Battery Management and Battery Wear

So just got a x200s and discovered the battery threshold settings in power manager. I read charging to a maximum of 80% will prolong the life of the battery, but is it really worth it in the long run?

In 2-3 years how much time (max chargeable capcity) will I have saved by managing my battery? Things like 80% max charge, 40% min before charging, removing the battery when running on AC or when the laptop is off. Is it worth doing all of these things? Especially considering 80% roof means I'll be getting less usage off a single charge.

As a side note, how accurate is power manager for you guys? For me it seems that all it does is take your current watt usage and divide your current capacity by the drain (as opposed to BatteryBar which statistically calculates your battery life). Between windows, batterybar and power manager, I usually have different predictions with a variation of 1-2 hours.

 

I use 40-95%. The biggest thing is to avoid the constant "topping off" the battery and completely draining it.

 

Glad to see you asked that.... I've been a big advocate of NO on that question. If you are a true mobile user, just use your freaking battery man. Let it do what it was intended to do. Assuming they are cells of respectable quality you'll still get A LOT of good use out of them. Why cut your self short on run time to prolong your life by an extra month. Batteries are wearable, expendable products. When it's life is up, just buy a new one. If you are a mobile user, it's worth it to you and it's money well spent.

This is just my opinion, I know there are those of you who defend 40-80% style charges to get every last day out of your batter you can, and if that's your thing, by all means go to it. I'm just not into that extreme of penny pinching.

The one thing I will agree with is the continuous topping off comment. Having the battery not charge until you've at least used it is a good thing. I had an HP that would charge EVERY time you plugged it in even if you used .1 watts of power. That's not healthy. So either stick with the stock 96% threshold or perhaps lower it to 90% or something for when to begin a charge.

 

I don't think any of us use 80% as the high end threshold. We usually do 95% if we're going for a "full charge". That doesn't mean you can't adjust it to 100% when you really need it.

Use it how you want, just don't keep topping off when you don't really need to and don't have it down to 0% when siting for long periods. If you aren't going to use it for a few weeks then about 40% is good. Make sure to do battery resets every so often.

But, ya, just use it.

 

Totally agree with Infinus and jaredy.

I've been setting mine to start charging at 88% and to stop at 93%

It's been working out fine so far. It also helps if you get an "love handle" for your T400 (my model and a love handle is a six-cell) and take your charged up four-cell if you need more power. That's what I do when I'm in classes and on the road. So far it's been working out fine

 

Sounds like some of this might be moot as I've read reports from some with the new 510 machines that the battery thresholds aren't working. It would be a shame to see Lenovo pull that, I think it's great to give people the ability to use it in the way the wish to.

 

That sucks. That is one of the great aspects of a thinkpad. Battery management is key!

 

Thanks for the advice guys, I think I'll settle on 90% max with 40% min start.

Another question though, what about battery temperature while plugged into AC? Power Manager reports 30 C, too high?

 

While running it'll get a small amount of heat from the machine itself. I think that's fine.

 

If you don't have a docking station, the battery shouldn't ever get too hot. 30C is fine. Docked, which gives no airflow, is usually 34/35C for me. My machine runs hotter overall while being docked.

 

I use 30-95% on my T500's 9-cell battery. When I am plugged in and know I won't be moving my Thinkpad around for a while, I usually take out the battery and put it in my desk drawer, where it's nice and cool.

On a side note, the new T410, T510, and W510 lack the manual battery threshold feature, unfortunately.

 

I just found that out and posted in the W510 owners' thread - that sucks, since Power Manager Help says it's supposed to be there! Where did you get this info?

 

In this thread:
http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkVa...y-life-quot-in-Power-Manager/m-p/204741#M9632

Ken from Lenovo says custom thresholds will be back in the next version of power manager, and also explains what "Automatic" mode does.

 

That is very good news. I was worried that Lenovo took out one of the key features that brings me back to Thinkpads.