I No Longer Leave My Phone in the Kitchen — Here’s Why

Published Mar 10, 2026, 12:31 PM EDT

Chris Hachey is a contributor for MakeUseOf with years of experience covering consumer tech. He has been published on XDA-developers.com, Pocket-lint.com, BGR.com, and other tech sites. He is passionate about finding great deals on tech, testing out new consumer electronics, and sharing his insights into smart home devices.

From Bluetooth speakers and earbuds to 2-in-1 laptops, Chris has tested hundreds of products to provide his audience with real analysis on how well something works. When he's not looking for the latest and greatest in tech, he's probably spending too much time on his phone, playing with his dog or daughter, or watching his favorite sports teams. Follow him on X @hach_tag 
MuckRack

How often have you seen a video on social media of a meal or recipe that looked amazing and you buy the ingredients to make it at home as soon as possible? If you're like many people these days, this can become a weekly occurrence. As you're getting everything together to make it, you probably are putting your phone on your kitchen countertop to refer to whenever you want to check the recipe or remind yourself what the next step is.

While it is a helpful tool to have while you're cooking or baking, it could also be slowly killing your phone. Yes, somehow, you wanting to look back at this video to remember the next step is bad for your phone. It isn't the app you're using and it isn't the fact that you're watching a video either. It's the fact that you've placed your phone on your kitchen counter that's causing the damage.

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The kitchen is a dangerous place for your phone

This isn't just an oversimplification

You're stirring ingredients in a pan and you're checking your phone to see how long to do so. Keeping your phone near the stove while you're stirring can have serious consequences for your device.

Because it's near the stove, it's close to a heat source. Phones generate their own heat, especially while you're looking at a website or using an app. This is expounded when you're fast charging your phone or using intensive apps, like ones for gaming. So, if you have your phone on a fast charger and you're using it at the same time, the battery could reach a temperature of up to 113ºF.

Now, you're probably not gaming next to the stove, but you certainly could be charging your phone while looking at your recipe. Your phone's lithium-based battery, as nearly all phones these days have either lithium-ion or lithium-polymer batteries, wears at a faster rate when it's performing higher-intensity activities.

While you may want to reference the recipe or even take a picture of what you're making to document it for future cooking sessions or just brag about it to your friends on social media, keeping the phone on a dirty countertop can be detrimental.

But adding a heating source near it will cause the battery to degrade faster as well. Is this going to happen after one use? It's not likely. But if it's something that you do frequently, leaving your phone near a stove each day as you're cooking, it can cause a faster degradation of your battery.

Make sure to clean up after yourself

There are other elements at play in the kitchen

While you're cooking or baking, your phone might be right next to the ingredients that you're cooking with. While you may want to reference the recipe or even take a picture of what you're making to document it for future cooking sessions or just brag about it to your friends on social media, keeping the phone on a dirty countertop can be detrimental.

Spills are an obvious worry, as liquid can potentially damage the battery and phone itself. The last thing you want to do is have to put the phone in rice to dry it out because you accidentally spilled water all over it while having it on the island. But this is a common kitchen occurrence, as I've had to pick my phone up as liquid spilled toward it or had to dust my phone off after getting flour all over it. Spills can also cause whatever they spill on to smell weird as well, so trying to clean up as quickly as possible is smart.

Little bits of food and grime can also find their way into the charging ports and speaker holes of your phone, limiting their capabilities. Residue and grease can make your screen harder to use and even more difficult to clean. Smearing oil while trying to swipe up and down isn't ideal. Accidentally spilling syrup on it because you didn't organize your pantry well enough is even worse.

Buildup after contamination will wear your phone down. This also goes for anyone who might be thinking of looking at their phone after eating buffalo wings. Cleaning up your kitchen space right away can help save your phone.

Steam can get to the inner components

Avoid keeping it too close to the stove

Another aspect of having the phone on the kitchen counter that could hurt it is steam and moisture. Whether you're boiling water in a pot or in a kettle, that moisture and steam can be released. While heat rises, if it happens to be trapped by something, it can leave behind condensation which can erode your phone over time.

We have an electric kettle on a side countertop in my kitchen. It's underneath a set of cabinets, so if I don't have the spout of the electric kettle pointed outward toward the middle of the room, the steam that's produced when the water boils and gets trapped by the underneath of the cabinets. This redirects the steam and it can make its way back down.

While having your phone exposed to steam and moisture briefly one or two times might not affect the phone much, persistent occurrences will begin to damage the phone. This article is more to highlight a potential issue if you aren't thinking about it.

Think about where you're putting your phone in the kitchen

Because of all that goes on in the kitchen, a countertop can actually be a dangerous place for your phone to rest. The phone can be exposed to heat, moisture, steam, as well as food residue, all of which can potentially harm the phone. Your phone's battery may not be on the top of your mind at all times. But exposing it to the wrong kinds of environments can have damaging effects. It's important to be cognizant of your phone's surroundings if you want it to be by your side for the long haul.