Verdict on battery when using laptop as desktop replacement onAC?

Over the years I have read views on either side of the argument regarding battery on a permanently AC hooked laptop.

Some claim the battery must be left in as the power brick cant handle running a gaming laptop on its own without throttling or causing hardware malfunction over time.

Others say take the battery out and leave it out, as having it in will over time ahorten its life significantly even though its not really used.

Yet others say leaving it in or out makes no difference as it wont be charged when its full.

So I ask you enthusiasts and gurus, what is the truth, what do you do?

 

Leave the battery in if you have an powercut or you snag the cable you will loose your work, just turn the battery life extender on, some charge to 80% and then stop, some it`s 60% others you can choose not all brands have this though, dont run the battery down to empty before you recharge stop at 20% or above, your battery will thank you for it.

An li-ion battery will last 3-5 years if you use it or not, as long as you don't use it on battery constantly.

If you want more information on how to make your battery live as long as possible visit the site in the link below.

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries

John.

 

A better gauge would be cycles at which 500 is the typical expected range. However, a lot of user forget to consider environment. Where temp/humidity extremes can significantly reduce batter life (not good for the computer either).

In any event, programs have been developed to better manage battery life so as to no longer require the need to remove them. In the case of the Precision, the battery is part of the chassis, thereby thwarting that idea in place of stability.

 

Look after your battery and you can get 1000+ cycles, keep it cool, it`s hard in a notebook so much heat, don't fully charge it, don't fully discharge it, remember if you only charge to 75% and don't discharge below 25% you are only using 50% of your battery`s capacity and you are only using an half of a cycle so you could get 2000 half cycles if you can get though them in 3-5 years, because as soon as an li-ion battery is made the chemical begin to age and even if you never use your battery 3-5 years is all that you are going to get, and a dead battery is when you only have 50% of the new capacity left, some people say my battery lasted me 7 years but they only had 10% capacity left and the notebook only runs for 10 minutes on it.

And if you think you can buy extra battery`s and keep them in the refrigerator or the freezer the chemicals in an li-ion battery dont freeze until well below -10c

John.

 

I see, thanks for the insight! So its mostly pointless to buy multiple batteries initially in my case and just buy them when the initial one dies completely.

 

Absolutely not. When you need battery power, you need it now. Therefore, no portable (battery powered) device should ever rely on just one battery. Even more so if your work is tied to being portable.

In fact, I make it a point to always include extra batteries in my budget. With laptops that can be expensive. However, at least one spare should be a part of your initial purchase.

 

And any model with non-swappable battery should be a red light.

Should we add "do you need swappable battery" in the WSIBF sticky?

 

According to that website you linked, batteries do last longer than 5 years if you don't use them and store them properly.

From Table 3, a Li-ion battery store at 0 C and 40% charge will lose about 2% capacity a year. After five years you'll be at just over 90% capacity. Extrapolating out it will take 34 years for the capacity to reach 50%, at which point the battery is considered dead. You'll probably need to intermittently take out the battery and top it to 40%, but at least according to this table you can store batteries long term.

If you trust that webpage, then you should discharge your battery to 40%-50%, store it in the refrigerator (not the freezer), and only use it when you need to. After each use discharge to 50% again and store in fridge. The battery should easily retain at least 80% capacity after 3-5 years.

 

Yeah, but is that laboratory grade refrigerator, i am constantly adjusting my refrigerator in the UK to be under 8c as we go from summer to winter, most people do not do this and with family going in and out of the refrigerator all day long and the occasional door left ajar the risk of moisture on the components inside the battery, circuit boards ect will cause corrosion, and li-ion/pol battery's are not to be messed about as they are seriously dangerous and the chance of putting an still damp/wet battery into a notebook is just asking for trouble.

Another thing battery university does not mention is the internal circuit board that monitors the battery also drains the battery while in storage so when you store the battery at 40% how long before the battery is at 0% you will have to keep checking the battery and how do you do that without putting it in your notebook that mean bringing it back to room temperature with zero moisture inside, use rice or other store bought desiccant.

This is a lot of trouble and danger to go though for a spare battery.

If you need more than one battery buy two and alternate between then every few months.

John.

EDIT : Oh, the reason i popped by was to mention battery gauge calibration, my new tablet was showing over 24% battery wear out of the box, that is a quarter of the battery dead, but i have known for years that the battery wear gauge can be wrong, if you had 50% wear you will only get half of your normal battery runtime and since windows reads the battery wear and uses it for the battery life estimate when it hits 15% you will start to get a low battery warning, and after the battery hit 5% windows will shut the notebook down, but windows was reading an incorrect battery reading and there is still 50% of the battery left, so you need to recalibrate the battery to get that 50% back, so what you do is charge your battery to 100% and then run the battery till it is just above 5% and then reboot the notebook and go into the bios and then leave the notebook till the notebook shuts down when the battery is really at 0% once this happens wait an hour for the battery to cool and then recharge the battery to 100% without running windows, i did this with my new tablet and the battery wear went from over 24% to just over 1% quite a difference, now this is a warning you take a chance of damaging your battery if it is already weak when you discharge it to 0% you could kill one of the cells and the battery would be toast, but if you still have a warranty it`s not a problem to get it replaced, only calibrate the battery once every 6-12 months as it is not good for the battery, but it`s the only way to calibrate and get accurate battery runtime estimates, this will not fix a faulty worn out battery.

If you only use your notebook as an desktop replacement and never using it on battery, you don't really need to calibrate it at all, just set the battery saver to 40% or the lowest your notebook supports and forget about the battery.

John.