I read the same thing you read in the instructions, but was assured by more experienced users that just the controller is fine. That is the way I have charged ever since with no issues. I will mention this....The first pair I got took over 12 hours to charge form about 30% to 100%. Almost 3 times the 5 hours the instructions stated. When I started using them, after about a half hour, the controller go very HOT! I got pixelization in the video while recording. Turning off video caching seemed to help, but I still got it pretty bad. Especially when moving the cursor with the touchpad. I suspect my unit had a battery issue, so I'm sending them back for replacement. Should have the new ones tomorrow.