Getting the most out of Li-on battery...

I'm looking to get the most out of my battery without wearing it out. Everest reports about 30% wear on my old laptop's battery, so I want to take care of this new one properly. Anybody have any tips?

From what I've read:
-Charge at 10-20%
-Avoid full discharges
-If storing, keep the charge at around 40%
-When running on AC power for long periods of time, remove battery

Would it be better to wait until the battery is at 10-20% to charge, or is it okay to plug it in at anytime?

 

Yeah the best seems to be to avoid full discharges on Li-Ion. Batteries will last the longest if you charge them up to 100%, and then drain down to 50-60%, versus long and deep drains down to 10%.

Still, most 9-cell batteries can be purchased, rebuilt, for $100 or less, and even the best battery handling practices won't let your battery last forever. You bought a laptop; you paid the premium price for a laptop, because you wanted portability. So just use the laptop as you need to use it, and be a man and fork up the $100 to replace the battery when the time comes.

 

tbh I've never found the effort to keep longevity worth the extra couple of months you get out of the battery, if it's the dell laptop as well then ebay will have plenty of cheap genuine battery sellers.

 

don't charge to 100%, charge to around 95%.

 

Umm, and how do you limit the charge to 'just' 95%???

 

most new batteries show you 100% (green light) when they are only around 95%. So as soon as your notebook shows a full charge, disconnect it.

 

There are a lot of myths here.

The best way to get most out of li-ion battery is to use it whatever you like.
1. You cannot over charge or over discharge the battery. Discharging the battery to 0% power does not mean it'll damage the battery or drain the battery. 0% is a bit before the safe limit where discharching further will start shortening the battery life. Meanwhile, 100% means a bit before the safe limit where charging the battery more will shorten the battery life. In reality, it's impossible to ever over discharge a battery or overcharge it. So you can charge any time you want and you don't have to take out your battery everytime you finished charging.
2. The more you use it, the more you get out of li-ion battery. Batteries are consumables. They have expiration dates as well. You can charge whenever you want, discharge whenever you want. It won't damage your battery. There's no need to disconnect the batteries as long as they're running cool or warm to the touch. If the battery is hot, then you have got a problem and at that point, it'll start damaging your battery.

 

There is a protection circuit within the battery pack that avoids overcharge above 4.2V which could damage it (not to mention cause a fire) or overdischarge below about 2.5V which could also damage it.

I am planning to refurbish my E1705 battery pack with Panasonic 18650 cells, at 2900 mAh capacity each, that's about twice the capacity of the original Sony 18650 cells.

I never got that great life with the stock 6-cell pack anyway, lasts about 2/3 through a DVD movie on a plane. (And that was when it was new, surely that has degraded by now) I think 9-cell high-capacity should last you the whole 2+ hours with DVD playing.

Ideally, you can remove the battery pack and store it in the fridge.
But then given a power hickup, the machine would crash.

 

What I do is charge up the battery, then take it out when fully charged and the computer will be on AC. Do I need to do this? I want the battery to have a high capacity for a long time, and am afraid the heat from the computer will make it worthless sooner.

Also, since netbooks based off the Pinetrail platform and Arm/Snapdragon will be fanless, if you had a fanless pc and left the battery in would it be less susceptible to heat than a normal fan cooled laptop?

 

Taking it out is a good choice. You should charge at 40% and store it in a plastic bag in the fridge. 5C is best for Li-Ion.

It will be still be hotter in the notebook.

 

On acer aspire one, the coolest part on the laptop while running on battery power is the battery itself. Every other parts of the laptop is warm while the battery is always cool to the touch.

 

I recommend regularly discharges, so the battery is not always charged 100 %. My experience is that a constant 100 % charge causes more wear than just using the laptop on battery once in a while.