You've been charging your smartphone wrong (AAPL)

iPhone X wireless charging

Do you know how to keep your smartphone's battery healthy?

Probably not. In fact, you've probably been hastening the death of your phone's battery with your charging habits.

Charging to 100%? Charging overnight? Fully discharging before plugging in? All these common practices can shorten the usable life of your battery, according to Cadex, a company that offers devices that test smartphone and other batteries.

Just how to best extend the life of batteries has been a prime topic recently, since Apple disclosed that it was slowing down iPhones with degraded batteries so the devices don't shut down unexpectedly.

Cadex offers a lot of information about batteries on its Battery University website. Among the things it discusses is lithium-ion batteries – the type that powers smartphones. It turns out — if you're interested in delaying having to replace your battery or buy a new phone — there are specific percentage charge levels within which you should keep your phone's battery.

Check out how and how not to charge your phone:

The best way to charge your phone is a little at a time, whenever you have a chance.

Just plug it in whenever you can, even if it's for a few minutes, and you'll be fine.

"Partial charges cause no harm," according to Battery University.

Don't fully discharge your phone before plugging it in.

Battery University says that so-called deep discharges – which happen when you use your phone until only a small portion of its battery life is left — wear down batteries.

Samsung echoes that advice in a blog post of its own that offers tips on how to extend your phone's battery life.

Try to keep your battery's charge level between 65% and 75%.

According to Battery University, the lithium-ion batteries inside your smartphones will have the longest lifespan if they're kept between 65% and 75% charged at all times.

It's clearly impractical to always keep your phone charge between those levels, but at least you know what's ideal!

See the rest of the story at Business Insider