Is leaving the cable of a laptop charger connected to the plug all the time bad?

[DanWhite]

Hello, so, my question is, is leaving the cable of the charger connected all the time to the plug or the wall, however you call it, then connecting and disconnecting the cable from the charger bad, can cause problems or something? I have reasons to do so, thats why I'm asking, thank you in advance

 

If you didn't understand what I tried to say I can try to explain better

[ckinfos]

it will immediately charge the battery. That said propably lessen the batteries life. it will charge and discharge the same cells making the battery losing faster its usage time. i am always removing the battery if i have to keep my laptop in use for more than a day on an use the power cord.

[crakddx]

nope. my laptop was stationary for a year, connected to a monitor. the charger was always connected on both ends, and no negatives occured

[DanWhite]

1 minute ago, ckinfos said:

it will immediately charge the battery. That said propably lessen the batteries life. it will charge and discharge the same cells making the battery losing faster its usage time. i am always removing the battery if i have to keep my laptop in use for more than a day on an use the power cord.

So you answer isn't according to what my question was so, what did you understand I was trying to ask?

[DanWhite]

3 minutes ago, Mr-G-Man said:

nope. my laptop was stationary for a year, connected to a monitor. the charger was always connected on both ends, and no negatives occured

My question is, instead of unpluging the charger from the wall, to instead disconnect the cable that is connected to the wall from the charger, my question was if leaving the cable plugged to the wall all the time could be dangerous or something when going to connect it again to the charger, was that what you understood I was trying to say?

[crakddx]

oh ok since the circuit (charging circuit) is not compleete the electrons will not build up so no danger is present

[DanWhite]

2 minutes ago, Mr-G-Man said:

oh ok since the circuit (charging circuit) is not compleete the electrons will not build up so no danger is present

Right thank you, I'll not mark your response as a solution for now, I'll come back later and if there's no more responses I will do so

[Pixelfie]

If it's 100% it's actually good to keep it plugged in when you use the laptop. If you don't keep it plugged in it will discharge, and when you charge it it will add up those cycles. Every cycle degrades the battery. Batteries have good protection, so they don't charge more than needed and the laptop will run on the adapter. If you don't have 100% it's not good, because then you're just wasting charge cycles. If you can find a setting in the BIOS to limit the max charge I'd recommend setting it to like 80%. My friends who haven't set this have ~60% battery health while I still have 85 (we all have 3 year old Latitude 3189) so it really helps.

[HanZie82]

 

48 minutes ago, DanWhite said:

My question is, instead of unpluging the charger from the wall, to instead disconnect the cable that is connected to the wall from the charger, my question was if leaving the cable plugged to the wall all the time could be dangerous or something when going to connect it again to the charger, was that what you understood I was trying to say?

Thanks for making this clear. (Clearly i was still confused. Read last line i hope i understand it correctly by then. )

 

I was also about to say leaving it plugged in on both ends is fine.
But Even tho the manufacterer has most likely put safeguards into the notebook and its charger to prevent anything bad to happen.
I personally would NOT leave a charger connected thats not plugged into the wall.

If the charging circuit isnt the best in the notebook its very possible to drain the battery that way. But not if its quality hardware.

So if its a good notebook, no its not a problem leaving the charger plugged in, while not having the charger plugged into the wall.

 

 

And if you are just talking about the cable in the wall. Yeah thats the same as having nothing plugged into the wall, you only moving the risk where you can short it.

If you do not do that, not a problem either.
Just make sure you connect the high-power (wall-side) first, so the sparking is minimized.
 

[DanWhite]

31 minutes ago, HanZie82 said:

 

Thanks for making this clear. (Clearly i was still confused. Read last line i hope i understand it correctly by then. )

 

I was also about to say leaving it plugged in on both ends is fine.
But Even tho the manufacterer has most likely put safeguards into the notebook and its charger to prevent anything bad to happen.
I personally would NOT leave a charger connected thats not plugged into the wall.

If the charging circuit isnt the best in the notebook its very possible to drain the battery that way. But not if its quality hardware.

So if its a good notebook, no its not a problem leaving the charger plugged in, while not having the charger plugged into the wall.

 

 

And if you are just talking about the cable in the wall. Yeah thats the same as having nothing plugged into the wall, you only moving the risk where you can short it.

If you do not do that, not a problem either.
Just make sure you connect the high-power (wall-side) first, so the sparking is minimized.
 

The thing I was asking was if keeping the high-power (wall-side) connected to the wall all the time and then connecting and disconnecting the cable from the charger side was safe or so

[DoctorNick]

Newer laptop/phone chargers stop charging when no device is connected. This wasn't the case in the past, before 2010 or something like that. This dosen't apply to all third party chargers, cheap ones, but don't use them.

[Mojo-Jojo]

It depends on what kind of charger you have. For example, if you have a Macbook-like charger, where the power conversion is done in the brick which plugs into the wall, then it's bad. You'll have active electronics plugged in at all times, which is discouraged by fire departments in various countries.

 

If it's just a passive cable, that plugs into a seperate power brick, then it's totally fine.

[DanWhite]

1 minute ago, DoctorNick said:

Newer laptop/phone chargers stop charging when no device is connected. This wasn't the case in the past, before 2010 or something like that. This dosen't apply to all third party chargers, cheap ones, but don't use them.

That has nothing to do with what I'm asking, I'm seeing that is very hard to understand yikes, also my laptop is the dell precision m6600 from 2011

[markwoll]

Most modern laptops will have either a bios setting ( Dell, samsung come to mind ) that allow you to choose to charge the battery only up to 80% or to specify that the laptop is on AC most of the time. There are other choices to extend battery duration but that's not this one.

In some cases the vendor had a software utility that does the same thing with monitoring battery health and having settings for the 'purpose' ( plugged in all the time, maximum life, maximum performance, etc ).

Leaving the system plugged in all the time with mismatching bios and or battery software settings can lead to shortened battery life.

We found out the hard way with a batch of Dell lattitudes that were set incorrectly in bios and had shorter battery life because they were plugged in all the time.

[DanWhite]

Just now, Mojo-Jojo said:

It depends on what kind of charger you have. For example, if you have a Macbook-like charger, where the power conversion is done in the brick which plugs into the wall, then it's bad. You'll have active electronics plugged in at all times, which is discouraged by fire departments in various countries.

 

If it's just a passive cable, that plugs into a seperate power brick, then it's totally fine.

It is this charger https://www.coywood.co.uk/dell-precision-m6600-charger-67476-p.asp

[mariushm]

Leave the charger plugged in, and the cable in the charger. At the very least, it protects the connector on the charger end from rusting or oxidizing from humidity in your house.

 

The charger will idle at very low power consumption, like less than 0.5 watts, while nothing is plugged into it.

While the laptop is connected to it, modern laptops have circuitry which stops charging the battery and powers the laptop completely from the charger, if the charger can provide the power needed. You're not damaging the battery by constantly charging it, as it doesn't happen, unless your charger is not powerful enough to power the laptop,

 

[DanWhite]

1 minute ago, markwoll said:

Most modern laptops will have either a bios setting ( Dell, samsung come to mind ) that allow you to choose to charge the battery only up to 80% or to specify that the laptop is on AC most of the time. There are other choices to extend battery duration but that's not this one.

In some cases the vendor had a software utility that does the same thing with monitoring battery health and having settings for the 'purpose' ( plugged in all the time, maximum life, maximum performance, etc ).

Leaving the system plugged in all the time with mismatching bios and or battery software settings can lead to shortened battery life.

We found out the hard way with a batch of Dell lattitudes that were set incorrectly in bios and had shorter battery life because they were plugged in all the time.

Still didn't understand what I tried to say, thank you anyway, my batery died some time ago btw

[DoctorNick]

1 minute ago, DanWhite said:

That has nothing to do with what I'm asking, I'm seeing that is very hard to understand yikes, also my laptop is the dell precision m6600 from 2011

Oh sorry. Only the cable? If cable is not connected to the charger everything is fine. Even if you just left the charger in, you could check if it was using any power. Charger would get hot. If you connect everyday the port could get worn a bit faster, thats it. Might need a new cable at some point

[HanZie82]

16 minutes ago, DanWhite said:

The thing I was asking was if keeping the high-power (wall-side) connected to the wall all the time and then connecting and disconnecting the cable from the charger side was safe or so

I did answer that question in my last paragraph in that previous post.

Sorry for it being too long.

[DanWhite]

1 minute ago, DoctorNick said:

Oh sorry. Only the cable? If cable is not connected to the charger everything is fine. Even if you just left the charger in, you could check if it was using any power. Charger would get hot. If you connect everyday the port could get worn a bit faster, thats it. Might need a new cable at some point

Yes, I ment leaving just the cable plugged to the wall, thanks

[DanWhite]

1 minute ago, HanZie82 said:

I did answer that question in my last paragraph in that previous post.

Sorry for it being too long.

Then you said this "Just make sure you connect the high-power (wall-side) first, so the sparking is minimized" and so not sure what were you trying to say

[mariushm]

If there is something connected to the charger when you plug it in, the charger takes a burst of energy from the mains socket because it tries to satisfy the laptop's demands, and because there's imperfect contact until the charger is fully plugged in, you may see some sparks between the charger plug and the wall socket.

 

If you insert the charger while there's nothing connected to it, the charger has no reason to suddenly take a big chunk of energy, so the chance of getting sparks between the charger and the socket is much much smaller.

 

Either way, it's just something that can scare you but it's pretty much harmless. It can damage the plug prongs (the metal pins) and the contacts inside the socket a bit, each time this happens.

 

[HanZie82]

7 minutes ago, DanWhite said:

Then you said this "Just make sure you connect the high-power (wall-side) first, so the sparking is minimized" and so not sure what were you trying to say

 

2 minutes ago, mariushm said:

If there is something connected to the charger when you plug it in, the charger takes a burst of energy from the mains socket because it tries to satisfy the laptop's demands, and because there's imperfect contact until the charger is fully plugged in, you may see some sparks between the charger plug and the wall socket.

 

If you insert the charger while there's nothing connected to it, the charger has no reason to suddenly take a big chunk of energy, so the chance of getting sparks between the charger and the socket is much much smaller.

 

Either way, it's just something that can scare you but it's pretty much harmless. It can damage the plug prongs (the metal pins) and the contacts inside the socket a bit, each time this happens.

 

Yes this precisely.
Thanks for the nice explanation.

Also when you spark enough, it can leave black charred residue. Which in turn can impede contact, making it not work as it is supposed to over time.
But we are speaking years here. So not to worry to much.
But its just good practice to do in that order, also if charger is actually broken it can save your notebook. But this also is a very slim chance.

 

But better safe then sorry, right?

[DanWhite]

15 minutes ago, mariushm said:

If there is something connected to the charger when you plug it in, the charger takes a burst of energy from the mains socket because it tries to satisfy the laptop's demands, and because there's imperfect contact until the charger is fully plugged in, you may see some sparks between the charger plug and the wall socket.

 

If you insert the charger while there's nothing connected to it, the charger has no reason to suddenly take a big chunk of energy, so the chance of getting sparks between the charger and the socket is much much smaller.

 

Either way, it's just something that can scare you but it's pretty much harmless. It can damage the plug prongs (the metal pins) and the contacts inside the socket a bit, each time this happens.

 

So is it better to connect the charger to the wall, then to the laptop every time?

[Guest colin.p]

I have no idea if it will harm anything leaving it plugged in. All I can say is, my 2010 Dell 1545 Inspiron has been plugged in continuously (ubuntu) since I bought it new in 2010. It still holds at least a portion of a charge, as I can at least unplug it and move it without it shutting off. On a side note, my Nexus 7 2013 has been plugged in (my alarm clock) for at least 5 years and still has a good battery.