No matter where you park or how many precautions you take, cars get incredibly hot, especially when left in direct sunlight.Sometimes, you have no choice but to leave your phone baking in the car, but what happens to its battery while you're gone might make you think twice.Your phone starts overheating in a car long before you think it does The cabin is essentially a mini oven Close Although we're all familiar with just how much hotter a car can get than the outside due to the greenhouse effect, people don't realize just how quickly and how hot it actually gets.
According to a 2018 study, the interior of a car left in 85°F weather can reach 115°F after just one hour in direct sunlight, with dashboard temperatures hitting as high as 185°F.That 115°F is already above the maximum storage temperature Google recommends for its Pixel phones.Google states that Pixel phones should be stored at a maximum ambient temperature of 113°F, and explicitly warns against leaving them in vehicles or on dashboards exposed to direct sunlight.
You might think that storing your phone in the glovebox could protect it from the heat, but that enclosed space can still get extremely hot.The enclosed space may be better than leaving your phone in direct sunlight, but it won't magically keep it cool.Moreover, if the phone is still turned on and running background services, it's generating some heat of its own, further contributing to the problem.
When you combine that with the rapidly rising temperature around it, your phone can reach its thermal limits much sooner than you might expect.Your phone has a few tricks for handling extreme heat Your phone knows when it's getting too hot Android phones are equipped with sensors that monitor the temperature in key areas, including the battery.When you leave your phone in a hot car with the AC off to run errands, the phone gradually starts heating up along with the car.
The phone's sensors notice that it's starting to get above the normal range, so it gradually reduces how much work its internals do in the background—things like background app syncing for updates and notifications, screen brightness, cellular activity, Wi-Fi scanning, and location reporting.Depending on the phone, it may also restrict things like the flashlight or 5G.Charging generates a significant amount of heat on its own, so if you left the phone to charge because the battery was dead, the phone will heavily throttle and eventually stop charging altogether to protect the battery from additional thermal stress.
Eventually, the phone displays an overheating warning, and it enters a low-power mode that minimizes power draw to protect the device.If the temperature doesn't drop, many phones eventually shut down altogether to stop generating additional heat.Many phones won't let you turn them back on until the temperature drops to a safe range.
This can be a stressful thing to experience, as you might think the phone is permanently broken and try to revive it, but it's actually just a protective mechanism.So, if the phone shuts down, just don't touch it until it has had a chance to cool down to a normal temperature.Extreme heat leaves your battery permanently worse off Battery drain is only just the start Once you manage to turn your phone back on, you'll discover that the battery has drained abnormally quickly.
That's partly because heat accelerates chemical activity inside lithium-ion batteries, which both accelerates self-discharge and reduces efficiency.Heat can also temporarily throw off the battery system's estimate of the remaining charge.I once left my old phone in the glovebox, and it went from 100% to 0% after just a few hours in a hot car.
Unfortunately, a drained battery is only the beginning of your worries when your phone overheats.Those accelerated chemical reactions also contribute to the wear of the lithium-ion cells in your battery.A sufficiently severe or prolonged overheating incident can cause some permanent loss of capacity and increase the battery's internal resistance.
Admittedly, battery degradation happens to your phone over time regardless of how you use it, as charging and discharging cycles cause some amount of degradation.Still, leaving your phone in a hot car is an additional source of stress that can accelerate battery aging, and if this is something you do on a weekly basis, you may notice the degradation over time.The more serious danger doesn't come in the form of a small reduction in battery capacity, though — it's thermal runaway.
Thermal runaway is a dangerous self-heating reaction that can occur inside a lithium-ion battery and cause a fire.This is extremely rare, and a modern phone battery has multiple layers of protection against it.Still, extreme heat adds to the stress, and it's worth being aware of something that could potentially lead to a fire while you're not around.
A hot car is one of the worst places to leave your phone Phones are durable devices that can handle a relatively wide temperature range, but a parked car is just too much to handle when it's hot outside.A thermally insulated pouch can help prolong the time before the phone warms up, but it will eventually heat up as well.Turning the phone off completely can help even more by eliminating the heat it generates itself.
If you have to leave your phone in the car, try to place it far away from windows, such as underneath the seat or in the trunk, and leave it for as little time as possible.Related Android Auto is cooking your phone on long trips—here are 6 ways to stop it Android Auto doesn't have to turn your phone into a pocket toaster.Posts 12 By Ismar Hrnjicevic
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