How Wireless Charging Works and Why It's Terrible
You’ve seen wireless chargers, the tech is now as common as the smartphones they power. But did you know that they come with a big catch? Today we go over the tech behind wireless charging and just how much it actually takes to get your battery full again.
Check out our blog on Wireless Charging!
https://www.ifixit.com/News/94409/wireless-charging-trading-efficiency-for-convenience
Grab our 65W USB-C GaN iFixit Fast Charger!
https://www.ifixit.com/products/ifixit-65w-usb-c-ac-adapter?utm_source=YouTube&utm_medium=ifixitchannel&utm_campaign=WirelessChargingExplained&utm_content=Description
Big thanks to Creative Electron for the x-rays they sent us!
Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:18 What to know about wireless chargers
00:36 How does wired charging work
01:11 How does wireless charging work
01:47 Wireless charging issues and some solutions
02:49 Worst Case Scenario of Wireless Charging
03:13 A look at the Tesla wireless charging platform
03:55 Final thoughts
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Rodriguez Scott Young Jeffrey Miller Barbara
Whats the music playing?
Mehdi’s (ElectroBoom) explanation was more entertaining and informative.
Before wired and wireless nearly same and I used wireless everyday but nowadays the distance is getting farther and farther so wired is best
Great info! Thank you! 👍
There is literally no Android phone on the market that supports the Qi2 standard.
I still have no idea why this is called "wireless" charging. The phone is clearly still charging via a wire that is connected to it
The "wireless charging" is isnt wireless you still needs cable to power the charger, and for me its useless when you must do something on the phone, on cable you can pick up phone easy but with the wireless you need to stop charging the phone
I’ve used wireless charging 3 times. Last time was reverse wireless to charge my earbuds… They blew up lol
I always said wireless charging is trash
I started using wireless chargers because my wife broke her charging port twice from acidental pulling
Absolutely your right 👍▶️
I always avoid wireless charging because of the heat it produces. Which accelerates battery aging.
Ya know its basically an induction stove technology
Wireless… what’s wireless about if it still has a wire? 😅 tomato tomato 😂
Is the sound in the wireless charger normal?
Very soft sound like the sound of a bee
What if I charged with a 5 watt wireless charger ? Is it still bad
Thanks for the heads up! I was semi-aware that it was overheating but never considered it to be this extremely harmful to the battery. I’ll decrease my usage from now on
I’ve recommended not using wireless chargers since the first day I tried one back in the day. They heat up your device, aren’t energy efficient nor are they fast.
What abt countries like India where no matter what my battery is more than 30C at most times, would we have faster battery degradation
This is America we use faranheit
This technology will improve. Loss energy is converted to heat. With improved efficiency, temps will go down.
I got some Sand into the charging port of my Galaxy S21+ few weeks after i purchased it. I had exams ongoing and couldn’t go to the service center before at least a week. Amazon was delivering its Amazon Basics wireless charger on the same day so I went for it for the time being. The difference I noticed was the crazy amount of heat it was generating. I only used it for a week and never since. Also, it makes no sense as wired charging is so much more convenient and quicker.
Can you tell me whats centigrate?
I remember being so excited about wireless charging on my Nexus 4 until I actually tried it and wondered if it was going to burn my house down in my sleep lol.
I’ve noticed that my iphone 12 before had 84% battery health and in a span of 5-6 months it only decreased to 83%(just 1%)using only wired charging, but i recently purchased a wireless powerbank and uses it to maintain my battery percentage. In just 2 months my battery health get down to 80%.
taking the efficiency hit seems even less logical since we got USB – C.
sure with any previous USB when your sleepy in bed but notice you need to plug in your phone or it will be useless tomorrow and never find the right orientation in the first 6 tries, it sucked.
but now you just find the hole cable go’s in immediatly and your charging fast but smart with the phone telling the charger what to do, ideal imo. if your charging overnight it can even slow charge the whole night to be at 100% when your alarm go’s which i’m hoping is keeping my battery nice and strong (got a ~3 year old pixel 6….seems to be working as intended :P).
My S7 Edge which was the 2nd Samsung Phone to ever have this never goes beyond 26° temps even when doing some hard tasks
It’s degrees Celsius, not centigrade
Great advice and all that but anyhow you never explained how it actually works.. it’s on the vid title so gotta dislike for that 😢
The losses in wireless charging is what makes me so disturbed at the obsession with a ‘portless iPhone’.
It always struck me as yet another Apple ‘green bull$h1t” if their solution to avoid being forced into USB-C was to hose electric energy instead.
So at the end of the day this whole video is an adversing to apples MacSafe, ok ill take it
He fails to say that wireless charging is BAD for the ENVIRONMENT, Qi chargers are always on. You might say, well, it’s only 1 phone, except is 100’s of millions wasting electricity!
Good Video, loved the facts!
One thing I would mention as a benefit of wireless charging though is that you will have way less trouble with loose connection plugs. I keep phones for 4 years on average, and when only using cables, I often have quite loose connections in the end which sometimes start bugging around.
I’m pretty sure I always go way above 30°C while charging. I’m using the original Apple magsafe wireless charger but it’s more like heating device for the phone.
Devices that are 100% waterproof that can’t have an USB port can only charge with wireless
If we do wireless 🛜 charging 30 minutes to 70-80 percent. No heating battery 🔋 temperature 🤒. It will be expensive .😊 can we do it 2025-26 at Apple iPhone 📲.
04:12 Since every phone finally uses USB C I wouldn’t even call it "dealing with cables".
It’s "plugging it in"
There are potentially billions of phones changing at any given time, how much energy is that wasting?
Every video should have their main points at the start, like this one.
Whats the point of wireless charging anyway?
iFixit would be a great company to work for. Lots of interesting experiments stuff to work on/with and learn alot from these tech geeks.🔥💯
The numbers arent as bad as they look, US average electricity cost is 16.4 cents per KwH, if you have a phone with a 5000mah (0.005 KwH) battery that is a tenth of a cent for a full charge, 2 tenths of a cent for a wireless charge
10 years of charging from zero to full EVERY DAY with wireless would cost
8 dollars, thats it, for 10 years
I got a 15 pro and i charge it with a wireless samsung charger and my battery last a lot longer through the day
I’d love to see integrated cooler fans on wireless chargers
has everyone forgot samsung wireless charging docks have fans built in ?
"wireless" charging is just about the dumbest gimmick to ever exist.
Yea let’s design a charger that still uses cables from an outlet to a phone directly, but let’s not actually plug it in, because that’s for the poors.
Only way I can charge my phone. Port is broken and I’m not buying a new phone that is the same basically as my old phone.
Why does he call Celsius centigrade?
I am inventing a mechanical receptacle that allows for perfect alignment every time and also creates a DirectCurrent™ connection for maximum efficiency that also inproves battery life and allows for faster charging. It fits invisiblely in the end of the cable instead of requiring a "puck" or "stand", allowing for more flexible placement of the phone or device while charging. I call it "Plug In" charging technology.