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How to store laptop battery?

S

statetech

Senior member
I just recently purchased a Inspiron 4100 via Hot Deals 🙂

I'd like to store my battery away since I mostly use the laptop at home. Hopefully this should extend the life of the battery as long as possible. Should I completely discharge the battery prior to storage?
 
I'd like to store my battery away since I mostly use the laptop at home. Hopefully this should extend the life of the battery as long as possible. Should I completely discharge the battery prior to storage?

Absolutely not.

There are a few rules for batteries that should be observed in order to prevent inability to charge and the development of a charge memory. They work kinda like the rules for Mogwai.

1. Never store a fully discharged battery for an extended length of time. Any battery that will not be used within a day should be stored in a fully charged condition.

2. Never recharge a battery that has not reached at least 25% or less of its discharged capacity. It's even better to wait until a battery is completely dead or indicating that it will soon fail to power the device. Waiting an hour or two after that probably won't hurt either.

3. Never leave your battery in extreme heat or cold. This is especially true if the battery is not fully charged. You may never be able to get a good charge out of it again...
 
LiIon batteries (like the one's in most recent notebooks) do not generate a charge memory, so you can recharge whenever you want to. They only last for a limited number of DEEP recharges though. Recharging from 80% to 100% dosen't use up as much battery life as recharging from 10% to 100%. Basicly, just use the stinking battery and don't worry about it 😉

Other than that, the other two bits of info above do hold true. If you store your battery discharged, and the charge drops below a certain amount, the battery will become permanently damaged. Under normal use, this is generly prevented from happening by the circutry in the battery, but this is not the case when it has gone unused for a long period of time (I think the cut off voltage is 2.5V) Prolonged exposure to heat and cold also affect battery life.
 
Here are some reallife facts. We have quite a few batteries at work for testing with. Some don't get used for half a year because the laptop that uses them doesn't come in for service very often. Anyway, those batteries work just fine, and I doubt that those batteries were put away with a full charge. More likely than not, they are put away completely discharged.
 
Most laptop manufacturers recommend that you store LiOh batteries with about 1/2 charge. Compaq has this written in the manuals. Mine came with 2 batteries and both came with about 52-56% charge.
 
Dont leave the battewry in the laptop if its plugged in. The batter leaks for a whole and then charges for a while ultimatly degrading the battery, same for Li ion as well as NiMH
 
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