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Is keeping laptop plugged @ 100% bad for longevity of battery?

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poohbear

Platinum Member
Hey all, i just bought a Zenbook UX32LN ultrabook and love it! but since it has a built in battery, i really wanna maximize the longevity of it (hopefully 3-4 years atleast!) It seems unanimous from all the googling i've done that dropping below 10% battery life is bad for newer lithium-ion based batteries. so that's done.

However, there seems to be alot of contradictory articles about if we should keep them plugged in @ 100% or only letting them hit 80%. My friends Samsung Ultrabook has an option to stop charging at 80% as that's apparently the optimum level for the battery and it won't degenerate as quick over the years. I also read that Apple also recommended not surpassing 80%, but that their battery chargers actually report 100% when its really 80%, so they have circumvented that problem. Other articles also said the battery should always be between 40-80% charged to maximize longevity. Which is true? if the 40-80 rule is true, wouldn't i just be charging and recharging constantly instead of just letting it go from 100% to 10-20%?

here's the original article about the 40-80 rule:

Keeping Your Laptop Plugged in All the Time Will Kill Its Battery Faster | Gadget Lab | WIRED

and another saying u can just leave it plugged in all the time with no worries:

Top 5 laptop battery myths - which did you believe?

again, many others argue for both, so which is it in 2014 models? thank you for any insight u guys might have!
 
I keep my laptop plugged all the time, but the battery is removed and stored at approx. 50% charge. This has worked for years. I only put the battery in when on travel.
 
A lithium ion battery looses about 20% of its capacity after about 500 full cycles of charge and discharge. If you only discharge to 50% and then go back to 100% then its only half of one of those cycles. Heat can decrease that count a little bit and the battery looses less charge when its not being used in the mid range (40-80%). The 10% charge is actually defended by the batteries electronics, what Windows tells you is 0% is actually 10% left otherwise you could damage the battery. Equally the electronics stop it overcharging (it would explode).

So you don't need to do anything. If you want to leave it always plugged in then that is fine, it wont do it any more or less harm than using the laptop unplugged. Equally you don't need to manually try and manage the battery charge, you can just do what you need with the laptop and that is it.
 
i see, thanks brightcande! so if i keep it in te 40-80% range all the time (pain in the butt to keep recharging it up to 80% from 40% every time), then it WILL extend the amount of cycles? U pointed out it loses less charge in the mid range. Or is it simply not worth the hassle? Sorry just want to be sure.
 
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Yup it's best to keep Li-Ion type cells at ~50% when stored, that goes for cell phone batteries,remote control car batteries, etc. And I think it's normal that after 3-5 months within purchasing a laptop that the battery loses about 6% capacity, it's been almost the same for all my laptops that I've had.

Yeah sucks that some laptops has built in battery, can't do a lot about that.
 
poohbear said:
i see, thanks brightcande! so if i keep it in te 40-80% range all the time (pain in the butt to keep recharging it up to 80% from 40% every time), then it WILL extend the amount of cycles? U pointed out it loses less charge in the mid range. Or is it simply not worth the hassle? Sorry just want to be sure.
Click to expand...

No it wont extend the life at all to keep it in the 40-80% range. What I said is that the batteries loose less charge in that range, it only really impacts how long a battery can be left uncharged. You can't just have a lithium ion battery sit around for a year and then expect it to work properly, it wont. But they do loose less charge in that range but not cycles.

Its not worth doing anything special to maintain your battery. Li-ion's are dead easy to keep healthy, you just keep them charged.
 
And, that is why, when I decide to get an ultrabook, it will have a user replaceable battery. 🙂
 
eh, i've left my dell/alienware m11x r1 (2010) plugged in all the time except when using it on battery, and the battery still has ~80% the battery life in comparison to when it was new.

I don't use it much on battery anymore, but for the 1st ~ 2 years I'd take it to classes (~6-7 hour battery life typing notepad/word, with light web browsing). I didn't have to bring my power adapter.
 
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Thank u for the input everyone! as long as i can keep taking it out for 4~5 hours use a day on battery ill be super happy.

BrightCandle said:
No it wont extend the life at all to keep it in the 40-80% range. What I said is that the batteries loose less charge in that range, it only really impacts how long a battery can be left uncharged. You can't just have a lithium ion battery sit around for a year and then expect it to work properly, it wont. But they do loose less charge in that range but not cycles.

Its not worth doing anything special to maintain your battery. Li-ion's are dead easy to keep healthy, you just keep them charged.
Click to expand...

Ah ok, understood thanks for clarifying!! Yea sometimes enthusiasts look at every angle to maximize performance & efficiency, but guess ultrabooks can just take care of themselves. Thanks again!

Also, if i needlessly charge & discharge when the power plug is right there, that takes away from the number of total charge cycles it has, correct?
 
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Batteries do degrade faster with higher charge and higher temperatures.

Then agian the electronics in the batteries make sure they never get to full charge so they last longer. I wouldn't worry too much about it.
 
Newer laptops with lower TDP's like those Celeron N2920 or Pentium N3530 7.5W or A6-5400 15W with a decent 6-cell battery pack can last around 6 hours (my A4-5000 laptop does, kind of). If you're using one of those A10-5750M or i5 4200U or i7 4700QM it'll last like 2.5 hours. Seems lower end laptops are made for being on battery longer.
 
Everything I own is plugged in as much as possible, whether that's a laptop or ipod.

All my stuff has lasted over 6 years and some 10 so I think i'm doing fine if I still have the original batteries for them.
 
I wouldn't recommend taking the battery out of the laptop, since it acts as a UPS and protects your data and electronic equipment.
 
to clarify my last question, if my ultrabook is rated as having 400-500 charge cycles over its lifetime, and i keep it plugged in all the time, will i still have those 400-500 charge cycles in 1-2 years since i never used them? The reasoning is this: the laptop is always plugged in, so i never used any of those 400-500 charge cycles, so the battery will still be able to perform 400-500 in a years time cause i never used them. is that somewhat correct?
 
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