Is “overcharging” electronics real thing and if so why is it bad for them?

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Is “overcharging” electronics real thing and if so why is it bad for them?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Overcharging is a thing for some batteries, yes. Meaning, raw, unprotected cells. This includes things like NiMH and NiCD AA batteries, and [unprotected](https://www.fenix-store.com/blog/what-is-the-difference-between-protected-and-unprotected-18650-batteries/) Li-Ion 18650 and similar.

Mostly a thing of the past, though. Most chargers you can buy these days are smart enough not to overcharge, and pretty much nobody uses unprotected lithium cells directly. If you have some ancient charger lying around and think your rechargeables die fast, then it’s probably crap and you should throw it out and buy something modern.

It doesn’t really apply in any way to a modern device like a cell phone or a laptop. Those have internal charge controllers and they do whatever they think is best. Trying to work around what it does is pointless most of the time, since they lie to you anyway. Eg, your cell phone showing 100% charge is probably not exactly 100% of the maximum the phone thinks is okay to use, and definitely not 100% of what the battery is physically capable of holding.

If you want to preserve battery life, look for a battery saving mode in the settings. It’ll say it’s something like “Mainly AC power usage” on laptops and such.

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