This Old Power Bank Habit Is Quietly Killing Your Backup Battery, Experts Warn

The way you store it matters more than how you use it.

You toss it in a drawer fully drained, forget about it for months, then reach for it during an emergency only to find it barely holds a charge anymore. That drawer is where power banks quietly go to die.

Leaving one totally empty for a long stretch can push its cells into a deep sleep they never fully wake up from, permanently shrinking how much they can store.

The trick is to leave it sitting around the halfway mark before long storage, and to give it a short top-up every couple of months even if you're not using it.

Keep it out of a hot car or a sunny windowsill too, since heat is just as brutal on the cells. Treat it kindly and it'll actually be there when the lights go out.