What kind of battery charging thresholds do you use?

I read the battery FAQ and it was very helpful. One thing the author of that thread didn't specify was exactly what kind of charging thresholds he/she recommended.

Using the Lenovo Power Manager utility, I changed my (begin charging at __% / finish charging at __%) setting from the stock (96/100) to (70/98). In the interest of keeping the number of cycles on the battery low to hopefully make my battery last as many years as possible, should I reduce this even more, to 60 or even 50%?

What do you folks have this option set to, assuming you are looking to maximize the total life of your battery?

Mac

 

I have mine set to automatically optimize the thresholds; I don't give it too much thought. Accept the fact that batteries will degrade with use. Use the battery; don't stress too much about it. You will have to replace at some point if you heavily use away from the wall.

 

Does anyone know just what it means or what the computer does when you instruct it to automatically optimize the thresholds? i.e. has anyone monitored what is going on when this setting is selected?

Mac

 

According to the NBR Battery Guide, storing the battery at approximately 40% is ideal.

Break down of the Power Manager thresholds:

Always fully charged (start when below 96%; stop at 100%): Self explanatory. Select this setting to always be charging your battery on AC mode. I don't recommend this.

Optimize for battery lifespan (automatically change for me): I still do not understand this setting. I have set it for a month and it is identical to the Always fully charged option. It has never notified me when thresholds changed either. I do not recommend this setting.

Custom: This is where I have mine set and I recommend this. Following the Battery Guide, I set my battery to Start charging when below 36% and to Stop charging at 40%. The battery may not always follow this rule though. Due to a bug in the software, the only work around I know of is to always set your Custom settings while on battery and then plug your AC in.

Here are some example situations with these settings.

Your battery is at 50%. With start 36% and stop 40%, your battery charge will stay at 50% when plugged in.

Your battery is at 20%. Once plugged in, your battery will charge until 40% and stop.

Perform Reset...: This will perform a battery reset; which means to fully drain the battery and recharge it back to 100%. This will provide more accuracy in battery readings. Perform this about every 30 charge cycles.

After four months with this Custom setting and after 54 cycles, I have a Full charge capacity of 71.53 Wh. This is approximately 3.5 - 4 hrs with Wireless on and zero brightness.

 

I use 60/90. I never lose capacity with this threshold (with the finish charging at 90% being they key) unless Power Manager glitches up and keeps charging until 100%, I lose 200-500 mWH every 2 or 3 times this happens.

 

I set it at 50%-95%. so once a month I top it up 100% then drain it all the way to 2-3%. then 50-95 as normal. I dont see any problem on my battery.

 

I'm confused. I followed Arkitekt's wonderful guide. On his recommendation I did install the Power Manager. Seems like a lot of the presets are gone. I like to charge my battery to full and then use it as long as possible without ac. I have the 7 cell on a t61. I want the battery lifespan to last as long as possible, and I like each session to last as long as possible. Based on that, what would you guys recommend? Also, has anyone purchased a bay battery for the t61? Is it worth it?

Thanks in advance,

 

There's not really a win-win situation when it comes to battery usage. If you want long battery use, then that's going to put the battery through wear and usage. If you want to keep your battery for as long as you can, then follow my recommendations a few posts back in this thread, but it won't be fully charged at the spur of the moment when you need it.

 

I'm using a 40-50 charge cycle on mine right now. I'll charge it up to 100% when I know I'll be away from the AC for a long time.