Laptop battery...

[dimsum]

I got a Dell 8500 as a desktop replacment so i got the thing plug-in for power all the time.
Should i take out the battery? Why?

Thanks,

 

[deepakvrao]

I,m not sure but my new Acer has the same instructions. Would love to know the answer and infact the book says that you must charge the battery and then remove it.

 

[eriqesque]

I don't have a Dell or an Acer but if the batts are Li-Ion...
I see no reason as to why you would be told to remove them from the notebooks.

It does not harm Li-Ion batts to be plugged in all the time they will shut off the charging circuits when they are full
some wont even charge unless power falls below a certain percentage, this is a saving feature for the battery.

 

[Ravenit]

Aparently Li-ion batteries are only good for like say 400-600 charges before the battery starts to degrade and not hold a full charge. So pulling it out when on mains power is the way to go. There have been a few posts here lately on this topic so do a search and check them out..........

 

[laptopsguide]

Removing laptop battery when it's not in use is not a pleasant experience!

 

[Frightcrawler]

how long does a laptop battery last anyway? THe best buy people said 10-12 months, but I dont believe them at all.

 

[Bryans]

Originally posted by: Frightcrawler
how long does a laptop battery last anyway? THe best buy people said 10-12 months, but I dont believe them at all.

There is no exact ammount of time your battery will last, in general Lithium Ion batteries (like the one in your laptop) can be charged and discharged about 500 times before they start to deteriorate. If you fully charged and used up your battery everyday for a year you would be close to that '500 charges' number.

Best Buy salesmen will put things in the most pessamistic terms because they are interested in selling an extended warrenty/service plan on the laptop. Some people may consider this a good investment as it will offer additional protection to your purchase. If you are solely concerned about the life of your battery consider this: A new laptops battery should last at least 2 years of heavy use (charging dischaging almost everyday) before the battery deteriorated enough to be unusable, after 2 years you should be able to buy a new battery relatively cheaply.

 

[aakerman]

You should definitely take it out.. maybe it won't be damaged, but it won't cost you to take it out, and it's normally quite easy. If you are going to store it for a week or more, keep it at a state, where it is charged at about 40% of full capacity.

- It's true that it's not supposed to charge once it reaches 100%, but there is such a thing as trickle-charge

 

[Abhi]

Originally posted by: Frightcrawler
how long does a laptop battery last anyway? THe best buy people said 10-12 months, but I dont believe them at all.

I heard something close to 12-18 months.... varying with usage...

 

[eriqesque]

Originally posted by: aakerman
- It's true that it's not supposed to charge once it reaches 100%, but there is such a thing as trickle-charge

But once a Li-Ion battery reaches 100% the charging circut swithces off
and there is no trickle-charge.

 

[aakerman]

I've heard otherwise

Abhi: You can't put a time limit on them.. if you use your battery once a year, it'll last forever... but for an average user, 2-3 years

 

[Conroy9]

I always hear contradicting advice about taking care of li-ion batteries.

This article (batteryuniversity.com) has more technical details than most.

Basically, it says that batteries last longer if you recharge them before letting them discharge all the way, batteries have a limited lifetime independent of how you charge it, and the worst thing for batteries is heat.

Apparently, heat is the main reason you might want to take the battery out while you're using the computer and it's plugged in.

You're not supposed to store LIon batteries completely discharged.

Of course, this site says LIon batteries can't be trickle charged while Dell says they can. It sounds like Dell's "trickle charge" may be what batteryuniversity describes as "topping off" - charging the last few percent of the maximum charge.

 

[replicator]

Originally posted by: aakerman
I've heard otherwise

Abhi: You can't put a time limit on them.. if you use your battery once a year, it'll last forever... but for an average user, 2-3 years

Sorry, that is totally wrong. Even if you don't use your battery at all and just store it, it won't last forever. Probably a an extra year or two, but only able to hold a fraction of the charge.

"Li-ion batteries irreversibly lose approximately 20% capacity per year from the time they are manufactured, even when unused" wiki

On my laptop (T40), even if it is 96% and I plug in the AC it won't attempt to recharge. It has a certain threshold it needs to go below before it charges. So no trickle charge here, and I suspect, on most newer laptops.