Do you always top-off battery?

Just wonder....
I usually leave the battery installed all the time. Not fully discharged and mostly plugged in. So, my batt will be recharged when it's around 50-80%. However, I have run down to 10% once every few recharges.

I wonder if that's the best practice to extend battery life? Sure, it's most convenient. Removing batt everytime when plug in is not practical.

What is your practice?

It's an R61.

 

to me, it's not worth the price to not have it fully charged...even when I think I may not need it....mine will run from 100 down to 8-10% a few times a week and charges when below 95%. time is money...if I have to buy a battery every two years instead of every three...its fine with me as long as I'm not fighting a battery at 50-80% off the charger or looking to find an outlet in the airport.

my wh is 71.89 after 55 cycles
design capacity is 65.52 wh

 

Have a look at the Battery Guide for best practices. It'll explain how the battery works and what you should and should not do to get the best battery life out of it.

Important things to remember:
-Lithium-ion batteries will always age from the day they are built. So if you use it or not, they will still age.
-Fully discharging them will damage them (that's why they are all set to shut off before the charge goes down to 0%).
-Heat makes the battery age faster. So if you don't use the battery, bringing the charge down to about 40% and storing it in a cool place will extend the life of your battery.
-You should calibrate your battery once every 30 charges or so (bring the charge down to about 10% and charge it all the way).
-Keeping the notebook plugged into the AC power all the time means the battery is always being topped-off, which uses up some of charge cycles. Note that this is almost neglectable. Also note that battery temperature is higher when on AC power, and heat makes the battery age faster.

Those are some key things to note. Now it's up to you how far you want to take it. I almost never use my battery, I'm usually running off the AC power. I still have my battery in my notebook (so that it serves as a back-up if I lose power). So my battery is pretty much always at 100% charge and plugged in. My notebook is a little over 1 year old and the battery wear is about 15%. If I had stored it, it would probably be better but it's not that important to me so I don't really care. I use my battery more as a back-up to the AC power and don't really care how many hours I can get out of it. So it really depends on how important your battery is to you.

 

so keeping the battery on while its on AC paower at 100% is bad??

can I run my t61 withuot a battery?? without any problems?

 

Keeping it at 100% isn't optimal. You can do so, but it's not recommended.

The only danger/risk to using your laptop primarily on AC without battery is the loss of information. If for some reason the AC power is unplugged, your computer will shut off. With the batter in there, you'll have backup.

If you're going to use AC power a lot and battery not much at all, then I recommend setting a charge threshold at ~40% and leaving the battery in.

 

absolutely !

mine is always charged.

 

Panasonic, a leader in Lithium-Ion R&D and manufacturing, has discovered that you can extend the lifespan of a Lithium-Ion battery by charging to 80% of capacity. They have implemented this as "Eco mode" on their ToughBook line of notebooks.

See the bottom of: http://panasonic.co.jp/pavc/global/toughbook/business_mobile/long_battery_life/

We ThinkPad users can achieve the same result by setting the options in the Power Manager under Battery Maintenance. I got mine set to start charging at 60% and stop charging at 80%.

 

Hi folks,

I know this is a 4-5 months old thread ... but I did not want to repost ...

@ msb0b ... is there a special reason you picked your low end at 60% level ... or is it just a comfort zone for you. Reason I am asking is because I keep seeing the 40% as the threshold for "Storing" of the battery ... So ...

Q: Would a low end of 40% and high end of 80% be the IDEAL point for someone like me who his laptop is plugged into the wall 8 or 10 hours a day ... not necessarily being used ... but just plugged in?

Thanks,

G!

 

99% of the time I'm on AC but I like having the battery there as a backup and its just more convenient when moving to another room in the house. I read somewhere here on NBR that 40% is ideal too and someone suggested putting the max threshold at 40 and the min at ~35 if you don't use the battery very often so thats what I do.

 

First of all, Lithium ion cells can go through a finite number of charges cycles before it wears out. Somewhere between 200 and 400 cycles. The goal is not to prematurely use up those charge cycles. I can take my T60 on a short stroll to the conference room or where ever, and when I reconnect the power it would not be charging.

The secondary goal is for convenience. My T60 gets 3.5 hours of battery life on a full charge. Setting it at 60% to 80% means I will get between 126 to 168 minutes of battery life when I remove it from power. My life is chaotic enough that I can't predict when I will need to use the ThinkPad on battery power, and then set and wait for the T60 to charge to 100%.

 

I have my 9-cell start charging at 30% and stop at 40%. If I'm about to leave on a trip or something, I'll charge it to 95%. I haven't performed a reset yet (owned it for about 8 months now, cycle count reads 56), and though the full charge capacity has remained about the same the whole time, there certainly does seem to be some significant "drift" in the accuracy of the remaining charge capacity reading.

 

Hi folks,

Thanks for the feedback. BTW, I have a 9 cell battery but my lappy is not a Thinkpad.

@ Fignuts

Q1: What program do you use to see "data cycles" and other info that you listed in your reply?

Q2: Where do you set the top and bottom charging levels ... you know 30% and 60% or whatever I decide?

@ msb0b ... so from Panasonic suggestion and your comment about 200 to 400 cycles in LiIon battery ... would it be safe to say a 40% bottom and 80% top levels would be teh best deal for my situation.

Anyway, I am also of the mind ... one poster said ... heck buying a battery every 2-3 years probably be easier than trying to find out thew optimum levels ...

Thanks for your Ideas and inputs.

G!

 

I'm not sure where to get that info if you don't have a ThinkPad... On a Thinkpad, the Power Manager displays the #charge cycles as well as letting you set the top and bottom charge levels.

 

Oh ... THANKS drjohn.

G!