Will keeping my laptop plugged in hurt battery?

I've kept mine plugged in since we bought it years ago, and when the battery is low it self-charges (Gateway Solo 1450). Currently I'm looking at a refurb Dell Latitude 520 since this has seen better days - nothing related to the battery, however.

 

I think that the best use of the battery depends of what are u using it for..

As example:

Scenario 1: Use for mild internet and use (1-2 hours daily)
Scenario 2: Use for gaming purposes and average programs processes(2-4 hours)
Scenario 3: Use it as a desktop, need to be online all time and with average use.
Scenario 4: Use it sometimes per week or per month. Travel a lot and sometimes u cant travel with it.
Scenario 5: a mix of the above scenarios.

the options narrowed are:

a) use the battery and when reach the 10% put the A/C adapter and continue using it.
b)remove the battery and connect the A/C adapter
c)just plug it with the battery inside
d)long therms of use, store the battery in a cooler condition with 40% of charge on it.
e) dont use it below 10% of charge.

I choose

for intensive gaming remove the battery, use the A/C adapter and use the performance option on vista and play like 4 hours.

For light processes use the battery only with the battery saver option of vista.

For mild processes use the battery with the a/c connected. Select Normal use option on vista.

If i need to use it several days with average use, then discharge the battery until reach 40%, put in with the plastic bag provided when arrived first time and store in a cooler place of my room. This until my daily activities gets low again.

So what are yours options?

 

ive read a few posts in here, but heres what i do. tell me if its a bad thing to do.

if i decide to use it on the battery, i wait until its at 5% until i plug it in. then when its plugged in and charging, i still use it.

im also always near an outlet, so i always have it plugged in and leave the battery in, but once i unplug it, i use it on battery until 5%.

 

Personally, I would stop around 10 to 20% if you're near an outlet.

Whether or not I would say this is a bad thing to do depends on how often you use your laptop with just the battery. If you only use your battery once a week or less often than that, then it is certainly a good thing to discharge your battery to ~10% when you decide to use it on battery. On the other hand, if you're draining your battery down to 5% every day even though you're next to an outlet, then I'd say don't worry about discharging your battery and just plug it in whenever you can.

 

This is just getting to complicated and makes you worry even more about trying to preserve your battery until the end of time. I say just keep it in and at least unplug it once a month let it drain to 10%. I think no matter how many techniques you try in the end the laptop will be obsolete before the battery life becomes a prob.

 

I'll back that opinion. To me, the ways to preserve the life of the battery is to complicated and removes the simple ability to use the battery when needed. And the overall life of the battery is fairly close the life of the laptop.

Having said that, I have worn out several batteries in an older laptop. But, I use the battery for at least an hour during my commute. So, my batteries will be worn out rather than die of old age.

David

 

No. It doesn't hurt the battery

 

Personal experience with my Dv6000T is that when I first got it, it's battery life was abysmal, ever since other than whenever I have not been on the go with it, it has been plugged it in. Eventually it's battery life became much much better, to almost above average levels (for it's time period). Lately I have noticed that slowly the battery life is getting worse, but I think this has to do with age, not with me leaving it plugged in all the time.

 

yes li-on battery is already losing capacity when off of production line so it's days are numbered anyway. And to paraphrase what Jesus said, "who by worrying will add one hour to their life?" same with li-on battery.

 

I'm confused with all this!
And I don't think that I'm the only one.

 

I usually keep it plugged since I bought it, and no damage to it yet.
So with this experience I would say it does not really hurt the lappy.

 

Battery life can be shortened if your laptop gets hot as this heat transfers by conduction, heating up the battery.

 

After keeping my old Toshiba Satellite A100 plugged in for a little under a year, the battery life was 10 minutes.

 

I have a question,

How do you exactly do a proper battery charging?

1. Turn off laptop and charge
2. Leave laptop on and charge

I'm confused. HP dv5t does not offer a battery LED indicator telling you that your battery is fully charged. I assume I need to leave my laptop on?

 

This is what i do, when i'm using my laptop i charge it fully then unplug it and when its about to die i plug it back to its fully charged..Is this good??

 

When you first get your laptop, drain it until it is unable to power on (literally). Then, plug it in, wait 2 seconds, power on. Now, keep your laptop as fully charged as possible. Then, once a month, drain it until it is unable to power on. Then, plug in, wait, power on. Repeat monthly.

I've read Li-ion batteries perform better when fully charged, unlike Ni-Cad which need to be repeatedly cycled. If you plan to plug your laptop in continuously for a long time (more than a few days), then remove the battery. If you plan to not use the battery for a while, charge until it's 40% full, store in cool dry place.

Li-ion batteries die due to heat. If your laptop is hot, touch the battery. If said battery is hot, remove and run AC only. Once laptop cools, insert battery. If your laptop is always hot, then get a cooler, clean your laptop, or buy air conditioning. Or just buy another battery. They are abou $200 each.

 

i keep mine plugged in no harm no foul

 

You are giving the wrong advise here. Please only advise if you are 100% sure what you are talking about....

Here is the correct procedure:

1. Take the brand new lappie and plug it into mains. Make sure it is charging.
2. Do your thing and use the lappie but whatever you do leave it to charge for at least 18 hours uniterrupted before you stop the initial first charging cycle.

It's the most important of all. It conditions the battery.

In other words, overnight or even longer.

3. After the initial (first) 18 hour charge, use the lappie on batteries for around an hour only.

4. Then plug it in again and let it fully reach it's capacity after the second and last 18 hour uninterrupted mains charge.

Then you are good to go.

Cheers,
Theo

 

i've been draining my by battery everday, and chargin it to full overnight, this happens 5/7 times a week, is it bad for my batteries ? i got XPS M1530..

 

Yes. You have destroyed the batteries reliability. From word go.

Cheers,
Theo

 

the battery was bought to be used. every cycle that you use it comes off it's total life. if you dont need to run it off battery, then plug it in the wall as much as possible, with the battery removed.

 

thats mostly what i do. isnt that how a portable laptop works? you use it out and about all day and recharge it overnight? it is a fundamental design fault if you cannot use it this way

 

Really interesting opinions here.

I always leave my laptop connected to the AC with the battery on the laptop, i use my laptop to do my everyday tasks and enterteining stuff too.

 

I read somewhere that it is recommended to completely empty the LI-ion battery when you buy it and then fully recharge it. This procedure should be done every month to keep capacity loss at a minimum. Can someone confirm this to be accurate?

 

There is no other currently known way to design an affordable battery. Every time you cycle it, some lifetime is lost.

That said, there are quite a few exaggerations in this thread. I've owned 3 laptops so far: a Toshiba (for 3 years), an HP (for 3.5 years) and the Compal I'm currently typing on (it recently turned 1 year old). I've never bothered doing anything about the battery -- I've never taken it out when AC was plugged in, didn't power cycle it to calibrate and used it when necessary. When the HP and Toshiba died, their lifetimes were around 60-70% of the original. This is not a trivial decrease, but it took 3+ years of usage and this is still a couple of hours which is usually enough. I've done the same thing with my Compal and so far, I can't see any difference in lifetime at all (I think the batteries are better now so they don't deteriorate as quickly).

Moral of the story: unless you really care about preserving every minute of battery life or you want to keep the laptop for 4+ years or you have a battery that you know will die quickly if you don't take care of it, it probably isn't worth your time to think about it. The only thing I would keep in mind is that every time you cycle it (for calibration or otherwise), you lose lifetime.

 

I agree fully with your post. What is the use of owning a portable computer when you keep it's battery in a fridge??. The battery belongs in the lappie in order to give you the mobile computing power that you purchased the thing for in the first place.

Every time I see the following keywords: "laptop", "battery" or "fridge" I always think the same thing: "This person should be using a desktop".

That said, the first initial charging cycles of a Lithium Ion battery determine it's ultimate durability and lifespan.

Some people get it right by buying a lappie and (without prior knowledge about batteries) simply plug the thing in to mains and use it and let the battery have a solid 18 hour plus uninterrupted first charge.

Way to go

Cheers

 

My battery dies once in 3-4 months. But thanks to dell warranty, I get a replacement.

 

yep glad i bought my 9cell from dell, ill be hitting them up on my 11th month for a new battery reguardless if my battery starts to show wear or not

 

I have my Toshiba satellite a200 23q for almost a year now, and i think thet for thet period of time it has been turned off for a few months or so. I always keep it plugged in, and turned on 24/7 (when i don't have to grab it with me). Then i heard that it will save my battery life time if i take it out, but also found some info that battery out can possibly damage my laptop. So this is the first time i took it out, and the last time for sure. It's better to buy a new battery then to have to buy a new computer.

Also i have read somewhere above that someone is not sure what is the proper way of charging the Li ion battery. For sure i can tell that Li ion batteries should be recharged as much as you can, cuz they don't like to be discharged complitely.