Do i need to always plug my laptop?

[RocaSeba]

I always plug my laptop whenever i can, because i was told a long time ago that that was better for my battery's lifespan, but recently i was wondering: is that the case? What you think?

[Quackwich]

1 minute ago, RocaSeba said:

I always plug my laptop whenever i can, because i was told a long time ago that that was better for my battery's lifespan, but recently i was wondering: is that the case? What you think?

Leaving the battery at 100% capacity will decrease its lifespan, but running it through repeated discharge and recharge cycles will also decrease its lifespan. Basically, whatever you do, your battery will wear down and lose capacity, that's just the drawback of lithium ion batteries right now.

[Tundral]

I don't think you should be constantly draining and recharging the batter, that won't be good for it. But you also do want to drain and recharge it maybe once a week or month because the batteries don't like being constantly full all the time.

[Tundral]

1 minute ago, Quackwich said:

Leaving the battery at 100% capacity will decrease its lifespan

There might actually be an option in his Windows power settings to set a max charge for the battery. You could set this at 60% for example, in which case the batter will not sit at 100% all the time, helping preserve the lifespan of the battery!

[Quackwich]

Just now, Tundral said:

There might actually be an option in his Windows power settings to set a max charge for the battery. You could set this at 60% for example, in which case the batter will not sit at 100% all the time, helping preserve the lifespan of the battery!

Actually, I believe chargers stop charging when the battery is 100%, and the laptop will run off direct power instead at 100% and plugged in.

[Tundral]

7 minutes ago, Quackwich said:

Actually, I believe chargers stop charging when the battery is 100%, and the laptop will run off direct power instead at 100% and plugged in.

Yes but the option In mentioned is specifically made to prevent the battery from being at full charge all the time since it's not good for the battery to constantly sit at full charge all the time!

[5x5]

22 minutes ago, RocaSeba said:

I always plug my laptop whenever i can, because i was told a long time ago that that was better for my battery's lifespan, but recently i was wondering: is that the case? What you think?

Batteries always die - they're consumable items and hence why they come with 6 month warranties, not 2-3 years. Use your laptop and don't worry about it. It's random - some last years, others don't make it past one. It's down to luck.

[Pickles von Brine]

Use it, let it drain, charge it again. I have a 2013 machine still kicking. Just don't let it drain completely dead and stay in the that state for days or weeks on end. THAT kills batteries. 

[Kisai]

3 hours ago, RocaSeba said:

I always plug my laptop whenever i can, because i was told a long time ago that that was better for my battery's lifespan, but recently i was wondering: is that the case? What you think?

 

This not usually wrong, however it depends if you have smart charging turned on on the laptop. What that does is it allows the battery to discharge and only start charging when it hits a certain threshold. This is how laptops that are typically stationary most of the time are used, and thus the battery is only used sparingly (eg rarely used on battery alone.) If you travel a lot, then you would of course prefer that the battery always be topped up, and the life of the battery will be substantially shorter (like it might only last 1 or 2 years) since it will burn through the charge cycles faster, or the battery will expand and just drop from full to 10% in a few minutes.

 

In general, as long as you have installed the manufacturer's power management software, it will recommend a specific way to charge the battery to make it last the longest. If you do not install the software, and rely on the BIOS settings, it may simply be left to "always keep above 98%" and thus it may needlessly charge the battery's last 2% over and over, rather than having equal wear over all the battery cells.

 

If you want to do this kind of thing manually, you should only plug in the laptop after it's discharged 2/3's to 3/4's of the battery (eg it would be down to one cell's worth of power), but the system BIOS's often lie to the OS about how full the battery actually is, with Dell systems often lying about the last 10% of the battery capacity.

[G O D Z I L L A]

8 hours ago, RocaSeba said:

I always plug my laptop whenever i can, because i was told a long time ago that that was better for my battery's lifespan, but recently i was wondering: is that the case? What you think?

you should sometimes give it a rest and rmove it and if you always charge it a lot it will get worse i did just that and now my laptops battery is as useful as a wet fart its battery life is 1 second

dont put it in the fridge*not meaning to insult*

[Azura Lightfeilt]

The lifespan wouldn't be much of a concern for me, but (random facts) your laptop will perform better when charged. You can always change the batteries every 3-5 years if you don't feel like upgrading your laptop.