built-in battery decrase life span?

[iChip]

Hey I have heard different opinions and I thought like asking someone here with experience.

I have heard if your battery constanty plugged in you are decrasing its life span because it charges 24//7 so I used to take mine out but I read somewhere it was ages ago so Im not sure and Im about to buy new laptop which I was looking for for quite a while, however it have built-in battery... Is that a problem? Is it true what I heard or how would you treat built-in battery so it does NOT decrase its life span?

Thanks a lot for help

 

[jaguarskx]

Hi, there was a study done awhile ago by a research group that found through empirical evidence that when a lithium ion battery is near or at it's maximum capacity there is a chemical reaction that takes place known as lithium ion plating. Basically what that means is the lithium ions starts to combine with each other to form "plates". When that happens they can no longer hold a charge which causes the maximum battery life to decrease.

One way around this problem is to limit recharging the battery. Dell and Lenovo had included a utility with their laptops that limited the battery to be charged to no more than something like 60% - 80% of the maximum charge. That way you can technically keep the laptop plugged in without having to worry about the battery. In situations where you want the battery to be fully charged you simply need to override the battery utility.

Unfortunately, that only worked with Windows 7. For whatever reason these battery limiter utilities from Dell and Lenovo does not work with Windows 8 and probably not Windows 10 either. Not sure why. It could have been some kind of loop hole in Windows 7 that allowed for the utilities to work and those loop holes did not exist in Windows 8.

Based on a little bit of research, some people believe that manufacturers now use batteries that have larger capacity then actually stated in the specs. For example, a laptop's battery may be quoted as being a 50WHr battery, but in actuality it is a 60WHr battery. The battery is only allowed to charge up to 50WHr instead of 60WHr that way even when the laptop states the battery is "full charged" it actually is not. Since the battery is actually not fully charged, the formation of lithium ion plating is delayed or slowed down. At least that is the theory.

 

[jsmithepa]

You know, whatever you read on the Web, the info is probably outdated by new battery technology/configuration. I wouldn't lose sleep over it. Over-thinking these stuff is like putting a plastic cover over your nice and comfy couch afraid that it may get soiled and defeating the purpose.

For what is worth, I used to leave it plugged in all the time. Now when am going to be away and don't need it 100% charged when I come back, I pull the cord, but it's all depends on one's usage pattern. Bottom line: enjoy the technology, don't let technology place you on chore duty.