• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

How hot is too hot for the battery?

NPH-

Well-Known Member
Jan 29, 2010
208
5
Texas
My battery drained all the way down, didn't have my charger with me at work, so I set it out in my tahoe to charge

went back 30 minutes later, only charged a little bit, but the phone was burning up

booted it up, looked at the curvefish battery widget and it said the battery temp was 108 degrees F.

is this way too hot for the battery and if so, what can i do to cool it down


and like the title says, how hot is too hot for the battery to withstand
 
Most mobile processors can withstand up to 180F before they shut off and damage happens. This is for laptops, but I would assume cell phones aren't that different. I would say 160F would be pushing.

Your first mistake was leaving the phone in your truck. You're in Texas. You can't just leave it there, even for thirty minutes. Even if it's in the shade, the temperature in your car is well over 110 and your phone, if left in there for a while, will equlibriate at that temperature too. That's it just sitting there, not necessarily charging. Charging from the critical battery point, probably 5% or less, will heat your phone up as well.

Also, battery widgets themselves cause battery draining. Your best indicator is the stock one at the top right. You should only pay attention to a few symbols in your battery area. The first is when the phone gets to the yellow. Next, is when you hit the red and the message pops up that you're on 15% or less charge. The next one is where there may be issues, which is the red with the "different" logo in the battery indicating it's at the critical point where less than 5% remains. It's once you get into the red that the battery potential is high and when you plug it in, it will draw power at full blast, thus increasing the heat.

108 is not hot. My phones hit 120, at worst, and they're all overclocked. To cool the phone down....all I've heard of doing is removing the battery cover. Other than that, maybe removing the battery? But that's for overheating; it won't be smart when your battery is low as it is.


I forget, does the Eris power up without a battery while plugged in to the AC adapter?
 
Upvote 0
Mine has hit 120+ more than once in my truck and is still going strong with no problems. Just be as careful as possible. My Razr literally spent weeks at a time on the dash of my truck in the 110+ degree Texas heat and that battery never skipped a beat, albeit didn't have to deal with the strains the Eris does, but it gives a good example of extremes that modern batteries can take.
 
Upvote 0
My ex-gf's Eris started overheating EVERY TIME it's on the charger.

It started when we put in the Seidio 1750. She charged it overnight, and woke up with the SetCPU warning in the notification bar, a notification on the screen, the phone software frozen, and the phone so hot, that she LITERALLY couldn't even touch it. She unplugged it and carefuly took out the battery and let it cool.

EVERY day this has happened to her phone, every time she charges it. She wakes up in the morning - the phone is software-frozen and overheated. Every time. Too hot to touch.

THEN, one day she woke up an hour or two after she passed out, and her Eris was on fire. Literally. It looked like the phone was a Zippo. If you look at the OPPOSITE side of the volume buttons, it's right above where the upper volume button would be (just the other side). Even through a blue case, the fire was coming out.

She grabbed the phone anyway and burned herself, not believing what she saw. The phone looks completely melted at the area where the flame was, both on the normal eris case back, and the blue aftermarket case from Verizon.

What's great is, the phone has NOT overheated while charging, EVEN ONE time, since this fire.


The point is that, every single time, the phone was absolutely and unequivocally SEVERELY 'overheated' to a point beyond human touch (for about 3 months, almost every single night), with 0 hardware consequence (unless you count the fire).

The phone is functioning uninhibited, with nothing wrong whatsoever, to this very minute, and with a new back and case, you couldn't even tell there was ever fire.


The point is that this whole overheating thing may well be overblown. Her phone has never sustained any functionality loss WHATSOEVER after months of overheating every single day. It WILL reduce the life expectancy of the battery. But it looks like HTC used better materials for their solder points than, say, Microsoft did for the XBOX 360 (hence the 'towel trick' completely unscientifically working to re-melt solder points).

I'll post pictures at some point. I'm trying to get back with her anyway, so I may take pictures regardless.
 
Upvote 0
Just wanted to chime here because I was having the same issues with my original Eris. It would heat up whenever I plugged it in to charge. It was also not taking a charge and the orange charging light would start flashing after awhile. I took it a Verizon store and informed them of the issue, the rep plugged in the phone and saw exactly what I was talking about. He thought there was something wrong with the phone and not the battery itself. With no questions, he had my phone replaced and I haven't had a problem since then. I believe that there was something wrong with the battery. So I would suggest you take your phone to a Verizon store and have them take a look at it, and hopefully the will replace it for you.
 
Upvote 0
My battery has occasionally felt hot while charging lately. It's weird because sometime it does and sometimes it doesn't. Also, charging in the car or plugged into the PC is way slower than charging in an outlet at home I noticed.

Another little tidbit... I took my phone with me to the river (120 degree weather) and I didn't want to bring it with me because I was afraid of dropping it in the sand or worse somehow the water, so I left it in the car. When we got back in the car my phone was super super hot and the LED was flashing orange and red. I think this is a warning about your phone overheating because it did the same thing once when I was charging it and using it heavily at the same time. I can't recall the exact temperature it was doing it at but I know the phone was very hot to touch...
 
Upvote 0
High temps kill electronics but this is true more of a sudden change in temp then a gradual one. Still, it's better to keep the phone cool. I've seen my temp go up to 106F but this is when the air temp is around 80F. Bump the air up to 100F and the phone is certainly going to heat up. While I doubt 120F is going to do much damage (or anything that you'd notice in the long run) its always best to try to avoid the upper temps.
 
Upvote 0
would like to know as well... only thing I've tried is putting it next to a fan or turn up the AC in the car...
Not to much you can do I'm afraid. With both the 3G and Wifi radios being put under a lot of strain, not to mention it drilling hard on the battery which creates even more heat, there's not much that can be done about it, unless you somehow figure out a way to create more efficient electronics.
 
Upvote 0

BEST TECH IN 2023

We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.

Smartphones