Do you leave your laptop plugged in, take out the battery, etc?

Trying to find out the most optimal way to maintain my laptop and battery.

If I'm relying on AC power, should I remove the battery and only use the battery when I'm on the go, etc?

What is the proper etiquette of charging, maintaining your battery, etc?

 

You should just leave the battery in all the time. The laptop will handle charging just fine.

For maintaining the battery, never "smother" the battery when the laptop is powered on, by putting it on a surface like a bed or couch, particularly when doing something that really heats up the laptop, like playing a game or watching an HD movie.

 

- Use your battery at least once in the week (Till 15-20% is ok).

- Don't let it discharge to 0%

- If you're going to travel for some time and you plan leaving the laptop at home discharge the battery till 40%

- The battery will die one day anyway, but if you care about the battery it will survive more time. The tips above is like a resume of what I've read.

 

i had a hp laptop and maybe used on battery alone for about 20hours max, rest of the time plugged in at the library, in my room etc. anyway the battery died completely after about 2 years. if i had never put the battery in, wouldn't it be like a new battery now?

 

The ONLY time I use the battery is in case of a power failure (happened twice so far) while using it or occasionally unplugging it while in sleep mode so its up and running quicker later if I'm taking it somewhere. Once a month I'll let it discharge to 30-40 % or so and let the laptop take care of the rest, I rarely ever see it charging. Had laptop 5 months now and wear level is at 2%

 

I never leave the battery lodged in the laptop during AC powered. I have a 4-year old Toshiba Satellite and to this day it still holds a full charge and maintain at least 2.25 hrs running time, of course that battery was also removed when not being used. So yeah, remove it when it is not being utilized.

 

I've had laptops forever and they run 24/7. I've never had a battery die on me. LION batteries need no "conditioning".

 

You took a very good care of your battery. I bought my laptop in late August, and now I only have 88% charging capacity.

 

I always have the battery out when the AC is plugged in since I had a Dell a few years ago where I left the battery in all the time and virtually never used the laptop without the AC but the battery died in a year. I put the battery in once or so a week to drain then charge.

 

I leave my battery plugged in, but it's not near anything that makes the temp go up. I use Dell's Battery Meter to disable charging, and keep the charge level about 40%. I occasionally charge the battery up and let it go down to 40%, and resume the no-charging.

 

See my post in this thread.