Why your phone battery swells

Have you ever noticed a bulge in your phone battery from the blues? Well, it’s not really out of the blue. There are things you may be doing wrong with your phone. There are several reasons a phone battery may swell up:

1. Improper charging: If you leave your phone hooked to a charger long after it’s been fully charged, that could be harmful as the battery, especially lithium ones, gets overcharged and chemical reactions inside it eventually cause a bulge to form. The use of a cheap charger may also affect it. Granted, they are cheap and get the job done, but at a higher risk of ruining your phone as they don’t charge correctly. Always use an original charger. You should also never make it a habit to disconnect your phone from the charging port before it’s completely charged to a 100%.

2. Temperature: “Store in a cool dry place”, ever seen those words on a product and actually took the advice? Well, if you have a swollen battery now you might want to turn the heat down for your phone. When a battery gets overheated, it negatively affects your battery, causing it to swell. Heating can also be due to improper charging, such as using your device while it charges, or using a cheap charger e.g the K10 ones sold on the street.

3. Your battery’s a gong’a (fake): Phone batteries are not meant to last a lifetime. They have a lifespan of about 1 or 2 years, meaning you have to replace them after a while. Always get an original battery. Fake ones do more harm than good as they may not charge properly, may take forever to charge or simply start swelling up as well.

4. Blame it on the producer: Sometimes it’s not all your fault. The manufacturer may create a faulty battery which hopefully they recall for replacements. The unfortunate part about living in Zambia is these recalls would not happen locally as there are no major manufacturers located here. Most major cellphone brands are franchises of bigger ones and would just take a while to process such. So you just have to buy a new original battery by yourself.

What do you do when it swells? 

Get rid of it properly. Batteries have been known to blow up and start fires so be careful how you dispose of it. Batteries may also leak when they swell and ruin your device. Replace the destroyed battery with a new ORIGINAL one and you’re good to go. You can not fix a swollen battery by biting into it, as most myths say, or by piercing it to relieve the pressure. Once it swells, you have to give it up.

 

Image Credits: All About Windows Phones, Flipsy