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? Two actually: wireless charging is inefficient and  it may lead to accelerated battery degradation. You can find a link to our complete test  results in the description but the gist is this:  Efficiency between wireless chargers  varies, but wired is the most efficient.  Some wireless chargers may be  damaging your battery if the   battery packs temperature regularly exceeds 30C. But let’s start from the top. What  is the difference between wired and   wireless charging beyond the whole cable thing? With wired charging, energy transfers from  the outlet through a cable and directly to   your phone. It's the most efficient means of  charging we have at home, but it’s not perfect. Our tests with state-of-the-art  GaN chargers show that even the   best wired setups lose about 35% of  their energy during normal operation. It took 18.25Wh to charge our  iPhone 15 Pro’s 12.7Wh battery. It’s not ideal but it’s the best  we have Critically,in our all our   wired charging tests the battery  temperature never exceeded 29C. Wireless charging seems just as  straightforward. You drop your   phone on a pad and the electricity magically  travels to your phone and charges it. No cables,   no fuss. But the journey from pad to  battery is not as direct as you might think. In fact, the electrons from the pad  never reach the phone's battery.  Inside the phone you’ll find a wireless  charging coil made to receive energy from   a charging pad. The pad has a corresponding  coil designed to interact with the phones coil. By manipulating alternating magnetic  fields, the pad can create current   inside the receiving coil thereby creating  a current that can charge your battery. If you think this sounds like a lot of work then  you’d be right. Generating a magnetic field to   induce a current “wastes” a lot of energy and  it’s a big reason why wireless charging is   inefficient. Other factors in energy loss include  misaligned coils and distance between coils. So in long-range wireless charging,   like some products advertised  online or even wireless EV tech,   the energy lost will increase as distance between  the transmitting and receiving coil increases. Electric cars aside, Apple’s MagSafe and   the Qi2 wireless charging standards  do provide a partial solution. In order to mitigate the alignment problem,  a set of magnetic coils in the charger line   up with the opposite polarity of magnets  in the back of your phone. This ensures a   perfect alignment and maximum efficiency when  transferring energy between the two coils. Despite this, 36% more energy is lost when  compared to wired charging while the battery   temperature peaked at 35C. And remember, this  is the best case scenario for wireless charging! In our worst case scenario tests, a  misaligned 15 Pro on an AmazonBasics   wireless charger saw a whopping additional  104% energy consumed with charge times   increasing two fold. Worse still, the battery  temperatures climbed and remained above 40C. So not only is energy consumption substantially  increased with a misaligned battery,   but there is also a noticeable amount  of heat transferred to the battery. And this brings us to our final charger,  the Tesla Wireless Charging Platform. I’m sure Elon thought it was mighty  cool to stick this many transmitting   coils across the pad but if our earlier  tests prove anything it’s that every   single one of these coils will be  out of alignment with your device. This results in extended charging  times and a toasty battery,   very similar in profile to what we saw  with the misaligned AmazonBasics charger. And the data proves it. No matter  how you place your phone on the Tesla   Wireless Charging Platform, you’ll  experience extended charge times,   higher energy consumption, and  higher device temperatures. The Tesla charger caused our device battery to hit   40C for extended periods and remained  in the high 30’s throughout our tests. The 2020 pandemic fueled a 37  % increase in wireless charger   purchases globally. That same year, the  wireless market was valued at $12.7B and   estimates suggest that the market will grow  to $185B by 2030 across all categories. Is the convenience of not dealing with cables  worth this hidden environmental cost? Yes or no,   wireless charging is here to stay. Just  remember, efficiency varies widely among   different chargers. If you're going wireless,  choose wisely. Look for Qi2 and MagSafe-certified   devices for the least waste and consider the  environmental impact before going wireless. For more information about  how we conducted our tests,   be sure to check our blog post  linked in the description. If you enjoyed this video then  let us know by hitting the like   and subscribe buttons so we can make more like it.

Channel: iFixit

Views: 514,947

Keywords: Wireless Charging, Tesla wireless charging platform, iFixit, News, Wired charging, smartphones, chargers, battery degradation, GaN chargers, battery temperature, misaligned coils, wireless EV, Apple’s MagSafe, Qi2 wireless charger, magnetic coils, AmazonBasics wireless charger, wireless charger any phone, wireless charging explained, wireless chargers

Id: vhKVuT8-H1g

Length: 4min 46sec (286 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 18 2024