[ELI5] What’s happening when a charging battery is full, but still keep receiving power ? (Smartphone stay plugged all night for instance)
In: Technology
The battery itself stops being charged. Putting more energy in would damage it, or could even start a fire — it’s like putting too much air into a balloon.
But, the phone itself needs electricity too. So the charger keeps giving enough electricity so that the battery doesn’t have to do any work until you unplug the phone.
When a battery hits full, the charger stops charging. This is built into pretty much all batteries/chargers, either by the nature of how the battery works or by a circuit that exists solely to do disconnect the battery when full.
If this doesn’t happen, then the battery is overcharged and can quickly overheat or even explode.
Smartphones have small circuits that turn off the power when the battery is full, even if it’s still plugged in. Overcharging a battery can damage it and possibly cause it to explode. Just being near 100% charge damages it.
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