How to stop your phone from overheating in the car
Engadget · C · trust 21/100
A phone that's too hot can actually explode. Not great.
TannySolt/Shutterstock If you've ever finished a long drive, only to find your phone too toasty to touch when you fish it out of its mount, you've probably wondered what you did wrong. An overheating phone can be a serious issue. At best, it can be rough on the phone's internal components, or even cause the adhesive holding the screen and backplate to come apart (ask me how I know). At worst, an overheated battery can begin to experience thermal runaway — when the battery can no longer safely dissipate heat, leading to a dangerous thermochemical reaction or even an explosion — a phenomenon you may know as battery swelling, aka the dreaded "spicy pillow."
The simple fact is that cars are enclosed spaces made of metal that are exposed to environmental heat while on the road. They get hot easily, and anytime your legs are sticking to the vinyl, your smartphone is likely to be equally unhappy. Understanding how smartphones generate and manage heat will guide you toward the best solutions. There are a number of steps you can take to mitigate the risk of overheating.
We can divide these preventative measures into two categories: internal and external. That is, some cool the phone from the outside, while others reduce the amount of heat generated internally by the phone itself. Some of these tips may amount to nothing more than common sense, but there are others you may not have considered. Here's what you need to know.
Pattikky/Shutterstock Let's begin with how you can change the environment around your smartphone while driving in order to reduce the thermal demands upon it. The most common mistake most people make is to leave a phone in direct sunlight. This behavior is encouraged by accessories like dashboard mounts. There are few worse places for a smartphone than directly on your dashboard, where it sits fully exposed to sunshine through the windshield. Heat from the dashboard, especially if you're charging the phone simultaneously, leads easily to overheating.
If you must mount your phone in order to easily see navigation instructions or take calls, it's best not to charge it. If you wish, you can position the phone in front of an air vent. Running your A/C directly onto the back of the phone is like attaching an active air cooler to it, dissipating heat in much the same way as fans in a laptop or PC. Don't go too nuts, though. Cooling the phone too rapidly, especially in a humid area, can cause internal condensation inside the device, which can cause irreparable damage. Use just enough air to prevent overheating without forcing a rapid temperature change. The better move overall is to store your phone someplace out of the sun.
Most people keep their phone in a protective case . Cases tend to be made from plastic or silicone materials, which insulate the phone and prevent it from transferring heat away from its chassis. Removing your case while in the car can reduce the likelihood of overheating.
Additionally, don't leave your phone in the car any longer than you would a dog or a child. Bringing it with you when you exit the vehicle means it won't be left to overheat, and it can also prevent theft.
Hispanolistic/Getty Images Your phone doesn't heat up only due to the ambient temperature in its environment. It's producing plenty of heat on its own, and overheating occurs when it cannot effectively conduct that heat away from its internal components. Most phones nowadays have passive cooling systems like vapor chambers inside, but they're not always enough. There are things you can do to reduce the heat your phone produces, thereby lowering the odds it will overheat.
The best thing you can do when it's already hot is not to charge your phone in the car. Again, this behavior is encouraged by many car mounts, which often include wireless charging, especially since the advent of MagSafe. In general, charging your phone causes it to heat up (remember, heat is merely energy in motion), and wireless charging creates more heat than using a cable, since it is less efficient and leaks more energy in the form of heat. Heat from wireless charging, in combination with the heat of the dashboard, is a surefire way to cause overheating.
The best practice is to simply not use your phone in the car, as this ensures its CPU isn't cranking away. That's unrealistic for most people, though, as so many of us rely on our phones to provide directions and car tunes. The middle ground is to refrain from using on-screen navigation when driving familiar routes, and to keep the screen brightness as low as possible when you must use it. At the least, turn off features you're not using, such as Wi-Fi, and do not use your phone for CPU-intensive tasks like video editing or gaming.
If you notice your phone overheating, your immediate priority should be to turn it off and remove it from direct sunlight.
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