is safe to keep my Dell XPS 15 9560 plugged in all the time?

[RRGT19]

Hi,

Should I keep my Dell XPS 15 9560 plugged in all the time while I'm using it?.

The battery of this laptop is not removable.

[manikyath]

the time where this was an issue is a long foregone past.

[GamerMaker]

The battery might get ruined but it shouldn't cause a lythium chain reaction explosion unless you disable Dell's BIOS setting for battery temps.

[manikyath]

7 minutes ago, GamerMaker said:

The battery might get ruined

i've found that the battery of laptops that stay plugged in 24/7 "gets ruined" considerably slower than the battery of laptops that spend their life keeping dust off a particular part of a shelf.

 

i have a 10-something year old laptop that was *the great majority of the time* plugged in while in use (because battery life was like "lol, you wanted to do what now?"), usually after a day of use getting unplugged, and the battery life hasnt gotten that much worse that its notable.

[SecGuy]

It is totally safe, Dell might include software that allows you to keep the battery at 70% which is of course better.  But laptops today have software that prevents them from 'over-charging'. 

 

However, this will degrade the battery.  But so will using it without keeping it plugged in all the time.  In general, don't worry about it.  If you are really fussy you can keep in between 30% and 70% but that would be inconvenient. 

 

Just use it how you want to, and in 5-6 years get a new laptop if you even have to keep it that long. Chances are the screen or trackpad will die before the battery does. 

[GamerMaker]

It probably is of a less delicate chemistry most modern laptops use lithium batteries which are known for being special snowflakes so much that FAA is limiting the ammount of batteries people can carry on planes. The famous note 7 explosion occurred because of a faulty thermal resistor that didn't lower the current to prevent overheating of the battery lithium when heated becomes explosive because of a runaway reaction.

[aisle9]

35 minutes ago, RodoGodo19 said:

Hi,

Should I keep my Dell XPS 15 9560 plugged in all the time while I'm using it?.

The battery of this laptop is not removable.

Get a program like BatteryBar Pro ($4) that will let you set custom "full" and "recharge" power levels. Mine alerts me when a battery hits 30%, then again at 80%. It's not absolutely necessary on newer laptops, but it still makes a difference.

 

Some OEMs (Lenovo for sure) include a utility that lets you manually set charge/discharge thresholds for a battery so it doesn't go above a certain charge when plugged in. Again, it helps out a lot, but I know plenty of people who've used Thinkpads for years without ever having to replace a battery. These things are tanks.

[KenjiUmino]

3 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

Again, it helps out a lot, but I know plenty of people who've used Thinkpads for years without ever having to replace a battery. These things are tanks.

speaking of thinkpads, i have my x220 plugged in most of the time and it is sitting at 98% and not charge any further. since i run linux on it, there is no special lenovo software messing about so i assume this is built into firmware. 

 

either this or it means that i lost 2% of total capacity by now (bought it used almost 5 years ago) wich isn't bad either

[ErrystioT]

Yes it is safe if you keep your laptop plugged in all the time with the battery in it but can slowly degrade your battery capacity (no safety issues here, just decreasing battery capacity). Which is why it is better and highly recommended that you discharge it at least couple of times in a month, to prolong the amount of juice it has. If you want to even prolong the battery capacity it has without a lot of degradation, you can keep it charged between 30-70% (not too low and not too high)

[aisle9]

3 minutes ago, KenjiUmino said:

speaking of thinkpads, i have my x220 plugged in most of the time and it is sitting at 98% and not charge any further. since i run linux on it, there is no special lenovo software messing about so i assume this is built into firmware. 

 

either this or it means that i lost 2% of total capacity by now (bought it used almost 5 years ago) wich isn't bad either

That's not how Windows displays battery wear. In short, it doesn't. You just notice your battery life taking a dump, but it still goes from 100% to 0%. When the battery is well and truly done for, you'll get a notification saying that you need to replace it.

 

Or, more often, 100% to 25% to off without actually making it to 0%.

 

You need a program like BatteryBar Pro to show wear.

[KenjiUmino]

5 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

You need a program like BatteryBar Pro to show wear.

not a fan of istalling any software that has "bar" in the name.

and like i said, this laptop is running linux and i don't think this tool has a linux version.

[genexis_x]

Some software are able to cap the battery while charging. This will help in longer battery lifespan. For instance, my laptop comes with 'conservation model in Lenovo settings which will cap the battery at 55-60% and nor charging the battery at the level. (I plug in my laptop all the time)

[RRGT19]

and what about when the laptop is turned off.
I tend to leave the laptop plugged in as well, this is bad?. Should I disconnect it from the AC power?

[Erfsh]

7 hours ago, RodoGodo19 said:

and what about when the laptop is turned off.
I tend to leave the laptop plugged in as well, this is bad?. Should I disconnect it from the AC power?

Normally, when the battery is full the laptop will stop charging it until you go on battery mode and back to charger after depleting some charge.

As long as it doesn't get heated during that time then it's safe.

 

As SecGuys said your laptop's battery is going to degrade overtime no matter what you do and the capacity will decrease over time. However, just once in a while let the battery deplete down to 5-3% then recharge it when the laptop is off. This will help increase its lifespan and calibrate the actual capacity.