone when it's dead

Don't make a habit of waiting until your battery life is at 0% to charge it. Lithium-based battery life is based on cycles (totally full to totally empty and back again).

We recommend - Save those cycles and charge your battery when it gets below 10%. If you've got an iPhone 5 that's hitting 0% way faster than it should, you need to click here and join our iPhone 5 Battery Replacement Drive and get the new battery you deserve.

Myth 4: Having a bunch of apps open wastes your battery

Most of your phone's apps don't run once you've swiped off them or put your phone to sleep. They remain in a frozen state until you use them again meaning your battery isn't being drained. However, there are apps like Facebook that will drain your battery if your background app setting is set to on.

We recommend - Check your phone background app refresh setting and turn it off.

For iPhone users - go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh.

For Android users - got to Settings > Data Usage > Restrict Background.

Myth 5: You can charge your battery too much

Warnings against charging your battery too much or too often are left over from the days of nickel cadmium batteries which lost their full recharge capacity if you didn't wait until they were totally spent to charge them. New phones have lithium ion batters.

We recommend - Charge your phone once it gets down below 50%.

Have you heard any strange mobile phone battery myths? Let us know in the comments below.

Sources: Stokpic, Jeshoots