Will leaving my laptop plugged in & fully charged damage my battery?

officialjlens

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Jul 22, 2017
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So I just bought a Lenovo Ideapad 310 14IKB and I was wondering if leaving it plugged in at 100% will shorten the battery lifespan? The specs are an i5-7200, 12 GB of RAM, 920MX 2 GB and a 2 Cell Battery. Right now I'm mostly at home so that's why I prefer to leave it plugged in, but is that a good idea? Or would it be better unplug it and charge it back up when it's hovering around 40-50%? Any help would be much appreciated!
 
Solution
Yes leaving it plugged and fully charged eventually reduces battery life.

The linked article basically says you should:
a) Never fully charge a Lithium-ion battery (that makes it reach max temp),

b) Never keep it connected to AC when fully charged (that overheats it)
Quote: "Exposing the battery to high temperature and dwelling in a full state-of-charge for an extended time can be more stressful than cycling"

c) Never allow it to fully discharge or even go below 20% (except on rare occasion) but rather keep it always with a fair level of charge. (Discharge the battery to something like 40-70% before recharging it)


So, you should not allow the battery to fully charge to keep...

Chicano

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Aug 29, 2011
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Yes leaving it plugged and fully charged eventually reduces battery life.

The linked article basically says you should:
a) Never fully charge a Lithium-ion battery (that makes it reach max temp),

b) Never keep it connected to AC when fully charged (that overheats it)
Quote: "Exposing the battery to high temperature and dwelling in a full state-of-charge for an extended time can be more stressful than cycling"

c) Never allow it to fully discharge or even go below 20% (except on rare occasion) but rather keep it always with a fair level of charge. (Discharge the battery to something like 40-70% before recharging it)


So, you should not allow the battery to fully charge to keep it as cool as possible, maybe allow it to reach 90-95% charge, and never allow it to discharge down below 20% charge and only allow it to discharge to mid charge before recharching it. Something like 40-70%


Be aware that this first link is about a drone battery but it's a lithium-ion battery so the same should apply for a laptop battery.

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries

This article resumes all I said above.
https://www.howtogeek.com/169669/debunking-battery-life-myths-for-mobile-phones-tablets-and-laptops/
 
Solution

officialjlens

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Jul 22, 2017
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Thanks for your answer! So it's best to charge it to around 90% and then let it drain to around 40-50% then charge again? That is a better option (in terms of extending battery life in the long term) then letting than letting it charge past 100%? Sorry for the questions I just want to be sure.

And I forgot to mention earlier that my laptop has the conservation mode feature (which you can read up here https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Lenovo-P-Y-and-Z-series/Conservation-Mode-in-Lenovo-Energy-Manager-plugged-in-not/ta-p/1677271). Is this a possible solution?
 
No it will not harm the laptop. If you are not using then no harm will be done, it is when you leave it on and and have a full charge. The damage will vary depending on what you are doing with the laptop. I have a desktop replacement which can bare the damage so its not much of an issue as I am always plugged in. I personally charge laptops to 80% unless I need the battery life or in the case of my drt, I leave it fully charged all the time as I need the power.