How Charging Your Power Bank to 100% Can Damage It

Power banks can be extremely dangerous. There’s an abundance of stories like this one (by IBTimes): ‘A Thai woman nearly found herself trapped in fire after her power bank exploded beside her while she was asleep.’

This of course makes you worried about the safety of power banks. But fear not, if you use your power bank properly, this wont happen. Using your power bank properly will not only be a lot safer, it will also prolong the power bank’s battery life. And a good place to start might be to stop charging it to 100%. Here’s why.

Why you shouldn’t fully charge your power bank

Lithium-ion batteries perform best between 20-80% charge, because anything above that causes excess stress and anything below might damage the internal chemistry.

Which is why you shouldn’t charge your power bank to 100%, as it will put a lot of extra stress on the battery. Which then in turn poses safety risks and reduces the lifespan of the battery significantly.

Also, don’t leave your power banks charging over night, unless it has extra safety features like overcharge protect. I’ve had a relative who’s phone battery caught fire and caused a house fire a few years ago, due to it being left to charge overnight. It might not be a power bank, but they’re both lithium-ion batteries.

So please, don’t make a habit of leaving it charging overnight. Maybe once-in-a-while is okay, but if it doesn’t have safety features like overcharge protect, it’s best to avoid doing it.

How you should use your power bank instead

Now you know that you shouldn’t charge your battery to 100%, you might be asking yourself: ‘What should I do instead?’.

Well one thing you can do right now is keeping it between 20-80% charge. Making sure that you stay within this reach will significantly improve your power banks lifespan.

According to Varta who’s one of the biggest battery manufacturer in the world: ‘Partial cycles can even prolong the lifetime of your Lithium-Ion battery.’ Or in simpler terms: a not full cycle, so not from 100% to 0% but for example from 80% to 20%, will actually increase the batteries lifespan.

Overcharge protect

As you might have heard, there is a new thing called ‘overcharge protect’, which is meant to be able to protect your power bank’s battery from overcharging.

It works by: ‘using the circuitry to detect when your device’s battery is fully charged and then stop supplying power to prevent any further charging.’ According to this article by brothers4change.com.

Basically, it just makes sure that when the device is fully charged, it will stop charging to prevent damage. Which makes it a lot safer to leave charging, however I still wouldn’t recommend it.

Tips to increase power bank lifespan

So now you know that you shouldn’t charge your power bank to 100%, here are some other tips to improve the lifespan of your power bank:

• Don’t go below 20%, going below 20% might damage the internal chemistry. It’s not the end of the world if it does, but just avoid keeping it at 0% for long periods of time. As you might now there have been a lot of cases where batteries have imploded because they were stuck at 0% for so long.

• Get a high-quality power bank, getting a high-quality power bank is going to be far more effective at increasing lifespan than any of the other tips. I know it’s expensive, but a good quality power bank will last 5 times as long as a bad quality one. Besides, it’s also a lot safer.
• Keep firmware updated, this just makes sure that your power bank is working the best it can. Firmware updates often fix things like: bugs, improve battery management etc.

Doing this will already extend your power banks lifespan drastically, they’re the basics of proper power bank usage. They will make sure your power bank will last at least 2-4 years. Because, we all know how expensive new power banks are these days.

Conclusion

So my recommendation is to not fully charge your power bank, or at least don’t keep it at 100% for extend periods of time. This will only do more harm than good, because it puts excess stress on it’s poor lithium-ion battery.

Other than that, follow these basic tips for proper battery: update firmware, invest in a high-quality power bank, and don’t go to 0%. Again, it isn’t the end of the world if your power bank hits 0%, but it’s best to avoid it or at least don’t keep it at 0% for extended periods of time.

To learn more about power bank safety, click here.