Do you take the battery out when your not using it?

I want to maximize my battery life. I have a 12cell if it matters and Im using the battery that came with my dv6500t

 

I don't have the same laptop (just happened to see this thread on the side update column) but I keep my battery in because I'm afraid of dust... Though if you clean it once and awhile it should be okay. I read a bit about batteries and the main problem seems to be heat, so taking it out will increase the lifespan of your battery as laptops run pretty warm. I also read that if you're storing it for awhile, to not leave it at full charge because thats bad for maintaining battery life also. I believe optimal was 40% charge.

 

I always store it at 100%. Im not sure why the charge would matter if it is being stored though. But Ill take your word on it.

 

100% charge kills lithium batteries, more than heat. I keep mine out and at 40%.

 

Depends on which battery you value more, the one that you can easily take off, or the small lithium ones stuck on your motherboard.

To me, the small ones are by default more valuables. The pain of setting your BIOS configurations each time you boot up your computer is a pain.

aaa, the study shows that keeping 100% charged is bad for the battery. However, in my experience, even if you leave your computer charged at 100% all the time, I never experienced a huge drop in battery time.

5 years ago, I purchased a Compaq Evo n610c, and when it was new, I got about 2:30 hours to 2:45 hours of battery time. And 5 years later, I still get a minimum of 2 hours.

Also, in my experience, leaving your battery charged too low is actually worse than keeping it fully charged. Never leave your battery in the lower 30% range for a long period of time.

 

Temp and charge matter very much, store at 100% 77F 1 year 20% loss in capacity, store 40% 32F 1 year 2% loss! Adds up, even though I do it, always use AC with the battery, temps higher than 77F and full charge! If you want it to last the entire 5 years at State this will help. Also batterys have a limited number of charge cycles usually rated between 300 and 1000 cycles. The site has a stickey about all this with links.

GO BLUE!

 

Do you suggest putting it in the fridge lol.

So is using the AC while the battery is still in a bad idea because that is what I do. My battery is at 100% all the time because I leave my AC in.

 

I do it and I don't care so it is a choice, it will substantially shorten life but I will still get a couple years. Yes I recommend fridge over freezer and Zip Lock it and put in a desiccant (those things that look like sugar packets when you by something packaged) to control moisture.

did you notice you are now green?

 

My battery died after a couple years at 100%. Lucky you.

 

Yes I did, cool. you mean those things that say "Do not eat"? I dont even know where to get those. I dont think it will happen anyway because Ill be living in the dorms so I probably wont even have a fridge.

So should I wear my battery down to 40%, charge it to 50-60% and then wear it back down to 40% and repeat the cycle? Or a better idea, just not use the battery at all unless I need it.

 

If nothing else, an installed battery is a built in UPS. My power cable has been kicked out a few times.

 

I leave the battery in but when using the computer for a long session I take it off due to the power brick gets hot, being used and charged at the same time. Li-On batteries do not have the memory effect -so it doesn't matter how much charge before you store it. New batteries have chips to prevent overcharging.

 

Your second idea is best, but if you can't do Oh well, I would not do that 60% charge thing, what's the point of having battery if you can't use? It really is not that big of deal, do what you can do, what you can't don't sweat. In two or three years buy a battery not a big deal, don't interupt your studies or going to Rick's or Max's or that place with pool and chili fries (the Riv?) or just party at Akers west or Schnieder, forget your battery you have things to do young man!

 

Just as important voltage drop. Sorry more important.

 

You SHOULD take it out whenever you're on AC. You SHOULD keep it stored at about 50-60% long-term. You should store it in a cool place like the fridge (make sure you wrap it with a paper towel to prevent condensation) when storing. You shouldn't keep it in your car for long periods of time when it's hot outside. And you shouldn't try to force drain it to 0% (most laptops have circuitry that won't let the system boot when the current is too low).

Most of this is so inconvenient that nobody ever does it though. Just try not to let it get too hot, and you should be OK.

Lithium ion batteries don't really care whether you drain to 0 and charge up, or drain to 60 and charge up. The "cycle count" takes into account partial charges.

 

is there any piece of software or something that will let you leave the battery in but prevent it from charging while plugged in? that would be the best...leave it at 40% when not using it but in the lappy for the free UPS factor...

 

Good question, that would be the perfect way to do it.

 

Once my battery gets to 100% I normally just take out the charger and wait for it to get to a level where I need to use the AC again - as a result my battery life is pretty poor now - so I'm gonna buy a new one and actually manage that properly unlike my last battery!

 

IBM/Lenovo's power management app lets you set the % begin and % end points for charging, so it seems possible to make a general tool for other laptops.

But overall, it's not the charging or leaving the battery at 100% that's the big problem. The problem with leaving the battery in the laptop is mainly operational heat. On AC, your laptop is going full-blast and the battery starts to heat up with the rest of the chassis/components. Batteries are very sensitive to heat, and you end up losing a lot of charge capacity because of this, regardless of what its current charge rate is.

It's another good reason why you shouldn't leave your laptop in the trunk of a car on a hot day or put it in a backpack while it's still on.

 

El Guano
Said it, full charge and heat together! That's what happens with AC, and yes of course cars in the heat get over 120F, so bad!

 

will the laptop stop charging the battery once it is full?
I was told that it would keep charging the battery if always keep it in, or this is already cured in newer laptops?
I always (more than 98% of time) use AC only without the battery. There are a few theories that confuse me

 

Yeah, pretty much any modern (within the last 4-5 years I'd say) laptop knows to trickle, then stop the charge at 100%.

My laptop is pretty old, but using mobilemeter to see the current charge rate confirms that it charges slower and slower as the battery fills up, and stops charging at 100%.

 

ummm.... are we talking about batteries or family heirlooms?

Batteries should be considered consumable. Use them....don't abuse them (much). Take basic basic precautions (like not leaving in hot cars) but otherwise don't sweat it. Life is just to short to worry about if you'll need a new battery in 12 months instead of 18. Now if you *know* you won't use the battery for an extended period of time then drain it to 40% and keep in a cool place. Until you do.

But doing so in general is like keeping no gas in your car. So don't be anoyed if you need a battery and it doesn't have enough fuel for what your doing.

Actually, that brings up something I learned as a kid. Supposedly the best way to prevent tire tread wear is to not drive the car. It turns out friction from the road actually causes the tire to wear down until they cannot be used.

Sarcasm aside, maybe it would be a good idea for Laptop Vendors to start selling cheaper, low capacity (and lower weight) batteries for people who don't want that extra battery life but also don't want to lose their Proposal's when someone trips over the power cable at the Coffee shop.

 

blasphemy! who would treat their laptops so poorly?

hmm, interesting point...thats a real shame, as its quite inconvenient to attach and detach the battery all the time...just when i thought i had the solution

 

Seriously take 10 minutes to read it.... then you wil understand
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_ion

 

It's still a partial solution if your so inclined. Both factor into the equation (as the Wikipedia article notes). This page is also invaluable for understanding how batteries work.

http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm

I'm guessing if you kept it in the system and charged at 40% then you'd probably lose about 10-15% a year. Compared to say 25-30% otherwise. That's a guess of course, unfortunately the data provided doesn't include 30C temps which is what my battery says its running at.

It is an improvement, but still not worth spending too much time worrying about it.

 

That's a great link; they have a lot of great info there.

Btw, 25% drain per year merely from keeping your battery at 100% is way too high. I made the mistake of buying two batteries with my laptop. The first year, I left it in a cool dark place at 100% charge and it lost about 10% (iirc more like 8-9%) after 365 days. Then I wrapped it in a paper towel and open ziplock and stuck it in the fridge. 365 days later it was only 15% down from total (so the fridge dropped the decrease rate to about 7%).

Note that if you're using the battery daily and have the laptop on full-power while on AC all the time, you're going to see way more than 30% drain per year. These factors add up. My original battery on conservative use was down to 85% after the first year. Then I abused it, and it dropped to 50% year 2. Now, though I've been using the other battery (the one I stored for 2 years) since then, I just popped the original one in and it's holding charge at 15%. Full capacity 7.56Wh! Doh.

 

I always take my battery out when I'm not using it. I don't really see the point of leaving it in. I've heard that it just shortens the life span of your battery. The batteries aren't exactly cheap to replace either

 

That was my mistake! I have the same laptop (n610c). Don't really use it much but to take on a trip with the kids for some old games, but I have to use the car charger. The battery is almost useless as I let it go dead too often.

 

And where is that link?

 

Well.. my system is just about a year old now. And I abuse the laptop like mad. I use the same laptop for work and play -- so it's on 8-10 hours at work and then about 1-3 hours at home for less productive stuff (unless you consider Civilization IV productive).

I've never ran the system without the battery.

And that, one year later, I'm down about a third in capacity -- based on what linux says the capacity is compared to it's specs. It's a fair bit, but the nature of how I need to use the system sort of demands being less than battery friendly.

 

I'm going to try the Fridge solution tonight - I'll tell you how it goes.

At the moment the storage capacity of my laptop is Low according to the HP Battery Check