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My UleFone Armor 2 has a 4700mAh battery and I would like to limit the charging to 60% to reduce battery aging. The batteries in most of the phones are not user-replaceable and I am worried that a factory/service battery replacement might affect water resistance negatively.

How can I limit the charging to 60%? (But not limiting charging speed. I love fast charging.)

Lenovo ThinkPads have a built-in feature that does this, called “battery preservation mode”.

MWB
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neverMind9
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    (One way is an outlet timer switch, but it would be great if the phone could limit it itself.) – neverMind9 May 15 '19 at 12:30
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    I have always charged my phones to 100, and even kept them plugged in overnight all year long after each day's use, and so far none of them had any battery issues. – NVZ May 15 '19 at 14:02
  • @NVZ How old is the battery? And which phones are they? (to find out the wattage and battery capacity) – neverMind9 May 15 '19 at 18:01
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    I've done this since my Nokia N73, N82, Nokia 6233, Nokia E52, Samsung Galaxy W, many years ago.. then I have done so for all my phones including Samsung Galaxy S4, Duos, HTC 728, OnePlus One, 3T, Nokia 8, 5.1 Plus, etc to name some. – NVZ May 16 '19 at 19:49
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    @NVZ That merely proves that your battery lifespan has been ok for you, not that it couldn't have been better if you used more optimal charge cycles. It is well known that doing full cycles (e.g. 0 to 100%) will wear out your battery faster than e.g. 30% to 80% cycles. All batteries will degrade over time, and you have had issues with all of those batteries, just not serious enough that you noticed or cared. Also typically a battery will last around 500 cycles before you start to notice anything. – JBentley May 29 '19 at 22:29
  • @JBentley I just wish manufacturers could replace non-removable batteries without loss of water resistance. – neverMind9 May 30 '19 at 11:15
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    @JBentley I'm aware, thanks. Another fact is, keeping it plugged in overnight does not have a significantly harmful effect on the battery. It is however better in the long run to unplug it if fully charged. – NVZ May 31 '19 at 00:32
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    @NVZ Do you have a citation / source for that? What I've read is the opposite (see here for example). Charging every time to 100% can half or worse your lifespan, depending on which lower cutoff point you choose. – JBentley May 31 '19 at 11:06
  • @JBentley I would not mind that lifespan so much if batteries were replaceable. But then, Apple intoxicated the mobile phone market with their inferior technology. – neverMind9 Jun 01 '19 at 02:04
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    @neverMind9 Yes, I completely agree. It's not just Apple. For a long time I avoided upgrading from the now very obsolete Samsung Note 4, because it was the last in the series with a replaceable battery. It's nice to be able to get a 100% capacity battery every year or so for very little expense. But phone manufacturers want you to swap phones every couple of years rather than refurbish existing ones. The problem with NVZ's approach is that the higher end of the phone market is now very expensive, and I don't want to replace a £1000 phone every 2 years just for the battery. – JBentley Jun 01 '19 at 11:09
  • @JBentley The Note 4 still works well in 2019, despite it is nearly 5 years old, in our case, it works as if it were new. Even the Note 3 from 2013 does fine (and has a lot of functionality that newer phones lack). But battery age has always been a nasty thing for non-removable batteries. When that battery is dead, the support service might be able to replace it, but whether they preserve water resistance and whether I will get my phone back intact (if at all) is not guaranteed. I have always avoided charging over 70% for that reason. I have battery-gerascophobia. – neverMind9 Jun 02 '19 at 00:15
  • @JBentley But fast charging is so useful that I am ready to trade in a bit of battery life to enjoy the pleasure of watching the battery percentage indicator shoot up in a very short amount of time. I really enjoy fast charging. But the problem is: When the battery ag*s, the maximum terminal voltage of ~4.35V is reached at lower battery levels already (i.e. 45% instead of 65%) at full charging speed, so the charging current starts decreasing earlier already. Before reaching the 45%, the charging current is the same to avoid overcurrent thermal runaway, despite the battery voltage is below 4.3V – neverMind9 Jun 02 '19 at 00:18
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    @NVZ, you are factually incorrect. A battery can lose 20% of its life in less than a year by charging at 100% overnight. This is by definition considered significant in the technical sense. Probably what you mean is that you don't notice a difference, which is entirely subjective. [1] https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries [4] https://www.macworld.com/article/3408336/ios-13s-new-optimized-battery-charging-feature-explained.html [5] https://www.howtogeek.com/423451/how-ios-13-will-protect-your-iphones-battery-by-charging-to-80/ – SO_fix_the_vote_sorting_bug Dec 22 '19 at 18:52

5 Answers5

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There now is a hardware+app solution for that, it's called Chargie. https://chargie.org

Basically, Chargie is a Bluetooth switch that is linked to an app on your phone. You set the desired level of charging, the app runs in the background and stops the charge at the percentage you set.

*disclosure: I am the CEO of Lighty Electronics, we have developed this solution and this isn't meant to be a spammy post with a link, but rather a very relevant solution to this issue. As far as I know, there are no other manufacturers of such devices.

Ovidiu Sandru
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    No USB-C model? – Gibolt Jul 02 '20 at 04:38
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    I was all set to purchase one but shipping is $16.50, the device itself is only $23.00 (with the current sale.) Can we get another shipping option? All I'm given is DHL Express shipping, I don't need express. – herculeesjr Dec 10 '20 at 21:19
  • @Gibolt, just use a USB C female to to USB A male adapter. My Google Pixel 5 even came with one in the box. Then, you can plug in a USB C charge cable to the adapter, and the adapter into the Chargie USB A female output. – Gabriel Staples Apr 27 '21 at 21:11
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Many ways - all of course, need root. Without root, it's not possible and you can only be notified either by automation or using an app as suggested in Chang's answer

Above modules not tried by me

Edit: Advanced Charging Control (acc) Magisk Module is a very versatile module with an associated front end app, which allows you to create profiles and even run profiles on schedule

It allows the phone to charge up to a certain point and then be powered by USB only. For example, you set the cut off at 80%,beyond 80% it doesn't charge the battery but draws a low current to keep the phone running. So when you disconnect charging, your phone is still at 80%! This feature requires to be supported by kernel though. I am using this currently on my One Plus 7 with Kirisakura kernel. For details see this Don't charge the battery but use connected power to run the phone

cweiske
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beeshyams
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Accu​Battery can notify you when the battery charge reaches a certain level. It won't stop the charging, unfortunately, but it's still worth a try. :)

geffchang
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  • Okay it's a while ago this thread was started ... ;-) The app you mentioned here has a big drawback. If you keep your phone plugged in over night you will be kicked out of the bed because of the alarm. Makes more sense to have a device that cuts off the power if a specific charging limit has been reached. I was searching for such an device for months. Finally I found the chargie app with its device and it does a great job since I started using it. I'm even thinking about developing an device that can even more than that und can change more that one phone at the same time. – ChangeRequest Oct 08 '20 at 09:42
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My solution is to just use a CountDowntimer on the power outlet, set at 1:20 for me. One hit on the CD button to start the power (ON), and after 1:20 it's OFF again which will be at about 80% charge.

I use this: https://www.clasohlson.com/se/Digitalt-kopplingsur/32-8618

Today you can buy a smart power outlet controlled with an app. It shouldn't be long until that app can turn of the power outlet charging the cellphone when it reaches 60%.

Thomas Carl-Erik Jönsson
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If your phone is rooted, do prefer an opensource Advanced Charging Controller module to flash either from Magisk or Twrp or any root solution u have choose. Here is the Github link for all details.

My experience in this module is, I am using this on my Oneplus 5 for about a year now, it doesn't disappoint me. It creates a charging loop. You can change it's default preference by typing acc commands. 80% is the default stopping point. And there is heating machining where its charge/discharge on & off if ur phone is expected to reach a peak point, which is a nice way to tackle the heating issue which is generally seen while charging.

If any problem occurs u can ask him on telegram or create an issue on Github.

Pranav
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