Will leaving my laptop plugged in while on when 100% reduce its capacity

ETS2PRO

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Apr 4, 2017
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Hi, I have an Acer Aspire which I use at work in my office, but I leave it plugged in all the time, as I'm right by a plug socket. Will the battery be reduced?
I've heard that Lenovo has a power manager software to set battery thresholds.
Can I do this, so the battery isn't used at all??
Many thanks in advance :)
 
Solution
It actually depends on the chemistry of the battery, Ni-Cad and Ni-MH batteries suffer what is called “memory effect” that in short means that you have to discharge and charge them completely periodically or they will start to lose their ability to deliver they full capacity (if you don’t fully discharge them every now and then they only remember the partial capacity that you use frequently and forget the full capacity that is never used otherwise, hence the name “memory effect”), it’s because of this that people believe that all batteries need to be fully cycled periodically, but it’s not true for all types of batteries.

Most laptops nowadays (all basically, and the same goes for cellphones) come with Li-ion batteries that do not...
I think the "official" answer is that all electronics batteries should be cycled through fairly regularly (ie battery to 1-2% frequently, and a full cycles to 0% and recharge occassionally) to get the 'full' lifespan of a given battery. That, generally is what you'll see described in any manuals etc.

That being said, I haven't seen and conclusive testing showing the impact to battery lifespan. Personally, I leave a device on charge all the time - laptops, phones etc.
 

aquielisunari

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Let battery get 100% charge. Remove battery and store in a cool and dry space. Placing it in a anti-static bag wouldn't hurt. Use the laptop with just the power cord.
 

CelicaGT

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Jul 22, 2013
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Not sure where to find it anymore but Apple of all companies had a great rundown on battery care on their site. Basically you are limited to 400-500 charge/recharge cycles (give or take) before battery capacity begins to noticeably degrade. This is a FULL cycle, so you run down to 75% four times this will equal one cycle. It is apparently bad to keep it at 100%, I have no idea why but this is what seems to be best practice according to many sources. Indeed I had one battery go bad from being plugged in all the time, and about 10 that did not. This is across many machines over several years so I would suppose it depends on how the built in charging logic works. To further on this my G752 always cycles the battery down to 95% every once in a while on mains. I don't get a choice on how this pans out long term as it's non removable...
 

theblade

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Oct 18, 2008
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It actually depends on the chemistry of the battery, Ni-Cad and Ni-MH batteries suffer what is called “memory effect” that in short means that you have to discharge and charge them completely periodically or they will start to lose their ability to deliver they full capacity (if you don’t fully discharge them every now and then they only remember the partial capacity that you use frequently and forget the full capacity that is never used otherwise, hence the name “memory effect”), it’s because of this that people believe that all batteries need to be fully cycled periodically, but it’s not true for all types of batteries.

Most laptops nowadays (all basically, and the same goes for cellphones) come with Li-ion batteries that do not suffer from memory effect so there is no problem with using only partial capacity, it’s not required to fully cycle them (fully discharging and charging them) and doing so when you don’t need to will only lead to waste the limited lifecycles of the battery.

If you overcharge the battery it will also loose lifetime, but the chargers in the computers are designed so that they will only trickle charge the battery once it’s fully charged, avoiding the damage by overcharge.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_effect
 
Solution

Seyed22Shaheen

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Apr 4, 2017
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Even though there will be no dangerous occurrence if you leave the battery at 100% however the stress on the battery will still persist like the excess heat due to constant charging. it better to unplug the cord before it reaches 100% and plug it anytime you wish to. If you do not want to plug and unplug then you might take the battery out off the laptop and store it in a safe place and continue to use the laptop plugged in.
 
See, you are getting 5 different answers by 5 different replies.

1. Don't obsess about it.
2. As long as you "exercise" it once a while, run on batt, that's it.

Here's a sixth answer, keep it plugged in when in use, at the end of the day, you are done, and it's nearly or fully charged, unplug it.

One thing I can tell you for sure, electronics that runs on battery should not be used as a permanent plugged-in device, like somebody want to use his smartphone as a permanent hotspot and be plugged in all the time, and no "exercise" whatsoever. You should only use electronics this way if battery can be removed and be running on AC, but you lose the "UPS" capability.
 

ETS2PRO

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Apr 4, 2017
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Yeah, I used to do that, but I've bought a new Acer Aspire with an inbuilt battery not removable unfortunately
 

ETS2PRO

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Apr 4, 2017
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Yeah, I used to do that, but I've bought a new Acer Aspire with an inbuilt battery not removable unfortunately
 

This is really useless, outdated information as you confirmed yourself on 2nd paragraph.

If people suggest to fully-cycle a Li-on, they are not doing it for the purpose of memory but is to calibrate the meter, and do it once every 2 months is fine, not everyday.
 
Apr 6, 2018
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Never store a battery at 100% charge, its well known doing this reduces its usable capacity. If you are to store a modern battery, store it at half charge.