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Does the iPhone's Battery Life Cut Your Winter Workouts Short?
Never Worry About Having An Outdoor Training Session Interrupted Again...No Matter How Cold It Is
Today I'm going to show you how a simple device saved my winter workouts and improved my iPhone's battery life by five times in freezing temperatures.
As a result, shorten battery life no longer interrupts my winter workout sessions.
In this short article, I'll show you exactly how I fixed the problem.
Call me crazy, but I like to exercise outside even when it's cold. And getting out and moving around means even more to me now with all the pandemic-related restrictions. Though the sun doesn't shine much here in Ohio, the fresh air does wonders for my spirit.
Like many fitness goers, I use a fitness app when I work out. It's call TriadXP. It's a free app with workouts you download from TriadXP.com. It provides audiovisual guidance for a range of anaerobic and aerobic programs, plus it tracks my time, reps, distance, and any load I add.
Needless to say, my phone is exposed to the elements during my winter workouts, tracking my performance as I go along.
In December, I began to notice my battery was running down a bit more than usual when I was outside. In January, the battery drain became even more apparent. Until, one day, with the temperature around 6-degrees and sleet coming down like crazy, my phone screen went black right in the middle of my workout.
Fortunately, my phone was back to normal once I got back into a warm house and connected it to a power source. But the real surprise was the iPhone's battery dropped from 81% to 7% instantly without any warning in the middle of my workout.
It wasn't until my business partner pointed me to an Apple support page did I learn why. The page states that "Low- or high-temperature conditions might cause the device to change its behavior to regulate its temperature." It also states that "Using an iOS device in very cold conditions outside of its operating range might temporarily shorten battery life." Apple then goes on to say that very cold temperatures "could cause the device to turn off."
How to Keep Your iPhone Warm During Bone-Chilling Winter Workouts
After doing some research, it appears that stashing your phone inside a pocket close to your body, where it can absorb some of your body heat, can help keep your phone warm during a frigid winter workout. However, while most of my TriadXP workouts track my activities for me, there are times when I need to enter my reps or resistance or interact with my phone. So for me, leaving my phone in my pocket wasn't an option.
Next, I started to search for a case to keep my phone warm. Like most things, there are several options, from cases mostly built to regulate a phone's temperature in extreme situations to a dapper-looking Salt Case that claims it refracts the heat given off by the device back to the phone to keep it warm in winter weather.
Ultimately, I settled on the KAHITE USB Heated Mobile Phone Arm Pack. It's suitable for most 4- to 7-inch screen phones.
The pack provides double-sided heating to keep the inside phone bag 25°C and turn the bag's backside into a hand warmer. It has a large transparent window on the pack's face that allows you to perform touch functions without removing the phone from the pouch. You can also take a self-portrait picture through the window, but you have to unzip the pack to expose and use the phone's backside camera.
One thing to note is that the pack does not include a power pack or power brick. So, if you don't have one, you'll need to get one. I went ahead and purchased a Miisso External Portable Battery Charger 10000mAh Power Bank (5V 2.1A). It's extra thin and fits nicely inside the Heated Arm Pack.
I purchased both products from Amazon. The Heated Arm Pack was US$16.99, and the Battery Charger was US$16.19.
The heat pack and charger did the job for me.
When I performed the same TriadXP workout outside with my phone in the heated pack, my battery had 77% life left when I finished my routine in 16° F temperatures. During the entire workout, I had the case exposed to the elements. The battery's performance dramatically improved from shutting down or draining down to 15% on 20° F days without the heated pack.
I also found the touch screen to work very well. I had no trouble tapping in my reps or interacting with the phone's screen through the pack's transparent window. More importantly, the heated arm pack, the battery charger, and my iPhone were light, and because they are all contained in the heated pack, they never interfered with my workout.
Now, you might be thinking that you don't need a heat pack for your winter workouts. But consistently exposing your phone to the cold, whether working out or otherwise, over time could worsen its battery life.
Go ahead, get moving outside. Make your phone comfortable with a heated case during your winter workouts, and never worry about having an outside training session interrupted again...no matter how cold it is out.
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