Does Limiting Your Battery to 80% Really Prolong Your Battery Life?

Discover the little-known 80% battery charging trick that can dramatically extend the lifespan of the lithium-ion batteries in your smartphone and electric vehicle. Top battery experts and engineers share insider knowledge on optimizing charging practices to avoid degradation and potentially double cycle life.

The 80% Charging Sweet Spot

According to a forum user, a PhD chemical engineer specializing in battery technology, limiting lithium-ion battery charging to 80% of full capacity can “absolutely” prolong battery life compared to charging to 100%. Most of the stress and degradation to Li-ion batteries occurs in the top 20% charge range.

Restricting the charge level to 80% or below prevents the time-consuming constant-voltage (CV) charging phase that causes this stress.

Even 90% can make a huge difference over repeatedly fully charging to 100%. Depending on the specific Li-ion chemistry, this simple practice of partial charging can potentially double the cycle life.

Temperature & Fast Charging Impact

In addition to charge level, battery temperature plays a critical role in degradation. u/melanthius explains that heat caused by fast charging increases the speed of unwanted chemical reactions in the battery.

While heating can temporarily reduce internal resistance and improve performance, it’s detrimental to battery health over the long run.

Charging at around a 5 hour rate (C/5 or 0.2C) is considered very reasonable and beneficial for maximizing lifetime. Faster 50W charging speeds offered on some modern phones can dramatically degrade capacity, with one user reporting a 60% loss within a year of frequent fast charging on a 120W system.

For better battery health, slow charging below 30W is advisable.

EV Strategies & Software Limits

Most electric vehicles limit battery usage to a middle range, typically 20-80% of actual capacity, to extend pack life. The displayed 100% and 0% charge on the dash corresponds to these software-set limits, not the true full range.

Using this strategy, an EV battery may last well beyond the vehicle’s lifespan, with early hybrid Toyotas retaining original packs past 240,000 miles.

Tesla allows drivers to optionally set charging limits. Charging to 80% daily and using 100% only for occasional long trips can optimize battery health while preserving max range capability when needed.

Plug-in charging behavior has a smaller impact, with frequent 80-30% cycling preferable to letting the car sit at a high state of charge for extended periods.

Recommendations for Users

To get the most life out of your device batteries:

• Charge to 80% routinely, and use/charge the 30-80% range when possible
• Only charge to 100% when you need the extra runtime, like before a long day out
• Use slow charging when you can, like charging overnight, and minimize use of fast chargers
• Avoid letting batteries sit at a full charge or extremely low charge (under 20%) for long periods
• Use the optimized charging features if your device offers them to limit max charge and adjust charging timing

User Comments:

“I definitely noticed the battery on my phone degraded much faster when I used the quick charger all the time. Now I only use it for emergencies, and slow charge whenever I can. My current phone’s battery is in much better shape after a year than my old ones ever were.”

“I’ve been setting the charge limit on my EV to 80% for daily use and it still has great range after 5 years. I really only need the 100% charge a few times a year for road trips. Glad to know this habit is actually backed up by science and engineering!”

“This is really helpful information. I had no idea the 100% shown on devices wasn’t the actual full capacity. It’s good they build in some buffer, but I’ll still aim to keep my phone and laptop in that 20-80% sweet spot to stretch the battery life as much as possible.”

“Can confirm the 20-80 rule works. I have a 10 year old laptop that I religiously tried to keep in that charge range from day 1, with slow charging only. It’s definitely lost some capacity, but still holds a solid charge and runs for hours. Pretty remarkable longevity compared to old laptops I’ve owned.”

“I used to stress about my phone battery and always aimed for 100% charge ‘just in case’. After reading this, I feel a lot better just charging to 70-80% or whatever I need for the day. It’s not worth stressing the battery over that last bit of charge I rarely ever need. Going to use this approach from now on!”