On regular android devices and on my windows laptop, I am able to cap the maximum charging percentage of my battery to 85% in battery settings to increase the lifespan of the battery significantly.
This will make the battery last a lot longer and is better for the environment.
I want to request this feature in /e/-OS too, this is better for the battery and the environment and it’s a relatively small “bug” to fix in /e/-OS.
When this is option available in /e/-OS I would like to ask the developers to turn it on by default on the next update, and make the option for users turn it off themselves if they don’t want it because this saves their batteries and the environment.
Interestingly, there is a recent thread in the German forum where the same feature is asked for (see here, an online translation service may come handy).
A built-in charging limit would certainly be a nice feature. I am a bit lucky because I have rooted my smartphone. Hence, I can use Advanced Charging Control (ACC) as installed by its graphical user interface ACCA.
Afaik the amount of recharge cycles ages the battery, too. So whats the data on comparing higher rate of recharges cycles against loading less often but to max. capacity?
Imho it is a more theoretical problem, I have a FP3 which was loaded at least once a day for 3 years and it still manages to carry through a day with the old battery. So i wouldn’t call it an essential feature for the average user.
My opinion on the topic: I guess that anyone has his own requirements about the upper and lower limits for the battery charge, therefore it would be useful or nice to have some settings integrated in /e/OS.
Maybe I was too diplomatic. Such setting would be destructive for most users as they are increasing the needed amount of charging cycles, which attrit the battery more than charging to full capacity. You also would need to monitor the battery during usage, as reaching 0% is also atritting the battery, which would accidentally happen more often when having less max battery capacity. Thats a lot of micromanaging needed for this feature to be useful.
Also would this feature only make sense if the phone is mostly connected to power. Notebooks have this feature as they are connected most of the time and can save a lot of recharge cycles by simply not starting a full recharge cycle if the battery is at a definied capacity level. And most phones are not used like notebooks.
I don’ think this feature should be implemented just for the sake of giving a choice. Its usecase is so narrow, and you would basically need to use your phone in a very atypical way to not attrit the battery faster than if you would not mind.
I have a couple of ROMs that implement that feature but it’s not always complete.
The assumption that it saves battery life is one thing but if you also need to monitor app battery usage then that feature would need to include a battery stats reset option. Otherwise the stats graph will be a series of ups and downs (like a mountain range) with no starting point. Partial charges. App battery usage may be an accumulation over time (regardless of how many times it’s been plugged in) instead of within a battery cycle (since last charged).
A user in a chat group complained about some app’s huge battery usage yet his graph showed last full charge was like ten days ago. Always plugging in but not fully charging.
As a long time user of Battery Charge Limit before changes in Android (or newer devices) made it almost useless I saw its benefits on some devices.
Some devices were ill-behaved in that once they charged to 100% it would not stop charging. If left plugged in one would find themselves with a very hot phone. Defimitely bad for the battery. Anyone remember the old exploding Samsung situation?
My LG G3 has had a few swollen batts.
My Axon 7 would be extra warm long after it was fully charged. It was my first device to run /e/ but retired couple of years back due to battery.
In this case limiting charging may help.
A behaved device, probably along with the proper/official charger, knows to stop charging when 100% is reached. I think most of my existing devices are squared away. When left plugged in some time after charging they are cool if not cold. Never felt the need to limit charging.
Kind of on the fence about this. Unless properly and fully implemented it could be no different than a battery limit notifier of sorts. On one ROM with the feature it still kept charging beyond the limit set.
The ROM I’m typing on now, crDroid A11, has Smart Charging along with the battery stats reset option. Must be a reason I’m mot using it so I guess another test is in order.
On snother note, Smart Charger also has a lower limit. Essentially charge to upper limit, resume charging when lower limit is reached.
This assumes the device is always plugged in, otherwise how can it recharge.
So I suppose
Charge to upper limit, say 85%
Stop charging
Battery drains normally even though it is still plugged in (Smart Charging feature)
Battery reaches lower limit, say 60%
Recharge to upper limit
Will have to check that too.
Take all the above with a grain of salt. Might be nonsense.
Side note: There were apps (ACC or maybe another) that would limit charging but also do accelerated charging. On my Axon 7 where I first tried it, the device was literally too hot to touch.
Years ago there was a discussion/argument in a forum about the supposed benefits of charge limiting while at the same time introducing stress and heat during the rapid charge.
That was quite the back and forth. Wonder if I can find it.
Because android is used alot on tablets an devices connected permanently to power. Those devices profit alot from such a feature → Look at Notebooks, i.e. Lenovo ships with that feature too and recommend enabling it when the app detects long connection to power.
And how counts one charging cycle shortening battery life? After reachin 100% or 0%? Or maybe after each plugging in the charger to the phone?
As I’ve heard both options, I wonder which is true
My phone has for example lightning led light when he has 15% and lower plus I can set it to stop charging when having 80% or 90% or 100%. I am not sure which option too choose and why?
The process of charging itself shortens a batterys life. I can’t give you exact numbers, but it’s basically the same if you charge the battery for 10 minutes or 30 minutes. So the worst you could do in terms of max. battery life woul be to use a wireless charging pad, and putting your phone always back on it after using it for a minute or so.
While the science seems sound, I wouldn’t worry about it too much in practice, apart from letting the battery charge run down really low too often perhaps.
Anyway, it looks like the cap is coming somewhen, as it’s there in T beta …
