Prolonging Battery Life?

conorcan2

I'm a bit confused about the best way to prolong my laptops battery's lifetime. This is what I've gathered so far:

- If the battery is at 80-100%, then unplug your laptop IF you are not using it (powered off).
- If you are using your laptop(powered on), then it is always okay to have it plugged in, even if your battery is at 100%.
- Try not to let the battery get below 20%

I realize these are just guidelines but are the principles sound? It seems unusual to unplug the laptop if I'm not using it (charged at 100%).

Alanstrainor

The laptop will stop charging automatically when it reaches 100%, so no need to worry about unplugging it. And id rather have it charge to 100% just so I would be ready to go when I needed it.

Yup, its perfectly fine to leave it plugged in when in use.

I wouldn't worry about letting the battery fall below 20% either, I've certainly never had any issues with any modern device.

I used to fret over batteries and trying to get the best performance etc, but now realise that there really is little you can do.

conorcan2

Alanstrainor wrote: »

The laptop will stop charging automatically when it reaches 100%, so no need to worry about unplugging it. And id rather have it charge to 100% just so I would be ready to go when I needed it.

Yup, its perfectly fine to leave it plugged in when in use.

I wouldn't worry about letting the battery fall below 20% either, I've certainly never had any issues with any modern device.

I used to fret over batteries and trying to get the best performance etc, but now realise that there really is little you can do.

Thanks Alanstrainor. I used to have the same opinion as you until I got an email from head of Dev Ops at our company, asking that people don't leave the laptops plugged in. It made me wonder what the basis was, if any, to his claim. I guess I can ask him

Alanstrainor

conorcan2 wrote: »

Thanks Alanstrainor. I used to have the same opinion as you until I got an email from head of Dev Ops at our company, asking that people don't leave the laptops plugged in. It made me wonder what the basis was, if any, to his claim. I guess I can ask him

I would wonder where that came from also...

Dell laptops used to be notorious for batteries dying after 1 or 2 years of normal use, but no matter how you treated them they would die. But thus was 8ish years ago, so that info is no longer relevant!

Any laptops I've had, or had experience with in the last 3ish years have been fine, and not worth fretting over.

coylemj

My laptop (Lenovo SL510) will be five years old next month and I'm still on the original battery. The power settings tell me that the battery design capacity is 56 Wh (watt hours) and the current 'full charge capacity' is 35 Wh so it's still in reasonably good shape.

This is how I look after the battery.....

1. When I'm finished using the laptop, I shut down and a few seconds after the machine powers down, I unplug it. I never leave it plugged in when not in use
2. Once a week or so I run it off the battery and try to run it down to 6% when I get the 'critical low battery' warning. I then plug it in and make sure that it gets an uninterrupted charge back to 100%
3. I keep the power drivers up to date and perform a 'battery gauge reset' every few months