Batteries of any technical device are supposed to be the essential part or feature of it. So do you charge your fitness tracker too long or overnight so that you can use it for some days in the future without wasting your time? Am I charging my fitness tracker wrong?
Like most people, your answer might be yes. However, you might have a question in mind whether or not this is a good thing to do. A part of you already knows the answer to this, don’t you?
It is not a good thing to charge any device for too long, as it may affect the device’s battery life and cause preheating, which was the internal parts. As a result, it may not function properly as it could have.
Why You Should Avoid Charging Fitness Tracker Overnight
A fitness tracker’s normal battery charging time is 3 to 4 hours before it hits that golden hundred percent. After that, you are good to go for 2 to 14 days, depending on the life of the battery as the brand you choose.
As simple as it may seem, it is hard to find that kind of time to wait for a battery to charge in your busy schedule. You might forget that you have kept it on a charge, or you might think that it will stop charging on its own as it reaches the hundred percent.
This is the most naive thing you expect from a technical device. As a person, we tend to forget that we are dealing with a technical device rather than a smart one who can think on its own.
All of the devices have a certain life and limitations attached to it. According to it, you can prolong or decrease the lifespan of a certain device, depending on how you use it.
This is why you should not charge a smart band or fitness tracker overnight.
Trickle Charging
Generally, chargers do not stop charging the battery after they reach a hundred percent. It keeps on charging your smart band or fitness tracker as it loses a certain amount of battery even when it is not in use. You can call it ‘trickle charging.’ Safe to assume that this is bad for your smart band.
Overheating Of The Fitness Band And Low Battery Life
Besides, when it does this, it overheats more than it usually should because the battery is already full.
This would pressurize your battery to decrease its lifespan.
Losing Battery Life For A Long Term
Did you know this? All batteries are bound with the fate of losing the capacity to hold a charge as soon as you start using it.
This is why you should try your best to retain battery and prolong its life by adding some charging tips to your list.
Burning The Cable Wires
You might notice that the cable of your fitness tracker’s charger is starting to show up the wires inside. Not only is this harmful to yourself as it can cause you electric shocks, but the battery also might not charge itself, which is the main reason for having a charger. It can even damage the internal parts.
So why is this happening to your cable? It is because you might be using some cable that is not certified by any organization for the specific fitness band. Moreover, it can also be the case that you have been charging it overnight.
The first one is because such cables are not meant to take on that much heat while charging as they are not for the specified device. Likewise, the latter means that you are causing the wires to overheat, so the outside coated plastic starts to melt. This can be very dangerous.
How Does A Fitness Tracker Battery Work?
Most fitness trackers use lithium-ion batteries. You can say these batteries are fast charging as well as long-lasting in nature. This is what you need in a battery, isn’t it?
That is why these batteries are used in most of the equipment you use today, like your laptops, cell phones, and other technical devices.
Working Mechanism Of Lithium-Ion Battery
So how does this battery work? Are you excited to know?
Your battery regulates from cathode and anode, which store lithium ions, as the name suggests. Separators in between this cathode and anode assist in passing on the positive or negative current.
Hence when the battery is charging, the cathode releases the lithium ions to the anode. However, when discharging, the battery will do the opposite, which is passing the lithium ions from anode to cathode.
Battery Malfunction
A lithium-ion battery malfunction when you charge it too often or too much. They have a certain lifespan attached to them when you buy them. Gradually it starts depleting as any of the technical devices in the market.
But as a customer who has paid enough for the smart band to enjoy its facilities, you must also be careful about how the battery works and how you can deplete its capacity.
Most of the time, you will find that the same brand and the same device works best for someone and does not for the other. This depends on how you handle the device.
Therefore you must understand that the battery works best at a certain temperature. It does not work in either very cold regions or very hot regions. And why are we saying this?
As crazy as it sounds, some people are trying to solve the overheating problems of their batteries by tossing the device in the freezer. It might be the push from various YouTube videos that presented it to you as hacks or a Tiktok hack video as well.
But, we must strictly say that this is not a good hack. It might solve the problem of overheating for a certain amount of time, but it destroys the battery life as a whole.
Does Over-charging Degrade A Fitness Tracker’s Battery Lifespan?
There is an age-old question about overcharging which might be running in your mind as well. It is if the overcharging really degrades the battery life of your smart band or fitness tracker.
The answer to this is yes. It does degrade a fitness tracker’s battery lifespan. Overheating pushes your battery to lose its spark of lasting longer. There is a certain temperature under which your technological devices run in the best manner.
Moreover, overcharging overlooks such chances of a heated device, which in turn affects the life span. Think about it this way! Suppose you are at the limit of your energy today, and someone decides to push you further and give you the extra mile to run. Would it affect your energy tomorrow or not?
Smart bands are more or less the same.
How Do I Know If My Fitness Tracker Is Charging?
When you plug in your smart band or fitness tracker into your laptop or any adaptors, you will find the light turn on and battery sign that is charging.
However, if you do not see this sign, then it is safe to assume that your battery is not charging.
This might be the case when your smart band has reduced its battery life to a complete 0. If so, wait for 30 minutes until it shows up the sign again.
If possible, do not wait for the battery to turn to zero before you charge it. It causes your battery to drain more quickly as well as it will take longer to charge.
How Long Can You Leave A Fitness Tracker Charging?
The everlasting question about batteries is how long can we charge them. Though it depends on the model and brand you choose, most fitness trackers charge in 2-3 hours fully.
You can see that on the description box of the product itself. However, the key to this is that the battery will take full time only if it has drained most of its power.
So, if you have your battery life to a mere 40 percent or more, it will take less time than the mentioned one, which is approximately one and a half hours.
Moreover, you can check how much time your fitness band will take to charge 10 percent extra. By this, you will have a rough idea of how much time it will take to reach 100 percent in total.
Make sure you remove the charge as soon as it hits the hundred percent. It is better if the charge is not full to save any mishaps of lesser battery life due to overcharging.
The Best Way Of Charging My Fitness Tracker
Are you ready to learn the best way of charging your fitness tracker? The most frequently asked questions include the best way of charging a fitness tracker. This is the concern of most users, including you.
If you are also a caring person who is a good planner, then you probably are more curious about this section. Here are some ways to charge your fitness tracker in the best way:
Things To Avoid While Charging Your Fitness Tracker
- Avoid charging your fitness tracker near any metal devices as it may cause overheating. Since metal is a conductor of heat.
- Do not overcharge your battery as it may cause overheating and eventually lead to low battery life.
- You should not wait until your battery drops to zero. This will cause the battery to lose its charm.
- Avoid charging your smart band on soft spots that can generate heat such as bed, cushions, pillows, etc.
- Similarly, avoid charging overnight as well as for long durations of time.
- You should also avoid using your fitness band while charging as it also depletes as well as overheats the battery.
Things To Do While Charging Your Fitness Tracker
- Use the certified chargers. Do not spend your precious money on the cheap chargers that may ruin the battery as well.
- Use timers as well as smart plugs to charge the batteries overnight.
- Put alarms if you have to charge them overnight and/or remove the battery if you wake up in the middle of the night.
- Use a slow charger instead of a fast one so that you can leave the charge on for longer durations if you want to charge it overnight.
- Try to apply the tips given below to extend your battery life altogether.
- Likewise, you should make sure that the charging cable pins are dustfree and not dirty.
How Do I Extend Battery Life Of My Fitness Tracker?
If you are like me, you find charging batteries a waste of time. This is because of the time when you want to use it; the battery is never there. It might be my forgetful nature or a busy schedule due to which I find myself stuck in this grim situation. So I always tend to find ways to extend my battery life.
How can you extend your battery life of a fitness tracker then?
Here are some tips that you can use to extend your battery life so that you spend less time charging and more time on using it for what it is actually meant to do.
- First of all, you can use the charging tips itself to prolong the battery life mentioned earlier.
- While you walk, you can try moving your hands a little less swiftly. This decreases the chances of turning the screen on. The display usually takes a huge amount of battery.
- Wear your fitness tracker around your wrist than under it to prevent the display from turning on now and then.
- Turn on the auto-brightness if you have one from the settings of your fitness tracker. You can also dim the brightness if you prefer.
- If you are not using your GPS, try to turn it off. It will save your battery more than you think.
- Use less animated displays or watch faces as they require more battery.
- Avoid the notifications of apps that you are not using, including alarms, reminders, or even your phone. They use a lot of battery life.
- Turn off your smart band when you are not using them as it will save you battery.
- If your fitness band has an always-on display, then turn it off from the settings.
- Try using music apps less often.
Timer Devices for The Charging Of Fitness Tracker
If you fail to dedicate a certain time stopping from the battery charge to exceed the hundred percent, timer devices for charging fitness trackers are your lifesaver.
Why Should I Use Smart Plugs For Charging Fitness Tracker?
As human beings, we tend to forget things of less importance. For a fact, we use smart bands to make our life easier as well as healthier without much effort.
Timer devices not only save you from the difficulty of remembering and worrying about your smart bands getting overheated and losing the battery life for a long period, but it also helps your carefree nature to be intact without having any repercussions.
What wonders can technical devices carry out, isn’t it?
These smart plugs, also known as timers and time slots, are available easily and at a bargainable price. It can save you time tables and also money in case you deplete your battery because of the poor handling or charging.
How Do Smart Plugs Work?
Basically, timer devices have a certain stopwatch attached to them, and you can turn the switch to a particular time you want your device to be charged.
You can also see the timer socket where you can keep a certain time, after which the electricity will stop passing on from your charger.
Then, the stopwatch will stop charging as soon as the timer sets to zero. Hence, you will not need to worry about the time you spent charging any device.
They are also called smart plugs in some markets. You will find it very helpful in assistance of reducing trickle charging and prolonging your battery life without much sweat!
Last Words
Henceforth, you can say that overcharging reduces battery life by a lot as well as it is harmful because of other things as well. Though it may not show the results shortly, you have to look out for the long term and act accordingly.
We understand that it is hard for you to choose and then keep changing batteries because they stop working in the desired way. Moreover, when you change the batteries, there is always a risk of a fake one, which could destroy the internal functioning.
While there is always an option of easy change, it is a waste of money. There is no guarantee that the batteries will last long until you keep making the same mistakes without knowing.
To conclude, we hope that this article has helped you in this matter. We wish that you have the best experience with your battery and enjoy a prolonged life with all the facilities working perfectly as you had wanted!
