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VERIFY: Can the cold drain your battery and permanently damage your smartphone?

Can the cold drain your battery and permanently damage your smartphone?
<p>It's OK to let your phone run down to zero battery once in a while. (Photo: Blackzheep, Getty Images/iStockphoto)</p>

QUESTION:

Can the cold drain your battery and permanently damage your smartphone?

ANSWER:

Yes it can. Watch out for temps below freezing can drain your battery by 20 percent, colder than that is even worse.

SOURCES:

Battery Store

Phone Repair Shop

Apple, Inc.

PROCESS:

Yet another dip in the thermometer overnight, with freezing temps and snow dusted roads.

We've all heard that extreme summer heat is poison to our phone and electronic batteries--but how about the cold. We're here to Verify.

We cross checked with an expert from a local battery store, a phone repair shop and Apple, who all say, cold is just as catastrophic as heat for those puny batteries in your phone.

Anything below 32 degrees is going to start sucking the life our of your phone.That's because the extreme cold causes a chemicals in your phones Lithium Ion battery to slow down.

Below the freezing mark, your phone can lose 20 percent of its battery, and it will only get worse the colder it gets.

"It's all about the batteries that phones in general use and laptops," Erik Kiltch, Manager at Computer Guild said. "One thing I always tell people is never leave your laptop in your car in freezing weather. You could ruin your battery."

Experts also all agree that if your phone gets way too cold for too long, you might be in for permanent battery damage. Meaning, it might have a harder time holding a charge from now on.

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