I’ve had several phones with fast charging. They’re amazing. You can charge your phone over 60% in 40 minutes. But why do they slow down so much when it comes to bring a phone to full charge?
In: Technology
Basically when charging a battery electricity is forcing ions from one side of the battery to the other. When a battery is low there’s lots of empty space to shove those ions and the flow over easily. When it’s closer to full the space is filled up and the new ions have to crowd in around the older ions shoving them about to get tightly packed. All the shoving generates heat so at later stages of charge you need to slow down or you risk heating up the battery and damaging it.
Fast chargers are designed for people on the run that rely on an initial charge to give them enough power by the time they are off again to their next destination, an example may be when you are waiting for your flight to be announced so you can run to the gate, or when you need more juice in the time that it takes your discussion to conclude. Another thing is many batteries these days have significantly higher capacity than previously possible, this capacity can take longer to charge overall, you may notice on some devices your quick charge to 30% actually lasts a significant time, as where years back 30% was too critical to get any work done.
What you’re experiencing is called the Stadium Effect.
The stadium effect occurs when recharging your batteries. You’ll notice your battery quickly filling up in the beginning, then slowing down noticeably when trying to charge up the last several percentages.
Think of how quickly a stadium fills up when the doors first open- there are hundreds of open seats so it’s easy to find the one you want. Eventually there are only a few open seats here and there and people have to maneuver around to find a spot and filling those seats takes longer.
The same theory applies to recharging batteries. It’s easy for energy to flow in and take up empty space in the beginning, and as time goes on and there is less space available, it takes longer for the energy to find and fill in those holes.
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