Best tips and tricks to keep notebook battery healthy

[ambroseg1 10]

Not sure if this has been asked before. What tips do you guys have for keeping my notebook battery healthy.

I personally never leave it plugged in and charging once its fully charged AND not in use. And once every 2-3 weeks use it on battery power till the battery runs out (7%) then recharge it to maximum.

[Guest]

The newer Lithium Ion batteries don't handle full discharging/recharging cycles as well, but they also don't have charging memory problems and more serious battery fatigue issues like the older batteries did. Charge cycle "wear" is what determines their life span, in much the same way as adding miles on your car's odometer. By discharging to 7% and then fully recharging the battery you are effectively reducing its life span. They can fluctuate between 50% to 100% charge with little minimal impact on the battery.

My M18x battery is about 2 years old and it still gives around 4:45 of run time on a complete charge versus 5:00-5:15 when it was brand new. It stays plugged in with a 100% charge and is never subjected to heavy draining/recharging activity more than 95% of the time. Dell/Alienware and other OEMs even have utilities that maximize battery health by only charging the battery between 50% and 100%. Dell/Alienware calls this "Desktop Mode" charging.

The best advice is to not burn too many calories on this. Simply leave it plugged in most of the time and just enjoy it. Only use the battery when you really need to and then for no longer than you need to before recharging it. The less charge depletion and recharging activity you can subject the battery to the better it is for durability.

[JoeyVanRijn 10]

On my university a few students always remove their battery while their laptop is plugged in. Their reason is 'it's unhealthy to charge and use the computer at the same time'. I always wonderded, how much of that is true, after all I can't imagine that their the battery management systems of laptops are not smart to power the pc directly when the battery is fully charged.

[BAKED 211]

On my university a few students always remove their battery while their laptop is plugged in. Their reason is 'it's unhealthy to charge and use the computer at the same time'. I always wonderded, how much of that is true, after all I can't imagine that their the battery management systems of laptops are not smart to power the pc directly when the battery is fully charged.

I think Mr. Fox already explained it. If you are using an older laptop this might be the case but this doesn't apply to new systems and batteries, and it doesn't matter if you use the laptop or not while it's charging the battery.

[Khenglish 1154]

On my university a few students always remove their battery while their laptop is plugged in. Their reason is 'it's unhealthy to charge and use the computer at the same time'. I always wonderded, how much of that is true, after all I can't imagine that their the battery management systems of laptops are not smart to power the pc directly when the battery is fully charged.

It is bad to trickle charge a Lithium Ion battery, but the battery charging circuit is smart enough to realize this, so it only charges the battery if it drops below around 95%. This takes months to happen if you never use the battery. It's also bad to heat up a battery even if it isn't being used, but usually batteries are in locations away from hot components so that this doesn't happen.

In short, there is no reason to pull your laptop battery unless you know you will not be using it for a while and refrigerate it.

[angerthosenear 266]

Also, try not to discharge below 20% if you can help it. I've done this with my phone (original iPhone). And even 6 years later it is still amazing (3-5 days battery life). For laptops when you are on the go it's a bit harder. Perhaps try to stick with 35-50% charge. Mainly because::

DISCHARGE RATE IS NOT LINEAR

It isn't. So don't think it is. ;D

Here is some experience from custom flashlight building (my other hobby). Here is some discharge charts for various batteries:

http://www.lygte-info.dk/info/Battery%2018650%20UK.html

Can also see how much capacity changes with different voltage draws:

Battery test-review 18650 summary

As you can see, the voltage drops as the battery cells gets more and more discharged. Guess what happens? The controller has to pull more current to make up for the loss in voltage so the output is still the same. Your computer isn't going to run off 9V when you have a 11V battery, so the battery has to suck more current from the cells to put out the 11V required.

Remember to take this into account when you view your battery percentage, it's quite important.

[cpay9211 11]

For my laptop that travels with me I tend to fully charge the battery then take it out until I need to power the system up. If I don't use the system for a while I will periodically put the battery back, us the system on battery so the power drains past 50% then charge back to 100%. Repeat when needed.

[Lokys 10]

I occasionally do cycles of charge / discharge to "reset" the estimate of the percentage

[johnmule 10]

I try my best although I don't use my ALienware that often I have moved it to being my work computer as I can take it with me if needed in a pinch. Even though I usually will leave it plugged in if I am at risk of getting called away but for the most part I try to cycle that battery regularly.

[kvl5057 10]

With these battieries being much like cellphone batteries, I've always been advised to drain, or almost fully drain a cellphone battery then charging it fully to 100% to give it a better life/calibrating it. That's when I cared to get the maximum energy out of my phone. Not sure how much this translates to a laptop since mines is usually plugged in.

[rhin0 10]

Hi! great question!

I own a lenovo Y580 which comes with a software called 'Lenovo Energy Management'. among other things it controls battery recharge. It has two options: 1. Maximum battery life which constantly charging it to 100% until its full. 2. Maximum battery health: which charges the battery to ~60% and keeps it there.

On my other laptops I just pull out the battery whenever it is plugged to the power cord.

[rtfm 10]

I keep my battery out (Y510P) because the laptop gets hot while gaming, the temp. fluctuations can`t be good for it. Otherwise it would not be an issue, the hardware and software nowadays is smart enough to take good care of the battery.

[mw86 1362]

The 60% to store your battery at is actually very healthy for the battery. Should be fine on max battery life but it is true they last longer when they aren't charged to 100% and stored like that.

[xenjoi85 10]

Not sure if this has been asked before. What tips do you guys have for keeping my notebook battery healthy.

I personally never leave it plugged in and charging once its fully charged AND not in use. And once every 2-3 weeks use it on battery power till the battery runs out (7%) then recharge it to maximum.

i used to do the same thing..... although the next post made me reconsider. i always thought you were kind of showing the battery the "charge range" of sorts, by allowing the battery to discharge and recharge. almost like an RC car battery