You may have heard that you can use a charger with a lower amperage than the original without any problem.
Or if you have lost or broke the original charger that came with the device now the charger you are using supplies a bit low amps than the original.
Now you are wondering is it okay for me to use it or if it will damage the device in some way?
The answer is:
You can use a charger with a lower amperage than the original, but you should avoid using it regularly or on daily basis. It can be quite damaging to the battery and might as well on the power supply.
In this blog post, we’ll discuss further discuss why you avoid using a low amp charger and some disadvantages of using one.
Is it OK to use low amps?
Yes you can use low amps if you want to it will charge the phone However, this doesn’t mean that it’s a good idea to do so.
For example, if your phone came with a charger that has an output of five volts and one amp, you can use a charger that has an output of five volts and 0.75 amps without any problem.
But if think about it you are basically supplying your phone with low power then it needs to function properly not only that it will also damage your phone’s battery in the long run.
Disadvantages of Using low amperage
Now let’s see what are some of the disadvantages of using low amps charger and why you should avoid it.
1-Slow charging
When you use a lower amperage charger, it will take longer to charge your device. This is because the lower the amperage, the less power is being supplied to your device which means it will take more time to charge.
It will take forever to charge your device or in some cases, the device might not charge at all if you are using it while charging. This is the most obvious disadvantage,
If you are using lower amps charger then it will obviously take more time to charge your device as compared to the original charger.
And we all know that no one likes to wait for their devices to charge.
2-Battery damage
Another disadvantage of using a lower amperage charger is that it can damage your battery in the long run.
When you use a lower amperage charger, it will take longer to charge your device.
It can cause the phone to heat up because it is not getting the maximum power it needs especially if you are using it while charging. It can also cause the charger to heat up too.
So if you want your battery to last longer, avoid using lower amperage chargers.
3-Touch problem
If you are using your phone while charging and it is not responsive or it is going crazy low amps might be the cause of it.
In most cases, this is more likely to happen when the voltage is different but supplying low power to the phone along using it can cause this too.
The reason behind this is that having a low amperage charger connected causes the digitizer of the phone to take less electrical current because the battery will be taking most of it,
That’s also because of some static electricity problems caused by having an electrical flow from the wires to the battery which makes the digitizer lost.
4-Stress on the power supply
Your phone pulls the amount of amperage it needs from the charger so if you use a low amp charger with your device, it puts a lot of stress on the power supply.
This can cause the power supply to heat up and in some cases, it can even damage it. So if you want to prevent your charger from heating up, avoid using lower amperage chargers on regular basis.
Will too little amperage hurt a device?
Yes, even low amperage can be a bit bad but if the amps are too low then it will hurt the phone badly and it might not get charged at all even after being plugged in for hours.
As you can see there are some disadvantages of using a lower amps charger and it’s not a good idea to use one on regular basis.
But if you lost or broke your original charger and the only thing you have is a lower amps charger, then it’s better to use that than not charging your device at all.
Just remember to avoid using it on regular basis or you will damage your device in the long run.
Using lower amperage on laptop:
Just like with phones, you can use lower amperage on laptops. But it’s not a good idea to do so and you should avoid it if possible.
A laptop requires more amp than lower-powered devices like mobiles. So using a charger with a lower amp is more damaging for a laptop than it is for the phone since a lot of people use their laptops while charging.
You may get lucky and nothing bad happens, but considering the relatively low cost of the charger versus a laptop repair or a fire from the charger, It’s not worth the risk, just get the right charger for your laptop.
Conclusion:
As you can see, there are some disadvantages to using a lower amperage charger. It is slow and can damage your battery.
The only condition you can use is when you are not using the device and the temperature isn’t too hot.
So unless you absolutely have to, try to avoid using one. If you do use one, just be sure not to use it regularly or on a long-term basis.