In a weekly technology segment on Kikar HaShabbat, host Moshe Mans spoke with technology, science and law reporter Elchanan Twiig about lithium batteries, why they wear out, and how users shorten their lifespan without noticing. He said the same battery problem still dominates daily life in 2026, despite advances in cameras, phones and artificial intelligence.
Twiig explained batteries with a simple analogy and said the decline comes from internal wear after roughly 500 to 1,000 charge cycles, when about 20% of the ions effectively stop moving. He stressed that overnight charging is no longer the main danger because modern phones can pause around 80% and finish charging near wake-up time.
The real enemy, he said, is heat. Once a battery reaches 35 to 40 degrees Celsius, it deteriorates quickly. He advised pointing an air conditioner vent at a phone in a car during summer and warned not to sleep with a charging phone under a pillow, because it overheats and slowly damages the battery. He also dismissed the old habit of keeping batteries in the freezer, saying it may have helped older technologies preserve charge but is not advisable for modern lithium batteries.
For longer battery life, Twiig recommended keeping phones between 20% and 80% charge, avoiding both full charge and total depletion because of chemical stress. He said power banks stored for long periods should be kept around 50% charge, ideally between 40% and 60%, and noted that new devices often arrive at about 60%. On fast charging, he said the speed creates intense internal heat and causes ions to be lost, significantly shortening battery life, so users who have time should prefer a regular slow charger.
