6 Posts
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366
Prolong Lithium Ion battery life
I have an XPS 13 and love it, it is 3 years old and I just replaced the battery in it. I have cycled it a couple times and it's holding a charge for an amazing 10+ hours!
What is the best way to preserve the battery? I almost always have access to use a power cord so is it best to use it primarily on the charger all the time to preserve the battery? Or is it better to charge all the way and use it until most of the charge is gone and then charge it fully?
JMK526
6 Posts
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December 18th, 2020 06:00
Thanks @johnptd, this sounds like a good option. Can you tell me how to go into BIOS to change the charge settings?
johnptd
380 Posts
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December 18th, 2020 02:00
It is better to use either the Dell Power Manager or the relevant BIOS settings to set a maximum charge limit and a minimum recharge limit (most recommendations I have seen are 80% maximum charge, 50% minimum recharge). If you have the battery at full charge and use it powered by the battery for a short period of time, it will recharge it back to 100% when you plug it in again. If you do this continuously, the battery will go through many more recharge cycles than you want. That is the key. Limit the number of recharge cycles. I have a XPS 15 9550. After my first battery began to swell shortly after a year and Dell replaced it, I set up the battery charge range as defined above for the new battery.It is still in good shape although I do not use it on battery power a lot. It does not need to charge until it hits the 50% minimum charge number.
JohnD
JMK526
6 Posts
0
December 18th, 2020 06:00
Please disregard last, I was able to change to your recommended settings in the power manager!