Archived thread 1002781 from The Cafe. Markdown source: The_Cafe/thread_1002781_Care_of_Laptop_Battery.md
Hi guys, I was wondering...How do you take proper care of your laptop battery?
=> Is it O.K to leave the laptop on A/C all the while? Does doing that ruin the battery?
=> Or should I remove the battery & run the laptop on power if I am using it for extended periods of time? Like if I am running a download all night for many nights together...
=> Finally, is it ideal to charge completely, then run the laptop on battery power until it drains & then charge it again?
Thanx
The AC adapter shouldn't be plugged for too long. A couple days doesn't matter though, I think.
I usually drop the battery down to 15% before I recharge. If I drain it completely I'll kill it slowly.
The first time you are using the battery, however, you should drain it completely.
From what I've been told its best to take the battery out when using the power supply. I also read somewhere on the Internet that putting a battery in your fridge can also extend its life. Don't hold me to that though ;)
Yes, keep the battery in the fridge if you're not planning to use it for a longer while. 2 degree Celsius is optimal temperature for storing a laptop battery. Take it out at least 24 hours before using it, though. You should store your battery at 40 % charge, that is even more important that the temperature. There's lots of information about this if you search a bit. Google is your friend ;)
sharathpaps said: Hi guys,
I was wondering...How do you take proper care of your laptop battery?
=> Is it O.K to leave the laptop on A/C all the while? Does doing that ruin the battery?
No. Lithium batteries degrade when left at full charge constantly for a prolonged period of time. If storing the battery, it's best to store it between 40-80% full in a cool dark place. I don't generally recommend putting it in a fridge or freezer unless you plan on storing it for YEARS, and if doing so, put it in an airtight bag and let it fully return to room temperature before taking it out. Condensation can have some pretty bad consequences too.
=> Or should I remove the battery & run the laptop on power if I am using it for extended periods of time? Like if I am running a download all night for many nights together...
Yes, if you are using your laptop like this then i'd recommend removing the battery from the system. Another reason is the heat generated by your laptop will likely creep over around the battery, and heat is even worse for the battery than prolonged high charge.
=> Finally, is it ideal to charge completely, then run the laptop on battery power until it drains & then charge it again?
No, it's bad for lithium-ion and lithium-polymer batteries to be deeply discharged. Li-Poly is a bit more resistant to damage from this use case, but nonetheless I don't recommend discharging your battery more than you need for using it. These battery chemistries are designed to be charged whenever you want for however you'd like.
If you remove the laptop from AC power several times/week and drain ~50%, but it spends most of its time on AC power, is this detrimental to battery life? Or would it be better to remove the battery most time on AC?
igknighted said: If you remove the laptop from AC power several times/week and drain ~50%, but it spends most of its time on AC power, is this detrimental to battery life? Or would it be better to remove the battery most time on AC?
If you regularly use the battery such as you stated, this is okay as long as the battery in your resting position doesn't get hot from the CPU and other heat-generating components in your system (use a laptop cooler if necessary)
Thanks for your input guys...:D
Speaking of laptop coolers, I'm a pretty big fan (sorry, no pun intended!) of Antec's range. Just FYI...
There is some misinformation here, but most of it is close to correct. Wikipedia has excellent articles on this topic
Taking care of your laptop battery depends on what kind of battery is in your laptop in the first place.
From time of manufacturing, regardless of whether it was charged or the number of charge/discharge cycles, the battery will decline slowly and predictably in "capacity".
also
At a 100% charge level, a typical Li-ion laptop battery that is full most of the time at 25 °C or 77 °F will irreversibly lose approximately 20% capacity per year. However, a battery in a poorly ventilated laptop may be subject to a prolonged exposure to much higher temperatures, which will significantly shorten its life. Different storage temperatures produce different loss results: 6% loss at 0 °C (32 °F), 20% at 25 °C (77 °F), and 35% at 40 °C (104 °F). When stored at 40%–60% charge level, the capacity loss is reduced to 2%, 4%, 15% at 0, 25 and 40 degrees Celsius respectively.
There is no real maintenance for this battery, it's going to degrade one way or the other. In my opinion you might as well just leave it in your laptop, because it's going to degrade one way or the other, and you might as well have it ready when you need it. Also, your battery will help prevent data loss in the event of a power outage. If you have a spare, keep it 40-60% charged and in your freezer.
NiCd and NiMH batteries are much more complex. But it's important to know that the life of the battery is determined by the number of charges and discharges as well as time. These are the types of batteries that need to be conditioned about once a month, and like it if you discharge them completely.
Fortunately, most new computers have lithium ion batteries.
Thelasko said:
NiCd and NiMH batteries are much more complex. But it's important to know that the life of the battery is determined by the number of charges and discharges as well as time. These are the types of batteries that need to be conditioned about once a month, and like it if you discharge them completely.
Actually, NIMH doesn't entirely like it if you discharge it completely. In particular, low-current loads such as a portable music player or a LED flashlight that take 1.2V NIMH cells below 0.90V is very damaging to these cells; in flashlight review communities everyone dreads using their premium high-capacity NIMH AA's to perform low-output-level extended runtime tests because after a couple deep discharge cycles, the battery's capacity is permanently diminished.
Good NIMH chargers with a cycling mode for restoring lost capacity are usually voltage or delta-voltage controlled for both the discharge and charge cycle respectively to make sure they do not excessively discharge or recharge the cell.
NiCd is a lot more tolerant to deep discharge workloads but is a lot less tolerant to partial-charge workloads.