Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Some say always leave plugged in to be 100% charged. Others say let it run down/per month to zero, & then fully recharge to 100%, & then let it go to about 60-70% & unplug til next use when stored. Some say keep plugged in ALL times if you can, & only use battery when not near outlets. Anyone have the BEST way to conserve a battery?
I have a 1 yr old Lenovo that I use every few days & leave it off charger daily but it is still full charge when I start it, & when it runs down a bit to like 70%, then I either plug it in til it is 100% (& unplug it again til next few days again use) or let it run down (after charging back to 100%) down to about 60-70% -- & store off charger til the next 3 days use again.
Which way is best? Allow it ALL to run down monthly then chsrge fully back up or allow only 60-70% to be left when I store it off charger or always leave it on charger etc. @ 100% charged? I'm still lost here after a yr w/ this laptop yet.
It is ALWAYS off charger & not plugged in, &it is just fully charged or sits @ 60-70% -- when I restart days later.
Some say always leave plugged in to be 100% charged. Others say let it run down/per month to zero, & then fully recharge to 100%, & then let it go to about 60-70% & unplug til next use when stored. Some say keep plugged in ALL times if you can, & only use battery when not near outlets. Anyone have the BEST way to conserve a battery?
I have a 1 yr old Lenovo that I use every few days & leave it off charger daily but it is still full charge when I start it, & when it runs down a bit to like 70%, then I either plug it in til it is 100% (& unplug it again til next few days again use) or let it run down (after charging back to 100%) down to about 60-70% -- & store off charger til the next 3 days use again.
Which way is best? Allow it ALL to run down monthly then chsrge fully back up or allow only 60-70% to be left when I store it off charger or always leave it on charger etc. @ 100% charged? I'm still lost here after a yr w/ this laptop yet.
It is ALWAYS off charger & not plugged in, &it is just fully charged or sits @ 60-70% -- when I restart days later.
Feel free to DM me if you want to clarify this.
Thanks all.
Batteries can only be charged so many times during their lifetime before they go bad and most batteries cost about $150 to replace. What I did was buy a UPS and when I use my laptop in my home at a fixed place then I take the battery out and connect it to the UPS and run it that way and only when I am moving around or not at a set place do I run it on the laptop battery.
I have also set up my wife's laptop that way since she basically uses it as a desktop and does not move around with it, so her battery is only in the laptop once a month and she runs it down then until it says to recharge it and then recharges it that way and then removes it again, keeping it fully charged until a month later for the next cycle.
A battery out of a laptop will eventually lose its charge, so best to cycle it down and then charge it around once a month. Doing as you do and only letting it go to 60 or 70% IMO is not the best thing for a battery, better to run it down until the laptop says to recharge it and then charge it again.
Some laptops such as Dell switch to power after the battery is fully charged, I will take a guess on those they are okay to keep plugged in but to also run them down and then recharge it around once a month.
I don't think I've ever paid close that much for new replacement Dell laptop batteries.
Factory batteries cost more but knock off batteries can be bought cheap on ebay or elsewhere online. My point is why ruin the original batter when it can last for many years and most likely the lifetime of the laptop. I have a compaq laptop and my wife has an HP laptop both with Vista and both are almost 5 years old now and the batteries are still like new. I am pretty sure the laptops will go bad before the batteries do the way we use them.
Some say always leave plugged in to be 100% charged. Others say let it run down/per month to zero, & then fully recharge to 100%, & then let it go to about 60-70% & unplug til next use when stored. Some say keep plugged in ALL times if you can, & only use battery when not near outlets. Anyone have the BEST way to conserve a battery?
I have a 1 yr old Lenovo that I use every few days & leave it off charger daily but it is still full charge when I start it, & when it runs down a bit to like 70%, then I either plug it in til it is 100% (& unplug it again til next few days again use) or let it run down (after charging back to 100%) down to about 60-70% -- & store off charger til the next 3 days use again.
Which way is best? Allow it ALL to run down monthly then chsrge fully back up or allow only 60-70% to be left when I store it off charger or always leave it on charger etc. @ 100% charged? I'm still lost here after a yr w/ this laptop yet.
It is ALWAYS off charger & not plugged in, &it is just fully charged or sits @ 60-70% -- when I restart days later.
Factory batteries cost more but knock off batteries can be bought cheap on ebay or elsewhere online. My point is why ruin the original batter when it can last for many years and most likely the lifetime of the laptop. I have a compaq laptop and my wife has an HP laptop both with Vista and both are almost 5 years old now and the batteries are still like new. I am pretty sure the laptops will go bad before the batteries do the way we use them.
I call BS on this. No laptop battery runs as long as it did when new even after 2 years.
No way the lifetime of the laptop.
I call BS on this. No laptop battery runs as long as it did when new even after 2 years.
No way the lifetime of the laptop.
Well it has worked for me and I will continue to use the same method because of it. Before the current laptops I had a Sony I kept for 5 years before selling it to a friend who needed one and the battery on that still held a charge for over 2 hours.
My current laptops hold a charge for within minutes of what it did after about the fifth or sixth charge, so maybe I am just lucky or maybe my way does work to keep the batteries as close to new as possible.
While I agree no battery will be as good as a new battery after it had been charged a few times, mine seem to work pretty close. Seeing is believing for me.
@plwhit And to answer your post, how many times have we all seen keyboard commando who profess to know more than others who have actually done it and therefore know it works.
I am far from an expert on anything, I only know what works for me.
BTW your 16 to 18 months might be true if you were charging and discharging almost daily but if you read my post, I only charge my batteries about once a month because I use a UPS when the unit is being used fixed.
The laptop I am using is 1 year and 1 day old. I've used the default battery charging settings and leave the battery in while plugged in. I usually go through one charge cycle per day. So after 1 year and 1 day, my battery has 96.23% of its original charging capacity left.
I wouldn't be concerned about battery degradation. I'll look up the details of one of my older laptops later.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
