Are you charging your phone wrong?

Phones are awesome. We love our phones. But let’s be honest. There are times when our phones annoy us, especially as they get older. They respond sluggishly to taps and prompts. They load apps slowly. Sometimes the screen freezes.

If your phone is acting like this, there’s a good chance the battery is to blame. Because as your battery ages, its health degrades and it’s not able to supply the juice your phone needs to run at peak efficiency.

Your goal is to keep your battery young and fit. And to do that, you have to charge it right. Here’s how.

Charge when the battery reaches 20%

Your life is measured in years. Your phone battery’s life is measured in charge cycles. Most batteries are good for 300-500 charge cycles. One charge cycle equals the complete discharge and recharge of the battery.

To minimize the number of charge cycles and extend your battery’s life, charge your phone when the battery reaches 20%. You’ve no doubt heard somewhere at some time from someone that it’s good for a battery to fully drain it. This is a myth. Charging your battery from 0% will degrade it.

Don’t charge to 100%

Fully charging your battery will stress it out. Instead, charge it up to 80%-85%, then unplug it.

Don’t leave your phone plugged in

A lot of people plug in their phone and let it charge whenever they’re not using it—in the car, at home, at work. But leaving your phone plugged in after it’s fully charged can damage the battery.

It’s called “trickle charging.” If you leave your phone plugged in after it reaches 100%, the charger will top up the battery continuously and diminish its capacity.

Minimize fast charging

Most phones nowadays come with fast-charging capability, so you can charge your phone in a fraction of the time it would take otherwise. Sometimes this is necessary. But fast-charging your phone repeatedly will damage the battery and shorten its lifespan.

Don’t let your phone get too hot

Heat is bad for lithium-ion batteries. So keep your phone out of the sun. And keep in mind that, if your phone is in a case, it will heat up more quickly.

Get a new battery instead of a new phone

When their battery’s performance begins to flag, most people buy a new phone. It’s certainly more convenient. But it’s also more expensive (about 10 times more) and not good for the environment.

There’s an obstacle, of course. It’s not easy to replace your battery. A lot of modern phones have embedded batteries that are hard to switch out. But many manufacturers will replace the battery in your phone. Or you can find a local repair service to do it.

Join CREDO Mobile

Taking care of your battery makes good sense, economically and environmentally. There’s a phone company that does the same: CREDO Mobile.

We’re economical. We’ve got great deals on new devices, competitive plans and the nation’s top-rated, most reliable network.

And we’re committed to the environment. We have a long history—since 1985—of supporting nonprofit groups dedicated to defending our natural world. Nonprofits like Friends of the Earth, the Center for Biological Diversity and Rainforest Action Network. To date, we’ve donated over $20 Million to these environmental groups and dozens more.

Ready to join the phone company that fights for the causes you care about? It’s easy to do.