How to Prolong your Notebook / Laptop Battery’s Life

Knowing how to take care of your notebook or laptop battery will prolong its life saving you from buying a replacement or a second battery.

Taking care of your notebook or laptop battery is as important as taking care of the laptop or notebook itself. It’s the very thing that makes it mobile in the first place. Properly taking care of your battery will prolong its life.

That’s why when I read an article by Chris Yano on a forum on notebookreview.com about notebook batteries, I can’t help but share the information here for all of you to know. I know several ways to take care of a laptop battery, but Chris’ article makes it crystal clear. The article may be 2 years old, but the information he provided is still applicable today. (Read on below to quickly know how to take care of your laptop or notebook battery or you can go directly to Chris Yano’s article using the link above)

Note: Since majority (if not all) of laptop or notebook batteries manufactured nowadays are Li-ion batteries, that is what we will be discussing here. If in doubt, check your battery if it’s Li-ion. There’s a very big chance that it is.

  

Lifespan of a Notebook or Laptop Battery

Let’s first talk about the general lifespan of a battery. Most people believe that laptop batteries last at about 1 – 3 years with normal use (what is normal use anyway?). What most people don’t know is that laptop or notebook batteries deteriorate over time regardless if you use it or not.

Discouraging isn’t it? So by the time your battery was made, it’s already slowly getting worn out even when it’s not being used. Your batteries “age” whether you use it or not.

Besides the natural aging of batteries, notebook batteries have a specific number of charge/recharge cycles. Chris Yano pointed out in his article that there are about 300 – 800 charge/recharge cycles in a battery. After this, it would gradually lose its charge capacity rather than just fail to power up the laptop. You’ll start noticing this when the usual 3 hour charge capacity of your notebook battery decreases. A really noticeable bad or worn out battery would only be able to hold charge for about 15 – 30 mins of power.

So now that we know that batteries deteriorate whether we use it or not, and that it has a specific number of charge cycles only, how do we take care of a laptop or notebook battery so as to prolong it’s life?

 

Tips and Techniques to Prolong your Notebook / Laptop Battery’s Life

Chris Yano has several tips to prolong your notebook battery’s life:

 

1. Avoid frequent full discharging of laptop batteries

Unlike older types of batteries, Li-Ion batteries do not need regular complete discharges before recharging. In fact regularly discharging batteries would damage Li-Ion batteries and result in loss of capacity. Partial recharging is actually better as less charge capacity per cycle is lost. It is recommended that we charge at a 10% to 20% level.

 

2. Calibrate Your Laptop/Notebook Battery

Sometimes you’ll notice your battery isn’t charging up to 100%. It may charge only up to 80% to 99% of its gauge and then stop charging. This is an indication that you need to calibrate your battery to maintain its gauge accuracy.

To calibrate your battery just consume the battery power until the computer cuts off the power or automatically shuts down or sleeps. After that you can then fully recharge it up to 100%.

It’s recommended that you calibrate your battery after every 30 partial charges.

 

3. Consider removing the battery from the Laptop/Notebook

When you’re on A/C power most of the time, you should consider removing your battery from the laptop or notebook. By removing the battery and just running it purely in A/C power, you get two benefits.

First, you preserve the charge cycles of your battery. If the battery isn’t inserted in your laptop, you are sure that it isn’t charging (or trickle charging) and consuming charging cycles from your laptop battery.

Second, the battery’s temperature is lower as it receives less heat (heat from the laptop, and heat from the charging). Lower temperatures slow down the abovementioned aging (or deterioration) of the battery making it good for the battery.

It’s recommended that the notebook battery is charged to 40% if you do plan to remove it from the laptop and store it for a long time.

This is my most used technique in trying to prolong my laptop battery’s life as I always connect my laptop in A/C power. I always carry my laptop’s power adaptor and the places I go always have a power socket. You should assess if removing the battery is really feasible for you.

You can also store the laptop battery in the refrigerator (not in the freezer!) if you do remove it from your notebook. This would really protect the laptop battery from heat. Always put it in a sealed plastic bag when you put it in the refrigerator to keep the moisture out. Remember to let it warm to room temperature before using or recharging it.

 

There you have it! I hope you learned how to take care of your battery so as to prolong its life. Thanks to Chris Yano who made the article at the forum of notebookreview.com! I suggest you also read his article. I’ve provided a link above.