Wireless charging essentially useless in the summer?

[bro1999]

So I have a Pixel 6 and have charged it wirelessly in my Model 3 using the factory wireless charging pad. However, once the summer temps have kicked in, I've noticed that I usually get very little charge when using the car's wireless charging pad. I think my phone heats up to the point it stops charging and basically all the wireless charging pad does is heat up my phone even more. Even if I stick my phone in in the HVAC slot to cool down for a while, if I place it back on the wireless pad later it eventually heats up to the point it wont' charge pretty quickly.

So is the wireless charging pad more or less useless in the summer or what? I use the USB-C port to charge my phone most of the time now.

 

[jmaddr]

I have the same experience with my iPhone and I’m even using the official MagSafe charging puck (I have a 19 which didn’t have wireless charging).

 

[Jeremy3292]

I've never heard of this. Your car cabin would be room temperature around 72 degrees unless you just don't use AC so your phone nor the charging pad should be excessively hot. Also if you have a big case on it, wireless charging isn't really for you anyways.

 

[PhilCaps]

Yeah the wireless charger is unreliable and slow that I don't even bother using it with my pixel 5

 

[tone228]

Charges so slow and my phone gets very hot its not worth it. Can't be good for the phone's battery health.

 

[bro1999]

Charges so slow and my phone gets very hot its not worth it. Can't be good for the phone's battery health.

Like it'll charge fine for a little bit, but soon after it's overheated and stops charging. Then the wireless charging pad just keeps heating up the phone with 0 charging happening. I mean almost useless.

 

[decarteret]

It's completely worthless with endless overheating and zero charging with both my Pixel 5 and my Pixel 6 Pro. I've been trying to find any information pointing to any phone that reliably works with the factory charging pad so I can purchase and use that phone. Otherwise, I'm considering unplugging the charging pad to use solely as a holder that won't melt my battery!

 

[PhilCaps]

I have a feeling it's optimized for iphones.

 

[Jo060]

I charge my Galaxy S21 without any issues to include in the Florida heat. My phone charges very quickly without excessive heat.

Maybe it's an issues with the Google phone since a few of you mentioned the same issue with a Google phone.

 

[Lindenwood]

I use the wireless pad exclusively for my IPhone 13 Pro Max. I don’t experience any heat issues and I gain very roughly 30% battery per hour. It isn’t quick charging, but the battery life is so great on this phone it has always been more than enough.

 

[RCM11]

No heat issues and charges quickly enough on iPhone 13 Pro. Charges my AirPod Pro case fine, too. No heat, fast enough rate of charge.

 

[frodebh]

I have a feeling it's optimized for iphones.

Not for the 12 mini. Probably because its too short to properly align with the charging coil (coils?). Sometimes, maybe, I get the charge starting chime but all that happens is the phone gets hot.
I pull a charging cable from the back to avoid keeping the centre console ajar. Less than great.

 

[decarteret]

For a number of reasons including this charging issue, I decided to replace my Pixel 6 Pro with a Galaxy S22 and am so happy to say it charges perfectly! Thanks for the feedback @Jo060 and everybody else.

 

[Jo060]

For a number of reasons including this charging issue, I decided to replace my Pixel 6 Pro with a Galaxy S22 and am so happy to say it charges perfectly! Thanks for the feedback @Jo060 and everybody else.

Glad it worked out!

 

[RG129]

I have a Galaxy S21 and wireless charging is very inconsistent and unreliable. I don't think it depends on the hot summer days as I've noticed slow charging in the mornings in San Francisco when it's quite cold. My commute is about 45 minutes and I'll leave in the morning with my phone with anywhere between 60-80% charge. When I get to work, sometimes it has not increased in SoC at all, sometimes I get 10% more during the commute and sometimes I get to work and it charges fully. I am listening to YouTube Music through bluetooth the whole time and that can't be the drain since I can go on an hour long run and the battery will on drop 5%.

If I'm desperate for my phone to charge, I just use a USB-C cable that I leave in the center console...

 

[stopcrazypp]

This likely has to do with charging coil locations being different.

Pixel 6 is offset the side and near center of phone, phone height is 6.2"

Pixel 6 Pro is less offset, but phone height is 6.5"

S22 instead has it positioned lower and phone itself is shorter at 5.75"

13 Max (6.33" tall) and Pro (5.78") here:

It seems shorter phones that have it lower does better with Tesla's pad. If the coil on your phone is not in the center, sometimes rotating it so phone is upside down (if coil near top) or sideways (although then the divider in middle may block the way) may help. If your device is significantly shorter (like 12 mini at 5.18") there are some spacers sold that can add height to align with coils.

I'm not sure how accurate this is, but from this silicone pad, the coils in the Model 3 appear to be lower:

So if you have a really tall phone with coil positioned higher up in the phone, it may be completely misaligned.

The Model 3 was launched in 2018 although refresh was later, it may have carried on the older pad's design, so the popular phone of that era is a iPhone X (5.65" tall) with charging pad in the middle. That would suggest center point around 2.825". Couldn't find teardown however to confirm.

Again, I have mentioned this in other thread, but I wish phone makers and charger makers would put some indicator on their devices where the center of the coil is so that there is a reference point for alignment.

 

[philly4]

I have a Galaxy S21 and wireless charging is very inconsistent and unreliable. I don't think it depends on the hot summer days as I've noticed slow charging in the mornings in San Francisco when it's quite cold. My commute is about 45 minutes and I'll leave in the morning with my phone with anywhere between 60-80% charge. When I get to work, sometimes it has not increased in SoC at all, sometimes I get 10% more during the commute and sometimes I get to work and it charges fully. I am listening to YouTube Music through bluetooth the whole time and that can't be the drain since I can go on an hour long run and the battery will on drop 5%.

If I'm desperate for my phone to charge, I just use a USB-C cable that I leave in the center console...

My S21 and my wife's S20 FE both have always charged flawlessly...even in the summer...it's consistently 96-105 here in the summer.

 

[Lindenwood]

Not for the 12 mini. Probably because its too short to properly align with the charging coil (coils?). Sometimes, maybe, I get the charge starting chime but all that happens is the phone gets hot.
I pull a charging cable from the back to avoid keeping the centre console ajar. Less than great.

My wife puts her 13 Mini upside down on the charging pad which works fine!

 

[SoTX_WestTX]

Just generally useless, all seasons, haha. I just got mine last week, but I quickly learned it's not powerful enough. I drove for 3 hours with my Pixel 3 playing over bluetooth and discovered my phone was like at 20% from 90% after about an hour and half. My podcast app uses a fair amount of juice to play at 1.5x speed, but it couldn't keep up at all.

I tried again today, tried flipping it upside down, and it basically still lost 1% per minute while connected BT and playing 1.5x. I plugged in to my 12v adapter and it added about 1% per minute while playing.

 

[Jo060]

Just generally useless, all seasons, haha. I just got mine last week, but I quickly learned it's not powerful enough. I drove for 3 hours with my Pixel 3 playing over bluetooth and discovered my phone was like at 20% from 90% after about an hour and half. My podcast app uses a fair amount of juice to play at 1.5x speed, but it couldn't keep up at all.

I tried again today, tried flipping it upside down, and it basically still lost 1% per minute while connected BT and playing 1.5x. I plugged in to my 12v adapter and it added about 1% per minute while playing.

Another pixel issue.