Phone as Hot Spot

A friend of ours used a Motorola Razr for HotSpot for years. After his firs Razr's battery swelled, he started to run you a electric outlet timer that he plugged the wall wart into. It was a simple mechanical time, which he set to shut off multiple times during the day, and then back on. (Don't recall what his pattern of time off/on were.) And he never had a problem with batteries again.

Might be worth a shot to see if that works for you.

Best of luck,
Smitty

I like that little router

The battery can not be removed from the ZTE R2 (at least not easily). I have had the R2 since June and the only time it's not charging is when it's in my pocket. So far no problems.

You might be able v to remove the battery
Then power it directly from usb power without harming the battery

Our Visible ZTE R2 is USB tethered to a Pepwave router, so it's always connected to a charging source. It cannot be disconnected without losing Internet service to multiple devices.

Don't leave it charging 24/7
I ruined one that way.
I used it as a hotspot all summer at the cottage.
As it was explained to me. The phone will stop charging at 100% but it always sips away using background app like wifi, blue tooth etc. The battery drops to 99% so it charges up again.
If it does that for hours on end it will heat up and deteriorate. Mine swelled up so much it popped off the back cover.

I’d recommend the timer option too.

Different hot spot but I left ours charging 24/7. Battery did the hot/ swollen almost caught fire thing after only 10 months. Also had it hacked, it appears, as average usage jumped from 15-20 GB per month to over 60 GB quite suddenly. Roomba suddenly started speaking what sounds like Italian and is no longer capable of connecting to the iPad. So, yeah, timer, or even better, turn it on only when you need it and off if you aren’t using it.

If you are charging from a 120 volt source get a cheap timer from a Dollar store. Figure out how long to charge each day, never going below 20% and never above 90% full. The battery bank may last a lot longer that way.

Yes.