Could cleaning your charging cable/phone with ethanol damage your battery?

Hi, I have a severe case of OCD, and regularly clean my phone and charger using ethanol. Sometimes, my phone and charging cable do get a bit... soaked... I unfortunately cannot help it, but recently I've noticed that my battery health dropped to 98% in 170 cycles. Due to my OCD I get really paranoid and anxious about damaging my electronics. I was wondering, could my habits of deep cleaning my braided charging cable with ethanol have damaged it in a way that would make it damage my battery? I try not to get any moisture inside the actual connector but the plastic casing and braided cable get pretty wet. Also, sometimes small amouts do collect around the actual phones charging port and mute switch, but I haven't had any major issues and have been doing this since i got this phone, because again I unfortunately suffer from extremely debilitating OCD. Only recently has my battery health started dropping and my phone started heating up when charging sometimes. Any thoughts? I also tend to use my phone from 100 to like 2-1% sometimes because I'll just use it for the entire day since I'm generally a lighter phone user nowadays so it lasts me from the early morning till right when im about to sleep, sometimes even a day and a half so i just havent ever really kept it above 20% and charge it at 15-5%. Also its an iphone 15, base 256gb model, thank you for your time if youve read this far! :)

iPhone 15, iOS 18

Posted on Jan 8, 2025 05:57 PM

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2 replies

Jan 8, 2025 06:07 PM in response to justromanus

No you can't damage your battery by cleaning the cable with alcohol but you probably destroyed the glue that holds the phone together and makes it water resistant. And if any alcohol leaks inside the phone, yes that could cause catastrophic failure, please stop doing this immediately.

Apple recommends cleaning the phone with a cloth dampened with water, I would highly recommend sticking with this advice.


Batteries degrade over time with usage due to chemical aging.

You can expect about a 1% drop per month with average use on an iPhone. This is an approximation, that is why it may be plus or minus a few percent on a month to month basis.

Apple recommends replacing it when it reaches 80%. To check your battery health, go to Settings > Battery > Battery Health.


Jan 8, 2025 06:05 PM in response to justromanus

You usage and battery health seem fine for now. But in the long run, it’s not a best practice to run your battery so low. Current best practice is to generally avoid discharging your battery below 20% on a regular basis.


Ethanol is a very poor choice for cleaning a braided cable. It could damage the cable and in theory damage your iPhone. Discontinue using ethanol.

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Could cleaning your charging cable/phone with ethanol damage your battery?

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