Battery Maintenance

So I was scanning one of the guides the other day (I think it was by Gophn), and noticed that the guide was still suggesting that the best practice to maintain your battery is to run it down at least once a week, and to not keep the machine plugged in once the battery is fully charged. I know in the old days (2+ years ago), this was still quite valid advice, what with battery memory and other various things. However, I was under the impression (both from things I've read/heard and limited personal experience with my own hardware) that with modern batteries, there was no longer a need to run them down OR unplug them once charged, as the technology had changed. In fact, modern batteries, if truely run all the way down, will not recharge, and they actually are designed to shut off at about 30% capacity.

So basically, what are people's opinions on these things today? Is it really worth the hassle to monitor battery status like a hawk and constantly plug and unplug your system, or has the value of these practices gone the way of the Dodo?

 

Not in my case, and I never bother removing the battery when on power either. It serves as power back-up when the electricity goes out

cheers ...

 

Ditto for me. I was hoping that someone would come out with some data or info that is a little deeper to learn. So does anyone have anything else to add?

 

Battery Guide.

As for me, the easiest way to keep the battery healthy is:
- once a day, let the battery discharge to around 10% and then charge it back to full and continue what you are doing.
.... that gives it a full charge cycle.

My battery has been healthy and near 96% as good as when I built my notebook back in March 2006.

 

Many studies have been conducted to find the true answer to your question. It's not good for any battery to be discharged for no reason. When a battery discharge it generates heat, which is what kills all Lithium-ion batteries little bit at a time.
It's been shown that if you're going to try to extend your battery life the most, you should keep it at a 40-45% charge. Although keeping at 100% charge doesn't take much away from the life of the battery either.

@Gophn
Do you have any proof that your battery 96% as good? Credible sites such as batteryuniversity.com, seem to say the opposite of what you're telling people. Here's One of the many articles contradicting what you have to say.

 

sure.... my battery lasted 1 hour 45 minutes when I first got it and benchmarked it.... leaving full brightness and idle.

now (over 3 years later).... my battery lasts 1 hour 35-40 minutes.... full brightness and idle

 

I'm glad I ran across this thread... I've only had my new Studio 1537 for two months, and according to the battery monitoring software I was looking at the other day, my battery is already down to 91% capacity! After just 2 months! I've gone from being told I have 6:15 on a full charge to 5:45. At this rate, I'll have lost half my capacity by the end of the first year. Not good. Not good at all.

~Aryq~

 

I doubt the loss is linear. It's probably an asymtotic curve. In other words, you won't lose the same amount every 3 months or whatever, the amount lost over time will likely decrease.

Thanks 1337haxors. That is what I was thinking, but I wanted to hear someone else say it.

 

Isn't a full charge cycle .. a full charge cycle? 90% of a full charge cycle isn't exactly a full charge cycle.

BTW.. you might be able to gain those 15 minutes loss of run time by actually doing a "full charge cycle*" where the battery goes below 0% capacity.

I heard of cases whe people did a "full charge cycle*" and they gained an hour of battery life.

 

a charge cycle really means that you discharge it to under half capacity then charge it back to full.

in most cases, its usually not recommended to discharge it to empty since a battery might not hold a proper charge anymore if that happens (rare, but still happens to certain battery)... and most notebooks are set to shutdown/standby when it reaches 2-3%.

 

I've heard that all modern batteries are actually limited by hardware/software to not run below 30% charge, because running below that runs a very high risk of never being able to recharge the thing at all. Makes me a little suspect of claims of gaining battery life by running the battery down to the bone.

 

However, when it automatically shutdown, you can turn the laptop back on again and keep on using it. When I did my battery meter calibration, I kept using my battery at 0% for over 30 minutes until the battery cutoff. The 2nd time I recharge the battery, I gained 30 minutes more battery run time from the same battery.

A accurate 0% at the battery meter simply means a conservative estimate of where the safe mark of discharge for the battery. Usually, at 0%, the battery still has at least 25-50% energy left. It's probably impossible to discharge the battery behind unsafe limit where it causes damage to battery because the battery controller in the battery will cut the battery off before it reach certain voltage ( I believe ~3V per cell)