Better to keep battery constantly charged or use down and recharge?

[jtvang125]

I have a desk job so I always just keep it plugged and charged all day. Would it be better on the battery if I cycle the battery by using it down and recharging?

 

[Oyeve]

I have been hearing this for years and I have never seen any benefits to it. I have several gadgets and always have them plugged in. I have yet to see any benefits in cycling the battery or not.

 

[Commodus]

I have a desk job so I always just keep it plugged and charged all day. Would it be better on the battery if I cycle the battery by using it down and recharging?

The short answer: it's okay to leave it plugged in most of the time, but you may periodically (every month or two) want to drain it down until you get the low battery warning, then charge it back to full.

The stories of batteries suffering unless you frequently cycle them aren't true, but it won't hurt to give them a workout every now and then.

 

[corkyg]

Just for giggles, what kind of device are you talking about? Laptop? Phone? Tablet? Is battery removable or fixed? BTW - I fully support the above responses.

 

[ChronoReverse]

If it's a modern lithium ion battery in a modern phone, it's better to leave it plugged in than to let it drain down before recharging. Full cycles are the hardest on batteries, although leaving it topped off isn't the best either.

If you're OCD, then you can keep the battery between around 40% and 80% area to minimize wear and tear even under usage.

Store batteries around 60% in a cool area.

 

[Oyeve]

If it's a modern lithium ion battery in a modern phone, it's better to leave it plugged in than to let it drain down before recharging. Full cycles are the hardest on batteries, although leaving it topped off isn't the best either.

If you're OCD, then you can keep the battery between around 40% and 80% area to minimize wear and tear even under usage.

Store batteries around 60% in a cool area.

See, thats just too much work.

 

[ChronoReverse]

See, thats just too much work.

Hence why I said OCD. I just leave my phone plugged in and don't worry about not having enough juice when I take it with me.

 

[soccerballtux]

all of the people I know who complain about having crap battery life recharge their phone at every chance.

none of the people I know who recharge sparingly have battery life problems that aren't app related.

 

[soccerballtux]

If it's a modern lithium ion battery in a modern phone, it's better to leave it plugged in than to let it drain down before recharging. Full cycles are the hardest on batteries, although leaving it topped off isn't the best either.

If you're OCD, then you can keep the battery between around 40% and 80% area to minimize wear and tear even under usage.

Store batteries around 60% in a cool area.

no, it's a function of how much power passes through the battery, not the charge cycles. 2000 charge cycles at 75% or 500 charge cycles at 0%, it's all the same amount of power used before the battery wears out

and they're recommended stored at 40%, not 60%. After a year at 100% they only can hold 80% of the capacity they had at the beginning of the year. At 40%, they still maintain 96% of capacity.

 

[ChronoReverse]

no, it's a function of how much power passes through the battery, not the charge cycles. 2000 charge cycles at 75% or 500 charge cycles at 0%, it's all the same amount of power used before the battery wears out

Full discharge cycles are not the same as partial cycles. Full cycles wear out the battery much quicker. Faster discharging and recharging also has a similar effect.

You'll find that a battery will wear out much quick if you discharge it 100% to 0% 300 times versus 100% to 50%, 600 times.



As for the storage point, you're correct. I was only working from memory there. The real point is to not store at 100% or 0% and anything else is marginal differences.

 

[rumpleforeskin]

If it's a Li-ion battery you are best keeping it charged as often as is practical.

With Li-ion batteries the depth of discharge (DoD) will determine the number of charge cycles in the batteries life. The shorter the discharge (low DoD), the longer the battery will last.

Full discharges (high DoD) or exposure to high temperatures have the significant effect on reducing the batteries longevity. Though it is worth noting that when a phone or laptop reports a battery being empty there is still significant charge actually present within the battery, this is by design and to prevent the battery entering a high DoD state.

Its also worth mentioning that Li-ion batteries have no memory and the battery does not benefit from a full discharge. Though sometimes this may be required to calibrate your battery gauge on your device as these can become quite inaccurate if you do a lot of short charges.

 

[eelw]

Don't forget heat. This is bigger killer over constant topping up or full discharges.

 

[soccerballtux]

Full discharge cycles are not the same as partial cycles. Full cycles wear out the battery much quicker. Faster discharging and recharging also has a similar effect.

You'll find that a battery will wear out much quick if you discharge it 100% to 0% 300 times versus 100% to 50%, 600 times.

Twice as quick.

It's not 'much more', battery university has good info on this

And they're $12 to replace too, so...not really any point in not doing it.

And I stands by my claim that the only people I've known that need new batteries are the ones plugging in all the time

 

[core2slow]

I try to deplete the battery before charging it back up.

 

[blankslate]

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries

This page seems to support the don't discharge the battery down to low capacity or discharge fully very often. It also seems to suggest that bringing the battery to full capacity about 4.2 volts for many lithium batteries is also stressful.

What I do is carry a spare or two and swap in the spare(s) when my phone discharges to 50% that keeps me able to use my phone heavily through the day without having to recharge.

When I am able to charge I charge the batteries in an external charger that has an output of 600mA. Sure it takes longer but it also (imo) stresses the battery less as well.

Occasionally if I have to I do charge with the 2 amp charger that came with the phone.


....

 

[MrSquished]

I read somewhere that apple recommends (for its laptops) that it is fine to run the laptop plugged in most of the time. just once every couple of weeks let it run down to like 40% or so.

 

[HeXen]

My wife always kept her laptop plugged in.. it did eventually kill the battery. I cycle my Macbook, I always drain it until I plug it in and I can monitor the battery lifecycle which has tons of detail.

Speaking of...I'm down to 2%, time to get off here and plug in for a while.

 

[ChronoReverse]

Twice as quick.

It's not 'much more', battery university has good info on this

And they're $12 to replace too, so...not really any point in not doing it.

And I stands by my claim that the only people I've known that need new batteries are the ones plugging in all the time

You got your 40% number earlier from Battery University like everyone does. If you don't pick and choose, Battery University also supports not doing full discharges.