I bought a new tablet but I’m unable to use the charging cable it came with until I can get an adapter because I don’t have anything that can except USB type C. I have multiple cables with a USB A connector but the tablet says that it’s “slow charging” when I use them. I tried to look this up before posting but for some reason, a lot of websites refer to “normal changing” as slow charging now and I’m unable to find anything relevant to my issue. Would I be fine to use the other cables I have until I can get an adapter?
Edit: I no longer need help with this. I originally made this post because, for several years, I was told and had read that both slow and fast charging damaged batteries significantly more than normal charging. But, as multiple users have stated, it seems like I was being told and reading false information and slow charging is actually better for a battery than normal charging.
Great of you to admit that you were wrong. Also if you want to extend your battery life more try not to let it get below 20% and above 80%. But even without all that a modern cellphone battery should easily last few years
Technically any charging of a Lithium battery is “bad” for its health. Batteries are usually rated for a certain number if charge cycles from the manufacturer and after that number of cycles will start to lose capacity. The best advise I’ve seen regarding battery health is to keep it from charging to %100 everytime. As others have stated, the charging speed can also have an impact as it creates heat and heat will also wear out the battery.
As for your specific device it seems like it’s consuming more power than the charger is giving it, so even when plugged in and turned on it may be discharging the battery still as it’s not getting enough power. Either you buy a new charger that can put out more power or you turn it off while charging it. Either case shouldn’t be bad for the battery health.
Slow charging is actually better for battery longevity than fast charging. For example, my phone will limit it’s charging speed at night when I have an alarm set, because it assumes I won’t need it until my alarm goes off, and the slower it charges the less damage is done to a battery.
In general, lithium batteries are damaged by heat. Rapid charging creates extra heat, so it’s worse for the battery. Manufacturers work hard to minimize the damage of quick charging, but it’s still somewhat better to slow charge when you have the time.
Lemme throw a wrench into everything. Sometimes faster charging can be better than slower charging.
Part of the USB power delivery spec is PPS or programmable power supply. PPS lets your device specify the exact voltage down to 0.02V or 20 mV. Heat is generated by inefficiency, and PPS’ goal is to get the voltage just right so there’s as little power loss as possible. My iphone charging at 5v 1amp “slow” charging gets hotter than the full 20 watts fast charging.
The primary difference here is where the power supply duties are performed. With USB PPS it can “outsource” the power supply tasks to the charger. When using “classic” fast charging (e.g. 5v / 2A) the phone has to handle all the voltage conversion internally, which adds heat to the device.
Are you saying that when the charger handles the conversions, it will also produce waste heat in the process? If so, the total amount of energy lost due to conversions should stay the same, but the physical location where the heat is generated is different. That would be pretty nice for the battery longevity.
Correct.
Nice. USB PPS sounds pretty sweet. I better look into that.
So what other posters may be missing here is that, depending on the device and how it’s powered, “slow charging” may not actually be fast enough of a charge to keep it charged while powered on.
So while its true, slowly charging your battery is better for it, in this case, you may be receiving the warning because the device may eventually power down while in use.
If that is indeed the case, in the meantime if you charge it while it is off and use it until the battery gets down to about 30% and then turn it off to charge again and you should be fine. Honestly pretty safe just mildly frustrating, if you ask me.
Source: a friend’s girlfriend’s old laptop which we discovered needed its fancy charging cable to both charge and stay on and a regular usb cable actually failed to give it the proper power delivery. She was having all kinds of issues with it and it took me digging through the whole manual for the device to figure it out.
I’m ok with it taking longer to charge and not being able to use it while it’s charging, I have other device, including a computer, that I can use while it’s charging. I made this post because, from what I’ve read and was told over the years, is that slow charging (actual slow charging and not normal charging) can damage the battery. From what other users have told me, this seems to be a lie (or that it’s at least not as bad as fast charging).
However, there is once case, where the extremes are bad, and hitting the sweet spot is good: temperature.
For example, this graph shows that charging in very cold and very hot will kill your battery faster. If you stay in the middle, you’ll get the maximum number of cycles possible before the battery eventually dies.
Those C-values are the charging rate. 1 C = normal, 2 C = very fast 3 C = crazy fast.
Honestly, it’s better for your battery. Fast charging heats up your battery and wears it down.
Are you talking about slow charging or normal charging? I’m only asking because I heard that about normal charging but I’ve never heard that about slow charging.
“slow” and “normal” are all relative terms, and aren’t definable.
It’s also relative to the size of the battery. A cell phone at 20 watts charging sure aint slow, but a laptop at 20 sure is. But is 20 fast when phones will do 50 or 100 watts?
What I’m referring to is what my device states. Right now, my tablet states that it’s slow charging but my other android devices just say charging and my mom’s phone states that it’s fast charging when she uses the cable that came with her phone.
