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Best way to charge/discharge the battery
Hello Everyone,
I have been researching this topic for a while and I am curious what is your experience and feedback. I know that I should not run it on AC 24/h but how about regular use.
0. First of all this is a brand new laptop, is there any "breaking in" of a new battery that I should do?
1. Some websites recommend to never fully discharge the battery and top it off often. Doesnt it eat up charging cycles which are limited?
2. Should I stop using it when the charge drops to 20% and recharge or recharge whenever convinient?
3. Should I always top-off and avoid short rechargers?
Your respose will be appreciated!
XPS 1530
ejn63
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87.5K Posts
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April 12th, 2009 08:00
0. First of all this is a brand new laptop, is there any "breaking in" of a new battery that I should do?
No.
1. Some websites recommend to never fully discharge the battery and top it off often. Doesnt it eat up charging cycles which are limited?
No. Cycles are counted according to an algorithm, not by the actual number of times you plug in the charger. NEVER, EVER completely discharge a lithium ion battery - doing so just one time can permanently damage it.
2. Should I stop using it when the charge drops to 20% and recharge or recharge whenever convinient?
Yes.
3. Should I always top-off and avoid short rechargers?
Absolutely. Any sign of damage to the charger should mean immediate replacement - you risk a $150 battery or expensive mainboard damage for the sake of a $35 power supply.
Rebel9
2.9K Posts
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April 12th, 2009 09:00
In addition to ejn63's response, have a look at this site. There's a lot of great information and pointers regarding batteries and their maintenance here.
Tech7
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April 12th, 2009 10:00
There are many types of batteries out there; each with it's own set of issues. Most modern laptops use Li-Ion batteries. Li-Ion batteries should not need "exercising" as other types may.... So just use your laptop and plug it in when you can. 20%(remaining) is a good target, but I would not discharge them more than 90% (10% remaining). The rate of charge is the critical thing for Li-Ion cells, so use the power adapter designed for your laptop. No need to "break in."
You should be able to run your laptop on AC as often as you wish. The battery should not over charge... In the past, batteries that were kept charged, would not "hold a charge" well when they were needed. This is not true with Li-Ion. In fact, they can rival non-rechargeable Alkaline batteries!
All batteries discharge when not in use. The greatest thing about Li-Ion Batteries is that the discharge very slowly when not in use.
Check out this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery
mrxmry
2 Posts
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April 12th, 2009 21:00
Hey! Thanks for a fast response. My issue was that if I keep the laptop running on AC for a longer time, 5-10hrs straight, does that not make the battery hotter - decreases its life. I think that what happened to my old laptop - the battery did not last a year - I kept it on for prolonged periods of time quiet often.
Therefore, wouldn't it be better to recharge to 100%, unplug, and use until it is down to 20% and recharge again when needed?
Or is using the battery a lot puts it to death quicker than overheating...
Also, when I recharge, is it better to always recharge completely or partial rechargers are ok too?
I know the battery will not last forever but I dont want to kill it too soon...
kirkd
5.2K Posts
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April 13th, 2009 08:00
Leave the battery in always. If you remove it, then you can't unplug and use it easily at an unpowered location.
When the battery is completely charged, the charging stops till needed again. The battery contains circuity to control the charge (Info-Lithium).
The battery will NOT overheat when in the laptop.
You can set the power options to alert you when you reach whatever charge level you set. You can also have it shut down when low on charge. The battery can become un-useable if discharged too deeply. It is not necessarfly shot, but the circuity disables the charging function, as recharging a deeply discharged Lithium battery can be dangerous. There is equipment that will fix this condition, but it might cost more to fix it than buy a new battery. This same problem can occur if the battery is discharged to a low charge condition and then removed and stored without re-charging.
Contrary to popular myth, these batteries are not programmed to stop working after some fixed number of discharges/charges.
Tech7
39 Posts
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April 13th, 2009 09:00
There are two ways to look at the state of a battery. A fully charged battery could be said to be 0% discharge, or 100% charge. So when you read articles, be sure you know which they are using! For the sake of this discussion, I will use the % of charge (a full battery would be 100%).
A graph of a normal battery discharge would be a nice curve from 100%, down to the point where you begin charging it. Older battery types would "remember" the state of charge. This was not by design, but by the nature of the materials used. If you often charged a battery to 90% and began discharging (using it without the power adapter), after some time, the battery would only charge to 90%. Likewise, if you began charging at say, 30% all the time, the battery would discharge very rapidly below 30%. So, If you regularly discharged to 30% and only charged to 90%, the battery would develop a "memory." Now the graph for this battery would start at 90%, discharge somewhat normally until 30%, where it would drop to zero!
To combat this situation, we would "exercise" a battery. It didn't always work, but usually, you could take the battery with a memory, charge it fully, discharge it to 20%, and repeat the process over and over until it would regain the lost capacity. In fact, stand-alone chargers often had a built-in discharge feature to aid in this process! So the best practice then, was to fully charge a battery, and recharge it when it reached 20% (below 20% cell could "reverse" destroying the entire set).
The XPS1530 uses a Li-Ion battery. The materials used to make these cells do not develop a memory, but as far as I know, ANY cell can reverse, so you should be careful not to discharge it too low. I set my power profile to warn at 20% and shutdown at 10%. Beyond that, I just use the laptop however I need!
NetSkipper
3 Posts
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May 28th, 2009 06:00
Hello everyone.
Didn't want to start a new thread so I'll post it here.
I have Dell Vostro 1310 with 6-cell battery and nVidia 8400m GS. Mostly I'm using it AC plugged-in. And if I'm using it on battery, I'm almost never using below 50%.
Recently I've noticed, that when I'm completely shutting the notebook off after usage on AC (no hibernate or stand-by), in the morning (or ~8 hours later) when I'm turning it on, the battery is 93%-95% only of it's capacity. I thought it was after A15 BIOS upgrade, and I've downgraded back to A13, but still no change.
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance.
speedstep
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May 28th, 2009 06:00
First time breakin is to leave the battery on charge for at least 16 hours.
Then store in cool dry place when not used. COOL NOT FREEZING.
Re charge battery every month or so.
Never completely discharge battery to ZERO.
Doing those simple things allows batterys to last for Years.