Battery capacity

So I have a 9 cell battery for my T60p that came with my computer. Then about 6 months later, I bought the ultrabay battery. The former got recalled, so I got a replacement, which to my dismay is also a recall battery, so its been replaced right now. I have also ended up buying an additional 9 cell.

So with after using around 5 batteries so far, I noticed that after a low 30-40 recharge cycles, the capacities all go down to about 55-60% of full capacity. I know Li-Ion cells have life cycles, but they are usually at least 400 charge cycles not 30-40!

Is this problem commonplace? I also just learned that any batteries I buy now assume the warranty of the original battery (which means no warranty); is this true? I know I won't be getting warranty on the old replacements but if I pay full price for a battery shouldn't I get warranty up to a year on it?

Thanks.

 

How are you using your batteries? Are you draining them all the way down to 0% and then back up to 100% each time?

If so, that's not healthy for a battery because it will significantly lower the life cycle.

Look through the Battery Guide here on NBR for more info.

 

Yes that's about how I use it. I have work and stuff to do on the go. If I can't use it to its capacity then what's the point? Also I do only use it to around 5%.

 

Have you tried doing a battery calibration through the Lenovo power management software on the batteries? I've put 30 cycles on my ultra bay, due to the way the ultra bay is used all of those are from 100 percent down to 0 percent and it still reports full capacity and lasts 1.5 hours. My 9 cell in my computer started reporting 88kwh, and decreased down to 82 over it's first 15 cycles. I did a calibration and it went back to 88 kwh. I think the meter just gets off if it doesn't run all the way to 0 every so often. I think they recommend a calibration every 20-30 cycles or so.

 

Yeah, I did a calibration and it says I have poor main and secondary batteries (capacity is <60% and <50% respectively).

 

Lithium Ion batteries like to be charged. It's OK to run them completely down from time to time, but not as normal practice. I usually plug in if/when I can, as I never know how long sometimes I will be away from AC. This generally means I carry my adapter to any meeting I know is going to be longer than an hour. I like the screen brighter anyway and the higher performance on AC.

 

Seems to me that something isn't right if you are getting such low numbers after only 30 cycles. Even an abused Lithium batter should fair better then that.