Ever since the introduction of laptop’s and mobile phone, there has been an age-old question of “is it good to overcharge your device’s battery?” Before answering this question let us investigate certain battery terminology.
Calendar fade: Battery performance is bound to get deteriorated in time irrespective of it being used or not.
Cycle fade: Battery Performance also deteriorates with usage.
Battery Cycle Life: The cycle life in simple terms is the number of complete charge/discharge cycles before a battery starts to reduce visibly its performance. This is usually visible when the capacity below 80% of its nominal capacity.
As technology grew the aspects of the same question also got changed. Now we are using devices which belong to Lithium-Ion battery generation. So, what makes lithium-Ion different from its ancestors? The previous generation of batteries was claimed to have the issue of getting over-charged causing expansion in their size in the long run. This phenomenon of OVER-CHARGING was out of the question with the introduction of Lithium-Ion batteries. Their circuitry prevents the charging until there is a drop, in voltage. So, one may think then there shouldn’t be any problems in leaving your laptop for charging always, right? Now here is where the concept of battery’s cycle life plays the main role.
As the number of cycle life increases the battery’s capacity gets reduced. So, one of the methods to maintain the health of the battery is to don’t let the battery know about its own cycle life. This can be achieved by not allowing it to complete its charge/discharge cycle. Simply putting together do not let the battery to get charged till 100%. The same should be considered when it comes to discharging goes without saying. It’s said it best to charge the battery once it hits 30% of voltage drop. In this manner we are not allowing the battery to complete an entire charge/discharge cycle, thereby decreasing the rate of cycle fade.
Now when we consider the main components of the laptop battery i.e. lithium, it tends to have some unstable properties. It’s always advised to use the battery at cool temperature to prevent rapid deterioration. Operating your laptop at high temperatures while plugged in at 100% battery charge isn’t recommended. Temperatures don’t just mean the ambient temperature, but the temperature of the battery which might also be affected if your laptop is kept somewhere where heat is being trapped — such as a pillow or at a not very well-ventilated spot. Then each brand has their own inputs on their own batteries. HP states that their laptops shouldn’t be subjected to continuous charging for 2 straight weeks. Whereas Dell has the exact opposite opinion about plugging in about their devices continuously saying it doesn’t affect the battery.
In conclusion this question never had a clear-cut answer to the question whether you should plugin your laptop battery continuously. In fact, your laptop’s battery is not going to last forever, and eventual deterioration of its capacity is inevitable. So, all we can do is to try out certain practices to prolong the health of one’s own laptop battery and reduce its deterioration rate.
What do you think about plugging in your laptop continuously? Have you ever tried any of these methods to prolong its battery? If you think you have more to share, then let us know.