Conditioning new battery

Any advice on conditioning a NEW T400 battey for maximum life?

Charge it up run the computer down....charge it up? My concern is that I will charge it and then run on battery and far before it is drained plug it back in....

Any tips or tricks. Does Lenovo have any procedure?

 

Don't drain it all the way - take it down to 10% or so and charge it up. Do this a few times and then exercise it regularly. Use the battery maintenance tool when prompted to do so.

 

Nope. You don't have to do anything.. Do NOT discharge it fully or nearabouts, just to cycle it.. It just reduces the battery life that way.. Partial discharges are much easier on Li-Ion batteries than full discharges. Read the battery guide for a detailed explanation.

 

do not discharge and charge up. this is not necessary. li-ion batteries have no "memory" and this will decrease battery life. this page is a good read;

http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm

also;

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=309726

you will have to decide if you want to fully (or nearly fully) charge the battery for the best battery life per charge, or if you want to keep the battery charged at a lower point, giving you less time per charge, but degrading the battery slower. in general, li-ion batteries like to be used 'gently.' the slower the discharge/charge rates, keeping the battery away from charge extremes (0 and 100%), and keeping the battery at approximately 40% charge will improve battery longevity. lenovo power manager is your friend.

 

But exercise is recommended, as opposed to keeping it at full charge (plugged in) constantly):

"A lithium-ion battery provides 300-500 discharge/charge cycles. The battery prefers a partial rather than a full discharge. Frequent full discharges should be avoided when possible. Instead, charge the battery more often or use a larger battery. There is no concern of memory when applying unscheduled charges.

Although lithium-ion is memory-free in terms of performance deterioration, batteries with fuel gauges exhibit what engineers refer to as "digital memory". Here is the reason: Short discharges with subsequent recharges do not provide the periodic calibration needed to synchronize the fuel gauge with the battery's state-of-charge. A deliberate full discharge and recharge every 30 charges corrects this problem. Letting the battery run down to the cut-off point in the equipment will do this. If ignored, the fuel gauge will become increasingly less accurate."

 

depends how one interprets it, though. it is recommended to have accurate estimate of charge, but not for battery life

 

Well, my personal experience with Li-Ion batteries laptops and RC planes is that if you don't exercise them, they lose life pretty quickly. Most recently, I have a fairly new T61 and kept it plugged in and fully charged nearly all the time. Its battery barely lasts an hour now and used to be twice that when it was new.

 

I don't refute that. I was talking about what it says in your post.

"Short discharges with subsequent recharges do not provide the periodic calibration needed to synchronize the fuel gauge with the battery's state-of-charge."

 

kboyer- keeping it plugged in and fully charged is likely what killed your battery, not the no exercise. full charge for li-ion decreases capacity pretty quickly, even more quickly when it gets charged from 96-100% as is the default on most laptops. this constant 'topping off' to 100% will decrease battery capacity significantly in a year.

 

Keeping it plugged and fully charged is the same thing as no exercise.

 

hey, kboyer. keep in mind i'm trying to HELP you, not prove you wrong. keeping it plugged in and fully charged is not the same as no exercise. why? you could also, with the help of lenovo power manager, keep it plugged in and 40% charged, also no exercise. under this scenario, however, your battery would surely not be half dead after a year. i sincerely suggest you read up on li-ion battery care, as it will keep you from killing your batteries so soon, and save you some dollars as well.

for your information;
battery guide

this page is a good read;

http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm

also;

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=309726

these have all been posted earlier in this very thread. for the sake of your batteries and your wallet, read them. also, please look at this table from batteryuniversity. at 100% charge and 60 degrees C, your battery is at estimated to be at 60% of its initial capacity after THREE MONTHS! moral of the story? heat and constant full charging are bad for battery capacity.

 

No it isn't. Li-ion batteries do not like to be stored at a full charge, this is especially true if they get warm (attached to a hot running laptop). It would have been much better if you set charge thresholds between 30 and 50%. This would keep your battery at about 40%. This is much gentler on Li-Ion batteries for long term storage/no exercise. You could even leaved the battery plugged into the laptop as a UPS or for quick jaunts on battery.