How Should I Treat My Notebook Battery?

timothy asks: "I finally have a company laptop (woo-hoo!) but now I'm trying to be a good guy by treating it nicely, with a padded bag, nice accessories, keeping the keyboard free of detritus, whispering gently, etc. But there is one aspect of notebook operation that has bugged me since I first acquired one in 1993 or so ... really and truly, how ought I treat the battery?" Speaking from the opposite spectrum of battery care (my battery is lucky to get any form of pampering, I just slap 'em in and use 'em), are there any special things that you need to do to ensure good long life out of laptop batteries?

"The owner's manual of my (late-model) machine addresses only the first charging of the machine's lithium-ion battery, which must be rather lengthy to my mind. (12 hours.) However, that done, like most people I suspect, I use my laptop frequently on battery but at least as frequently simply as a portable desktop, plugged into both AC and ethernet.

I've heard every permutation of the following, and I'm not sure whether to:

• discharge the battery completely each time before recharging it (not convenient) or it will develop memory effect problems.
• *never* discharge the battery completely, or it will have trouble ever holding a full charge again
• not worry about it -- "modern batteries just don't care." (In that case, why is it so important to charge it for 12 hours before use in the first place, or is that the idea of a sadistic manual writer?)

I would appreciate any better ideas than my usual, which is the last of these -- in truth, I plug in when possible, and nervously watch the battery meter when not, then run for AC..."

Comments

I found this...

[Wog]

A simple Google search found this. It has an overview of different battery technologies, as well as a few very good tips. Read it in good health.

Modern Battery Chargers Are Pretty Smart

[Matt_Bennett]

The battery chargers for most devices today (cell phones, laptops, not the really cheap, bottom of the barrel stuff though) are pretty smart. The real charging circuitry is not in the battery or in the wall-wart- it is usually in the device itself. The wall wart is only a bulk power supply, to this end, let your device decide how to charge it. The thing to watch out for is excessive heat- which is what kills most batteries, especially ni-cads. Once the battery is charged, if the battery is still warm, it is being overcharged- time to disconnect it. Batteries don't like heat.

Lithium-ion batteries are pretty tough, but even with them, the less time spent on the charger the better- since chargers are inefficient, a significant amount of the power just goes to heating up the battery. If you don't really need to charge the battery, don't bother, the heat cycles (and excessive time spent hot) shorten the battery life.