Apple Watch optimal charging practice

Running Shoes/Running Gear

5 months ago 12/04/2023 1:51pm EST

I wear an Apple Watch 5 only while running in addition to my running watch in order to have music, phone calls, or payments etc. Earlier I used to wear both watches pretty much all the time, but since I started wearing the AW only while working out, I’ve noticed it its battery sometimes dies abruptly during the run even when fully charged just before the run. My workouts are at most an hour and half and I only use it for music, and it used to last the entire run and the better part of the day earlier.

Could it be because I just leave it all the time on the charger now? What should I do? Should I let it drain and then put it back? How often? I suppose it could also be that my 3-year old AW5 is reaching end of life, I suppose.

5 months ago 12/04/2023 1:55pm EST

re: qua

Cold weather? My apple watch has big issues with cold weather, especially after a few years of use. Leads to exactly what you described – plenty of battery but sudden death.

5 months ago 12/04/2023 4:08pm EST

re: Harambe

Harambe wrote:
Cold weather? My apple watch has big issues with cold weather, especially after a few years of use. Leads to exactly what you described – plenty of battery but sudden death.

Thanks, could be the cold though it hasn’t gotten that cold yet. Does your watch shut off and behave exactly as if it had zero charge left? Mine even after getting home and being placed on the charger, starts charging from zero and takes the full 0-100% time to charge, so it’s actually losing all its charge, not just hallucinating. But it doesn’t seem to heat up while wearing it outside, so wonder where all the charge actually goes.

Will experiment to see if it ever happens indoors, but I think it doesn’t.

5 months ago 12/04/2023 4:28pm EST

re: qua

qua wrote:
Harambe wrote:
Cold weather? My apple watch has big issues with cold weather, especially after a few years of use. Leads to exactly what you described – plenty of battery but sudden death.
Thanks, could be the cold though it hasn’t gotten that cold yet. Does your watch shut off and behave exactly as if it had zero charge left? Mine even after getting home and being placed on the charger, starts charging from zero and takes the full 0-100% time to charge, so it’s actually losing all its charge, not just hallucinating. But it doesn’t seem to heat up while wearing it outside, so wonder where all the charge actually goes.
Will experiment to see if it ever happens indoors, but I think it doesn’t.

Yeah - that's basically what happens to mine. Can happen in the first 10 min of the run.

Anecdotally, it's only after a year or two of use...

5 months ago 12/04/2023 4:45pm EST

re: Harambe

Lithim Ion batteries are most happy between 20 and 80% of charge. Draining them compeltely is bad and fully charging them and keeping them fully charged is also bad. That's why Apple at some point introduced "optimized charging": when used overnight, it charges the watch to 80% and only shortly before you usually wake up it will top it off to 100%. This is a little better, but still not perfect.
My advise: get an Apple Watch Ultra. The battery is so much bigger, you don't need to charge to 100%. I usually charge every day for 15min or so which brings it from 40 to 75% (give or take), so my battery never gets too full or too empty.

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