Thoughts/Experiences with leaving your battery in while your using it and charging ?

I've read a few post about it, and it's kinda 50/50 some say it doesn't really affect the battery but others put that it does in fact damage the life cycle of a battery .

I've been a leaning more towards removable external batteries which cut my pool of potential buys down but I'd like to hear some other people's thoughts on the matter .

 

There is an extensive discussion of Battery care here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...et-upgrades/91846-notebook-battery-guide.html . The answer really is it depends - Heat being a major battery killer, should be avoided so if you rarely run on battery charge it up to 40 % & store it in a cool place. What are your typical usage patterns?

 

Most of the time I do mostly writing work / photowork / audio work in ableton + media consumption, less often I edit video with premiere/ae and game on the laptop . I about 65% a lot of time near outlets and only move around when I have class or a meeting to go to .

I would say what I want to do is leave the battery out when I'm near and outlet but if I need to move, put the laptop in sleep mode and put the battery in and move . But can you hot-plug a battery if a laptop is in sleep mode and unplug the ac charger ?

I've also read somethings where battery stop charging at X capacity, but I've also read that the bat when plugged in will keep using some of the bat power and constantly charge to capacity . Do most laptops only run on AC power then plugged in ?

If so, is there anyway to shut off battery charging when AC is plugged in ?

 

Most chargers will stop
charging the battery once it hits 100%. Many manufacturers also have power management software or hot keys to manage how the laptops deal with charging.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

My take on it, leave the battery installed. Unless your laptop has really horrible heat management and blows hot air directly on the battery, leave it installed. Batteries are an inexpensive UPS if nothing else. People spend hundreds of dollars for a battery backup for their desktops when it's part of your laptop has it as part of the package. It's rather inexpensive to replace, $50-80 or less even. Just leave it installed. Batteries degrade over time whether they are used or not. So storing it will only stall the inevitable unusable battery. I'd much rather buy a new battery after two years than risk losing data due to an accidental power cord removal or power failure.

 

What I was worried about mostly is that if it does stop at 100% or the designated capacity, when the battery drains (even if not in use) does it just keep topping itself off in a constant drain/charge cycle . I feel like that would be terrible for the battery .

Still the question still stands if there is a way to stop a battery from charging when plugged into AC power .

 

I'm just trying to get the answer if chargers + battery do constant drain/charges . Like I know battery stop charging at 100% but what if the battery drops to 99%, does it just charge again ? I feel like that would be bad for the battery if it just keeps charging 1% every time it drops . That's why I ask if there is a way to turn it off so that when your plugged in, you don't charge the battery unless you designate it .

 

It really depends on Mauf. With the ASUS I have it charges to 100%, If I do not use it for a day or 2 it will be down to 96 or so. If it drops below 95 it will charge up to 100%. Samsung has smart charging which appears to do what you want. Tips & Tricks: Extending Notebook Battery Life | Samsung Articles & Insights

 

Dang, Samsung seems to know exactly what I want . Hopefully HP has something like that (doubt it though) .

 

It does depend on the manufacturer. But even like my Sager that when it drops down to 99% it will start to charge, that's like once a week or less frequently. For the most part % battery charge is additive. So 100 charges of 1% equals 1 charge of 100% as far as battery wear is concerned. Of course this is assuming you're not max stressing the battery all the time while draining it (like peaking your CPU and GPU all the time on battery).

So even if it's plugged in all the time, drops 1% every week and recharges back to 100%, that's two years worth of 1% drops and recharges to equal just one battery wear cycle. Very insignificant.

 

As said above, it will stop charging once it reaches full capacity. An example would be that it drops down to 99% and will begin to charge again until it is full, in some sort of loop, it seems. Some (probably most) charge until full capacity then use the adapter for power.

 

So I'm assuming that battery are not used at all when AC power is plugged in ? If it is, I don't see how it would only drop 1% a week if it's using even a small amount of the battery .

 

Even my phone does that drop to 99%, then recharges. It happens after being plugged in for a while, more often than once per week. It happens after X hours of being plugged in.

 

It is not using any battery power. Batteries just lose power over time, as well as max capacity whether used or not. Just the nature of the beast. Take your battery out at 100%, let it sit for a week, plug it back in your laptop and I guarantee it will read 98-99% capacity, not 100%.

 

For me I leave the battery in and power plugged in. As other have mentioned the battery could be new an fail the day you get it or last many years before dying. That is the nature of anything that is electrical in nature. I also would rather replace a battery as another poster said in 2 years of so that at least will mean it won't suddenly die without notifying me but if your drivers and batter manager O/S is in working order and BIOS they will alert you to a weakling battery as well. So always look at the O/S and BIOS to inform you the status of the battery lifespan.