Laptop battery life

[GunsForBucks]

Got a new laptop and am using it at home.

Is it better to unplug it and use the battery? I don't want to ruin battery life by keeping it plugged in constantly if that is an issue.

Thanks for any replies!

[Crawl]

🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊님이 먼저 게시:

Crawl님이 먼저 게시:

It's there for users who leave their systems plugged in most of the time. I use it and I'm sure plenty of others do as well. If you are going to be running off the battery it takes 2 seconds to remove the limit so it will charge to 100%.

There's no need to constantly cycle the battery while it's on AC power between 60% <-> 100% often. That will actually significantly reduce battery life because it would be constantly discharging and recharging all the time. Lithium ion batteries have a fixed number of discharge+recharge cycles. It's much better to just charge it up to 100% once, leave it plugged in and then never discharge it again so it won't cycle.

I think you are misunderstanding how this works. There is no cycling going on, you set the limit and while plugged into the wall the battery will not charge beyond that limit. So if your laptop spends the majority of its time plugged in it will sit at 60% or what ever indefinitely. If you need the full charge for travel you turn the setting off and let it charge to 100%.

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

Crawl님이 먼저 게시:

I think you are misunderstanding how this works. There is no cycling going on, you set the limit and while plugged into the wall the battery will not charge beyond that limit. So if your laptop spends the majority of its time plugged in it will sit at 60% or what ever indefinitely. If you need the full charge for travel you turn the setting off and let it charge to 100%.

I understand perfectly. There is no reason to ever bother with any of that. Just sit the laptop on a table/desk, connect the power cord, forget about whatever % the battery is at and go use it. It's super simple. Nothing bad will happen. Just use the thing and no worries about anything to do with the battery.

[Crawl]

🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊님이 먼저 게시:

Crawl님이 먼저 게시:

I think you are misunderstanding how this works. There is no cycling going on, you set the limit and while plugged into the wall the battery will not charge beyond that limit. So if your laptop spends the majority of its time plugged in it will sit at 60% or what ever indefinitely. If you need the full charge for travel you turn the setting off and let it charge to 100%.

I understand perfectly. There is no reason to ever bother with any of that. Just sit the laptop on a table/desk, connect the power cord, forget about whatever % the battery is at and go use it. It's super simple. Nothing bad will happen. Just use the thing and no worries about anything to do with the battery.

I'm not going to argue the merits of the feature, it's there and I see no harm in using it. I don't keep laptops more than a couple of years so it probably makes little difference in my case anyway. Manufacturers obviously feel it has value or why bother implementing it.

[Nabster]

🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊님이 먼저 게시:

Nabster님이 먼저 게시:

Some manufacturers have software that you can set the charge level to 80% or 60% max charge, this meam you can plug in all the time and still stay in the optimal charge zone for longevity.

I imagine you would have a difficult time trying to convince someone to have their cell phone only last 10 hours on battery instead of the possible 16 for example. It's worse for laptops. Laptops that have a possible 12 hours on battery would only last 7 hours if we only charged them to 60% instead of 100%. The very idea is laughable.

My personal laptop rarely leaves my house, i dont care whether battery last 7 hours or 12 hours. What i do care is that if it only last 30 mins after 6 years, there is a problem. If i need 100%, i just change the settings. I only do web browsing on my laptop, i dont need a new laptop every 4 years, just need one that last.

My work laptop goes between my home and office always plug in, occasionally going into a 1 hour or 2 meeting unplug. Again i dont care whether battery last 7 hours or 12 hours. What i do care is that if it only last 30 mins after 6 years, there is a problem. If i need 100%, i can just change the settings.

Most of my colleagues uses the laptop in a similar way.

It is naive to think a feature is laughable if is only useful for a portion of users. But there would been users who cant figure out how to charge to 100% with the feature turned on, thinking something is wrong.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Nabster님이 먼저 게시:

🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊님이 먼저 게시:

I imagine you would have a difficult time trying to convince someone to have their cell phone only last 10 hours on battery instead of the possible 16 for example. It's worse for laptops. Laptops that have a possible 12 hours on battery would only last 7 hours if we only charged them to 60% instead of 100%. The very idea is laughable.

My personal laptop rarely leaves my house, i dont care whether battery last 7 hours or 12 hours. What i do care is that if it only last 30 mins after 6 years, there is a problem. If i need 100%, i just change the settings. I only do web browsing on my laptop, i dont need a new laptop every 4 years, just need one that last.

My work laptop goes between my home and office always plug in, occasionally going into a 1 hour or 2 meeting unplug. Again i dont care whether battery last 7 hours or 12 hours. What i do care is that if it only last 30 mins after 6 years, there is a problem. If i need 100%, i can just change the settings.

Most of my colleagues uses the laptop in a similar way.

It is naive to think a feature is laughable if is only useful for a portion of users. But there would been users who cant figure out how to charge to 100% with the feature turned on, thinking something is wrong.

That's how to look at it too; real-world usages and not everyone will have the same kind of usage.

Ideally there is nothing the user can do to really help extend the battery life / runtime once the battery is beyond approx 3-5 years old anyways; if the battery degrades, this WILL happen whether you use the battery over time or not. This is why even DELL will not cover your Laptop battery (yes even on a $3000 Alienware PC w/ 4 year accidental damage warranty coverage) beyond 1 year. Because they know these batteries will degrade over time naturally and there is nothing the user can do to avoid it.

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

Nabster님이 먼저 게시:

What i do care is that if it only last 30 mins after 6 years, there is a problem.

If you just leave it plugged in and leave it at 100% battery that should not happen after 6 years. Maybe 15+ years yes, but 6 no.

Nabster님이 먼저 게시:

It is naive to think a feature is laughable if is only useful for a portion of users.

This entire thought process of "batteries last longer if they only charge to 60%" is also known as "Placebo effect": enough people started stating it as fact over the years that now everyone thinks it is fact even if it actually isn't factual.

I have personal experience that I've shared in this thread: Leaving batteries in portable devices @ 100% charge for long periods of time (as well as charging it's battery to 100% on a regular basis, even daily) does not actively degrade anything. At least not during the typical usable lifespan of a device (5-6 years is normal).

[Senator Armstrong]

GunsForBucks님이 먼저 게시:

Got a new laptop and am using it at home.

Is it better to unplug it and use the battery? I don't want to ruin battery life by keeping it plugged in constantly if that is an issue.

Thanks for any replies!

My gaming laptop has poor battery life. I have to charge it while gaming. I just avoid charging it while doing anything else. The battery is going strong 3 years later.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

evangalway2666님이 먼저 게시:

GunsForBucks님이 먼저 게시:

Got a new laptop and am using it at home.

Is it better to unplug it and use the battery? I don't want to ruin battery life by keeping it plugged in constantly if that is an issue.

Thanks for any replies!

My gaming laptop has poor battery life. I have to charge it while gaming. I just avoid charging it while doing anything else. The battery is going strong 3 years later.

Most of those Laptops are not meant to run the games off the battery as the battery can't provide enough power to allow full cpu and gpu performance