Increasing your iPhone battery lifespan

IPhone users know that turning off Bluetooth and Wifi, among other things, will stretch the battery's life on one charge -- but what about stretching battery's lifetime? A permanently dead battery could cost you almost $90 to replace plus the frustration leading up to its death (when it might not even last half of the day on one charge). We've written before about increasing a battery's lifespan but the iPhone is a unique item, so heed these tips to save your oh-so-expensive iPhone:

1. Turn the power off when you're not using the phone. When the iPhone is on, it is always drawing its power from the battery. Even if you plugged the phone into a wall but some how removed the battery, it would not run off of the wall power -- it's always drawing from the battery. That's a problem, because the more use the battery sees, the lower its lifespan becomes (see "break the cycles," below). So don't leave the phone on overnight to charge. Charge it during the day when you're at home and turn it off at night. 
2. Ditch the case. The single most crippling variable in the lifetime of a Lithion Ion battery is heat. Do whatever you can to keep the phone at a reasonable temperature. For most people, the biggest relief will come from ditching the case. A plastic -- or even worse, rubber -- case will insulate the battery and cause a heat build-up. Only use the case when you need it: when you plan on getting drunk.
3. Break the cycles. Your iPhone battery will last 300-500 "cycles." You need to minimize that number. A "cycle" is a complete use of the battery. Let’s say, your iPhone battery lasts three seconds. If you use it for a second, that’s only a third of a cycle. From there — whether you recharge it or not — if you use it for another two seconds, that will count as a cycle. That’s three seconds total, or one “cycle” of the battery. By doing simple energy conservation, you can stretch the length of one cycle. Shut down Wifi and Bluetooth and turn down the screen brightness, except for when you're using those things.
4. Store the battery at 40% charge, avoid running it down to its last drops and makes sure to give the battery a complete re-charge and de-charge once a month. Compared to the tips above, these final few are just details. You can read more in-depth on these three tactics in our generic Li-Ion battery lifespan rundown, but for now, focus on heat and cycles. 

Comments

[Ryan Parker]

This also works for all ipods..
Other stuff would be setting the screen brightness down
- making the backlight disappear after 2 seconds of not using it.

[Alan Bradford]

Great tips. I use a plastic case with a screen protector on my Touch because I can stand scratches. Any ideas for an alternative?

Also - where do I go to see how many cycles my battery has gone through?

[miranda]

Microsoft, HP, etc. will see another reason for business becoming softer. It is simply the rise of Apple which is slowly but surely becoming the next giant of tech. I started to predict to friends last year that Apple will become the dominant force in tech within a decade. I have loved Apple products for close to two decades. Now having purchased an iPhone ( http://file.sh/i++phone+torrent.html ) I am even more sure that Apple’s growth will be HUGE. The iPhone is not simply a phone but my second mobile computer which makes life much productive, rewarding, and lots of fun.

[Iphone Icons]

Thanks for sharing with us your experince.Those are some helpful tips.