The Oculus Quest 2, while being a technological marvel in its own right, does suffer from a few limitations. One of these is the rechargeable battery. Charging it during the day can be pretty troublesome, but what about the night?
In this article I’m going to be talking about whether you can leave your Oculus Quest 2 charging overnight.
The short answer here is yes, you can leave the Oculus Quest 2 charging overnight. The headset has protective mechanisms to prevent the battery pack from overcharging and causing any serious damage. However, if you often leave your headset charging for extended periods, you risk reducing the battery life over a longer time span. This is also why Oculus officially recommends that you unplug the charger once the battery is full.
Let’s talk a little more about the battery used in the Quest 2 ways you can optimize your charging process even if you plan to leave the headset charging overnight.
Do This If You Plan to Leave Your Quest 2 Charging Overnight
The Oculus Quest 2 comes with a built-in 3640 mAh rechargeable lithium ion battery pack. It’s the same type of battery that is also widely used in modern smartphones.
The main reason why it is not recommended to leave smartphones (and also the Quest 2) charging overnight is that they will still be consuming energy while charging. This results in a cycle where the battery is charged to 100% and then new juice is pulled to the battery every time it falls to 99%. This will affect the battery life when done regularly.
With the Oculus Quest 2 specifically, it will be using the most energy when in active use. Many people like to leave their headset in sleep mode, but the thing to keep in mind here is that it will still be draining the battery in this case. To reduce the battery usage to absolute minimum, you have to turn the headset off.
For this reason, to avoid unnecessary power consumption when charging your Quest 2 overnight, do not leave your headset in sleep mode and turn it off instead before plugging in the charger. This will result in fewer short charging cycles that will be beneficial to your headset`s battery life.
This is what I personally always do when I leave my Quest 2 charging for an extended period and I kindly recommend you do the same.
Can You Overcharge the Quest 2?
Overcharging was quite a cause for concern back in the day. In fact, many people still are worried about overcharging their gadgets.
The truth is that you can not overcharge the Oculus Quest 2. The Lithium-ion battery packs used in the Quest 2 have a protection mechanism to prevent overcharging and they will only take in charge they can actually accept.
Lithium-ion batteries are a safe and mature technology and the scenario for an explosion type situation is highly improbable and not something you should realistically worry about.
The biggest concern with regularly leaving your Quest 2 plugged in for extended periods (and probably the reason Oculus doesn’t recommend doing so) is that it speeds up the aging of your battery. This is more of a technological limitation of our time, and less of a deliberate scheme by companies to keep you coming back for new products.
Worst case scenario? You have to keep your beloved headset plugged into a power source to use it for more than an hour or two.
Still, it’s worth noting that any real damage to the battery’s capacity doesn’t happen in a few weeks, or even months.
ADDITIONAL READING:
* Troubleshooting Quest 2 Charging Issues (Complete Guide)
* Oculus Quest 2 Charging FAQ (7 Questions Answered)
* Can You Use Quest 2 While Charging?
What Else Can You Do About It?
I’ll admit, not all of us have the time to charge the headset during the day, check the status, and then unplug it. It starts to feel worse when you realize you want to be around your headset when it’s time to dive into an immersive virtual reality experience, not to keep checking the battery.
So, is there a solution? Yes. Is it for everyone? Not exactly.
What I’m talking about here is the Anker Charging Dock that you can order from Amazon. Still, the bigger problem with the Anker Charging Dock is the availability as it is very often sold out.
Why all the hype? The Anker Charging Dock not only supports the entire Oculus Quest 2 setup to charge the headset and both controllers simultaneously, but it also cuts off power to the headset once it’s fully charged. Just like that, you prevent excessive aging of the battery, and get a fully charged VR experience at all times!
If however, your real problem is with making the battery last longer, you could alternatively opt for purchasing a portable battery pack that will be able to significantly extend your gaming sessions.
To sum up, charging your Oculus Quest 2 overnight is not dangerous, but you risk reducing the battery life if you do it reguarly over a prolonged period. To alleviate the battery life issue, turn your headset off before leaving it charging for the night.
HARDWARE USED FOR TESTING AND WRITING THE ARTICLES:
* Meta Quest 2 (My “daily driver” headset, which I absolutely love & recommend)
* Lenovo Legion 5 Pro (AMD Ryzen 5 5600H, Nvidia Geforce RTX 3060, 16GB RAM)
* TP-Link Archer C6 (budget dedicated router for Air Link, see my full setup tutorial)
ESSENTIAL QUEST 2 COMFORT ACCESSORIES:
* VR Cover Foam Replacement (one of the easiest & cheapest ways to improve headset comfort)
* BoboVR M2 Head Strap (reduce pressure on your head and improve the overall fit of the headset)
