Do you swap batteries in your notebook(s)?

Do you swap batteries in your notebook(s)? For any reason - extra battery life and so on.

I'm curious; a lot of newer notebooks are coming without user-replaceable batteries (especially Ultrabooks) - and it's only occasionally I hear a complaint.

 

Nope, it's not something I needed so far. That said, I replaced the battery for some laptops so the ability to remove it easily is still important to me.

 

I do since I have an extra battery due to a warranty claim. I switch them out every so often so they wear evenly.

 

It depends on how you define "do you". I don't presently do so; my "new" battery (it's actually 2 years old now) gets pretty good battery life by my 2007 standards - perhaps 3.5 hours, and my original one gets about 30 minutes, so it's not worth swapping. And if I need more than 3.5 hours, I'll just take the AC adaptor.

If "do you" includes the past, however, I have swapped out my battery. In addition to replacing it, I take it out when doing maintenance to help avoid accidental electrocution, and have also done so (rarely) as a quicker alternative to the power button for turning off. For a short time I put my "old" battery in for prolonged periods at the desk, to help prolong the life of my new one, but in the end decided it wasn't worth it - never fun to forget to take the old one out and wind up with 40 minutes of battery life instead of 300.

I doubt I'd buy an extra battery to swap out to double away-from-AC life. But I tend to keep my laptops a long time (5.5 years on this one so far), so I do care about the ability to replace it - and I saved some $$$ by buying third-party instead of Dell when the time came.

So, I don't know, does this count as "Yes" or "No"? I kind of want to vote "Yes" since I care about battery-replaceability, but it's along the same line as the reason tijo voted "No".

 

Yeah, this. I have changed the batteries in my laptops (ie 6-Cell to 3-Cell or what have you), but it's a one-time thing rather than often or regularly.

 

For me this is a basic feature of a laptop that manufacturers tend to take away now to reduce the life-span of the product and eventually decrease it's value.
In other words ripping us off.

Have you seen supply for those integrated batteries in ultrabooks ? by quickly checking on ebay I see there are plenty for macbook air but as this is most popular product then all those may be 3rd party replacements.
if there are no original ones then MF's intentions are clear as stated above

In my HP 6930p I have two additional extended ultra batteries except the main one (which can be replaced when worn out too) that I can charge without the laptop itself. Best solution when much there's much work on the go.

 

It is the only way to go all day with most laptops. I like that with a couple of 9 cell batteries I can go all day long no matter what. Plenty of times I have taken trips and never been without being able to use my computer. I usually don't use the battery too much, but when I do, I really use it. One day I used two 9 cell batteries and a 6 cell battery while at the beach. For plane rides with transfers, long car, bus, boat, or train trips, I absolutely need multiple batteries.

A favorite thing of mine is to go out to the beach, park, or just sit around outside my house when the weather is nice and do all my work there.

And one more thing. I can use a 9 cell battery when I need the capacity, or I can pop in a much lighter 4 cell battery when I need to carry my computer around all day but don't need the capacity.

 

I don't swap them but I like to have it removable in case the system becomes unresponsive

 

On my HDX I'm on the 2nd official battery and a 3rd party extended battery, I haven't run into a case where I've needed to use both due to lack of outlet availability, but I do alternate use on them every now and then around the house.

If I had to guess they're still disconnectable internally via a plug, unless they're starting to solder down the connections.

 

My floormate has a P150HM with two batteries. I've seen him flip it over in class and swap out the battery. The switchable graphics in my EM keep me going at least until the end of lecture

 

Sometimes it's hard to remember to do so but I try to swap them out every 2 to 3 months, and it usually helps keep the batteries stable and prolong the life of the battery when speaking in regards to long-term life. I personally recommend that you switch out the batteries at least once every six months if you have a spare battery. Also note that refrigerating batteries does not prolong the life of the battery, it actually decreases the battery life. But I don't think anyone will be refrigerating their laptop battery, ha ha.

Also one other thing to mention is that when your battery is in your computer, and your computer is plugged into the AC adapter, the battery is not going to accept any power beyond its full capacity, so leaving your laptop plugged in 24/7 with the battery installed does not hurt the battery at all. However, leaving your laptop plugged in 24/7 does affect the life of the adapter itself, so you may want to get an additional one of those as well, especially if you are someone who leaves their PC plugged in.

So, my vote is yes. It is definitely not necessary, but it does help.

 

I only change battery after a couple years when the life has depleted beyond a useable amount. I hope they never seal them in completely because it's still nice to be able to replace them if you use them on battery a lot. But I find swapping batteries for more life more troublesome unless it's an absolute necessity. Because you have to make sure they both stay charged for when you do need them and the only way to do that is to put it in your laptop. So if you forget to charge it, plug it in, and bam, it's only got 20% charge. I always thought there should be some way to make a universal charger for laptop batteries so you can have one fresh on hand. I might actually make use of more than one battery then.

It would also be nice to have a small internal battery that could keep your system live for 5-10 minutes to give you time to swap out your battery without having to power down.

Plus there's external portable battery chargers that are batteries themselves that plug into your laptop's power plug. That is another option that I think is better because most you can use to power/charge other devices like a cell phone.

@ J.Dre - storing a battery in the fridge does help it prolong it's charge and it's maximum capacity for a longer period than if just left at room temperature.

 

I think spending ten seconds to swap the battery while at home is worth it to double the battery life. And what other option do I have? Not be able to use my computer because I couldn't be bothered to charge both batteries?

It's pretty simple really, if you need or want to double the battery life, you get a spare battery. If you don't need it, no reason to do it. I don't think the bother to charge a second battery should factor into the decision at all.

 

Actually, that's incorrect. It only helps if you are storing the old zinc batteries, it doesn't help with today's batteries (lithium-ion). Any battery made recently would not benefit from the cold in any way.

 

I put no, but I on my old Thinkpad T60 I'll swap the battery out because I have multiple and it's easy. I don't have multiples and/or it isn't possble for the rest (Sony FW490J, HP dm1z, and Asus UX32a)

 

I don't like having to swap laptop batteriew. However, I am a big fan of extended slice batteries.

 

You are taking a personal tone to this for some reason. It's not the bother, it's the maintenance, the management. I'm talking about being on the go and having to swap out the battery only to realize you forgot to charge the other battery. I don't know about you but my life is busy enough to have to add another thing to remember to my day. I'm not saying I don't need the extra battery just that it's not the most convenient way to extend battery life.

How to Prolong Lithium-based Batteries - Battery University



The only bad thing about storing a fridge is risk of condensation. I don't think that battery university is 100% accurate and a little xtreme, but anything I've done, heard, or read shows that lower temperatures (above 0C) helps retain capacity for longer periods. Likely the difference is a few % but it's there. You're better off storing your spare battery for extended periods in a cool spot in your home in the basement than at 70-75F in the rest of your home.

 

I don't swap but I do dock my laptop and take out the battery when it is docked or plugged in unless it is charging. Takes about 10 extra seconds.

I think the best benefit to swappable batteries is that you don't have to throw out your whole laptop in 3-4 years when your battery loses a lot of its charging ability. Non-removable batteries in this quest for thinness by manufacturers is bad for consumers and bad for the environment. Having some non-removable laptops fine but it looks like they are going the direction of making every laptop have a non-removable. They are turning laptops into throwaway electronics like a tablet.

 

Thanks for sharing this. This is interesting nonetheless. But I won't be storing my M18x battery in the fridge next to my Soda, ha ha! I want to look into this more, I was convinced there was no benefit to life with the cold.

Perhaps we are both correct? This article seems to support the charge retains life for longer periods of time at lower temps, but doesn't affect the life of the battery? I'm still skeptical, but definitely open-minded on the topic.

 

I swap batteries in my X220 between 6 cell (most used), 9 cell (for trips) and 6-cell slice (for longer trips).

Battery options are one of the main reasons I chose the Thinkpad over numerous ASUS contenders. The other factors were mSATA SSD + HDD, and ExpressCard (for eSATA and 1394... a bonus would have been eSATAp but that's asking for too much, apparently).

Having a non-removable battery means you cannot easily perform a embedded controller reset in most cases (since most systems do not have a way to cut battery power or reset the EC by other means).

And yes, keep those unused batteries at 40% in the fridge inside ziploc bags. My 9 cell is still around 90% capacity and it's the oldest of all 3 batteries.