Do you use the charger at home?

[jango]

Hi

When you are at home do you use the charger or battery???

Thanks

 

[indyrocco]

I unplug the battery, and use the charger only.

 

[Felinux]

I unplug the battery, and use the charger only.

 

[starterz]

Would there be a problem if I use the charger, with the battery in? I usually switch to charger when at home, for the battery to recharge, but I continue using the One with the charger even when the charge battery led is green. Is this a way to damage the battery?

 

[qasar.es]

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_ion_battery#Guidelines_for_prolonging_Li-ion_battery_life.

 

[starterz]

Thanks. I thought technology had eventually gotten over this problem, my mistake :lol:

 

[bit-ninja]

That's a good point about removing the battery when you are plugged in. I am usually around an outlet so I usually don't think about my battery life (capacity-wise OR longevity-wise). I will definitely have to start making it a habit to remove the battery.

However, I do like the UPS-like aspect of the battery when the power flickers or goes out momentarily. Everybody on a desktop has to endure a reboot, while the laptop keeps on running. A UPS is probably cheaper than a battery though!

 

[dandesigns]

if you remove the battery, make sure you are plugged in a UPS or voltage regulator as a power fluctuation can damage the mainboard (which is really costly). just a tip.

 

[AA1Rocks]

That's a good point about removing the battery when you are plugged in. I am usually around an outlet so I usually don't think about my battery life (capacity-wise OR longevity-wise). I will definitely have to start making it a habit to remove the battery.

Same here - thanks for the tip

 

[Davidcowling]

im fairly sure the aa1 doesn't produce enough heat to noticeably damage the battery quickly

 

[retsaw]

The heat from the aa1 may not cause damage to the battery, but keeping the battery fully charged causes it to lose capacity much quicker than if it is kept half charged and you can't stop the battery from charging if it is in the laptop when the laptop is plugged in, can you? If you can I'd like to know how. If you read the Wikipedia article the best way to preserve charge is to keep the battery at 40% charge and in a fridge. I'm not sure about refrigeration myself since I worry about condensation particularly since the battery has it's own circuitry (maybe that isn't a problem since the battery is sealed, but I don't think I'll take my chances on it).

 

[Guest]

A refrigerator removes moisture from the air during the cooling process so you should not have a problem with condensation unless there is a crack in the seal on the door or something. If you are greatly concerned put it in a large plastic bag and seal it while holding the bag in the fridge (this would be wise if you are prone to spilling liquids in the fridge too).

 

[ph_leung]

Some Thinkpads have a charge setting to maximize battery life (as in lifetime). In that setting the battery is not topped up to 100% and the charging doesn't keep topping it up to a fixed capacity. IIRC it is about 80% which is a compromise to have OK battery capacity if you need to unplug it and use it. That would be great if all laptops had it.

 

[Donat]

I think by long periods of time they probably mean more than a couple of weeks. A netbook, by nature, will surely be picked up and taken places quite often, so I'd rescommend leaving the battery in: how annoying would it be if, every time you wanted to go on the move, your battery was only 40-60% full (in a plastic bag in the fridge ) to save precious minutes in longevity over a year or so.
Also, most laptops have systems so that they won't charge batteries that are above 90-95% to avoid small cycles in those UPS moments.

I think the only important thing, if you use the battery a lot is to go through a cycle every month or so (ie use laptop until it shuts down from low battery and charge back up to full the next day maybe). This resets/recalibrates the chip that controls the battery, because it sometimes loses track of charge status over time (by a few percent or so).

 

[Davidcowling]

as said in the wikipedia article...

 

[Donat]

my bad, did not read it through...

 

[niem102]

A netbook, by nature, will surely be picked up and taken places quite often, so I'd rescommend leaving the battery in: how annoying would it be if, every time you wanted to go on the move, your battery was only 40-60% full (in a plastic bag in the fridge ) to save precious minutes in longevity over a year or so.

I don't know if I would go through the trouble of keeping my battery at 40% in the fridge, but any time you can do little things to help care for the battery life I definitely would. Ultimately it's going to decrease some over time no matter what you do, but it can get pretty bad. My current laptop used to get over 5 hours, but after always keeping it plugged in with the battery in for a couple years, it only gets about 2 hours now. When the battery life to start with is only around 3 hours, I'd say it's definitely something to worry about.

 

[Guest]

I keep my battery at about 50% charged and take it out of the laptop whenever its plugged in. I put the battery in and move the computer (along with the wall adapter) and when I get to where I need I plug it into the wall and take out the battery. If I know that I will be using for extended periods I will fully charge the battery before hand.

 

[jango]

I read this:

"Laptops nowadays are designed to draw power directly from source when the adapter is plugged in.

However, at the same time it will charge the battery as long as it is not 100%. This is not so good as battery life will shorten if u always use half and then decide to plug in.

However if your battery is already 100% or 0% then is ok."

Is this true?

 

[Davidcowling]

if you read about lithium ion batteries. then you will find out that they last the longest if kept at around 40% power.

this can be impractical if you need to go out with the AA1.