How to manage the battery?

Just got my t61 today and everything so far is great. What are some tips on managing the battery? Should I be leaving my computer plugged in through the night even if it the battery is at 100% capacity and possibly turned off/sleep mode?

 

It doesn't matter. The battery is not charging when it's at full capacity.

 

Battery technology is pretty advanced today. sp00n is right, there should be no harm.

 

just used as u would use it. plugged it in through the night is no prob. notebook battery managed its own recharge level. for mine i think it start recharging below 80%, above 80% the charger would leave the battery alone.

turning it off/sleep mode shouldn't matter on the battery. it only effect ur computer (especially the HDD) longetivity. so during the night; of ur not doing maintenance/downloading/other things well, why not leave ur computer to sleep (if ur in vista) or shut it down (in xp)

 

Really? Leaving it plugged in all night is fine? If so, I've been avoiding it for no reason...

 

Wait is that a joke? You seriously unplug it at night? Superstitious consumers ftw.

 

Well, I put it in sleep mode, so no need to keep it powered... right? I only charge when I need to I guess...

 

Modern circuits have the ability to determine the capacity and length of charge for a battery. It will automatically stop charging the battery when it is full. By the way when you put your computer to sleep the charger is still active. That's why you can have your battery plugged in and your computer off and have the battery charging. It's a shame there are still many consumer superstitions around about various things. Mostly holdovers from a decade or two ago. Things like discharging your battery every time will reduce memory effect when there isn't such a thing in lion batteries.

Another superstitious holdover that some old people use is warming up your car before you drive it. Completely pointless.

 

agree...

 

You own a Thinkpad, use the Thinkvantage Power Manager and set your charging thresholds. I set mine to stop charging at 96% and to start charging when it gets lower than 15%

 

umm.. i disagree on the warm up car before driving it. we are suppose to do that.

 

indeed. for example, i always warm up my car (about 10 minutes) the computer tells me that i can change the oil every 35k (though i always change it early).

the oil (whataver grade u use) needs to warms up to operating temperature before its start protecting. u can warm-as-you-go if you really have to, but be very easy on the throttle.

but now, we're talking about battery sorry i just can't help myself when it comes to automobile .

 

It's fine to leave it plugged in because it won't overcharge. However you have another problem to contend with. Li-ions and most batteries in general hate heat. Li-ion prefer to be kept at 40-60% charge and kept cool. So keeping a laptop battery at 100% and in a laptop (hot) it'll degrade faster you might lose 30% capacity after 1 year. Keeping it charged to 90% and allowing it to drop to say 75% before charging begins again might delay the 30% loss to 2 years.

Trickle charging a battery creates heat. Having a battery full speeds up the chemical reaction.

My advice is to set to the power option to let the laptop extend the battery life. It'll learn your patterns and adjust the thresholds.

 

I have a t61 with a 7 cell battery. I find that it charges very slowly. Currently it is at 61% and it says it needs another 2 hours and 45 minutes to charge. I have the 90w adapter. Any ideas why it is taking so long. All other laptops I have had just take a couple hours to charge at most. At this rate, it would be around 5 hours for a full charge.

 

that's only true when you use car in temperatures below like -5C or if you use cheap oil (last winter there was one week with temperatures below -25C here in Lithuania and my diesel engine worked without problems, he he).

me too.

back to topic - here is some info regarding battery maintenance:
http://www.batteryuniversity.com/partone-21.htm