Does using AC harm the battery?

[S0ULphIRE]

When the battery is left in the laptop when the ac is in the laptop will draw a bit from the battery and most from the ac...but as you draw a bit the laptop starts to charge the battery. IT continues this process. So if you had the laptop off when charging there would be nothing being drawn except for the tiny bit that leaks

The ammount drawn from the battery is ,if anything, extremely insignificant and therefore it doesn't really matter if you have the battery in and charge at the same time.
And as Calc said, the new Li-Ion batteries aren't affected by being charged/depleted before full charge/depletion has taken place.

 

[Greg]

most batteries are 100+

ooh, thats lame. Screw laptops.


:happy:

 

[sinci]

Take out the battery.
Or else,
you'll get chlamydia and die. :|


Seriously though,
I too noticed my battery was sh*t
I got a new one :]

I COULDN'T EVEN LISTEN TO CHOCOLATE RAIN THE WHOLE WAY THROUGH :'[

 

[Nitestick]

Maybe on older (NiCd or NiMH) battery types this was the case. Nickel Cadmium (NiCd) and Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) batteries suffer from capacity loss if they are recharged before they fully deplete their charge. If you unplugged your NiCd or NiMH laptop and used it for like 5 minutes and then plugged it back in, this could damage the battery.

that in itself is a bit of a myth, you shouldn't completely discharge NiCd or NiMh batteries either. they should be run low, to maybe about 5% for recharging but not completely discharged.

Lithium batteries pretty much all have some internal voltage/charge monitoring circuitry, additional circuitry is including in the charger or laptop to sense when to stop charging the battery. as has been said. once the battery is charged it is almost as if it is disconnected, though they generally remain on a trickle charge. i guess in essence there is some truth to this but in practice it should make little difference.

Put it this way, why would the battery me so easilby removable if you would only have to take it out to replace it...the companies that make the laptops don't tell you how to properly treat the battery for you damage it and buy another one from them eventually.

what about second batteries? i have two batteries for my laptop. i hibernate and swap them when the charge gets low and i'm away from mains power.

summary: there is some truth in saying that leaving your laptop on AC power with the battery in it will reduce the lifespan. this however is generally only noticeable (from experience and what i've heard) when the laptop spends most of it's life on AC. it should be ok if the battery is cycled fairly regularly.

 

[ricanflow]

^why would he just not care about his battery, most batteries are 100+, thats a lot of money to not care about.

Bought a brand new battery for my laptop on ebay for $35.

 

[Kharn]

The quality of the battery has a large part to do with this as well cheaper batteries are already going to be compromised. Luke i can see what your saying but there is run in time on batteries when i got a laptop last year on a 6cell i got 3:45 at 100% then after a few months it settled down to 3 hours.

Also the sticks advice is possibly the best i have read in this thread he knows his electronics i wouldn't contradict him on this subject.

 

[Oreo]

Batteries are way more compicated than they first seem.

If the battery is linked to the income AC circuit (which it would be, ofcourse) random voltage spikes could damage battery hold.

Some batterys have bad hold, because they are not properly used. If you plug in your laptop, and once it gets to 80 percent start charging it. You may, depending on battery type, run into charge memory. So that 80percent will basicly mean you could have up to 80 percent less battery life. fortunately its rarely that drastic, only if this was repeated 50 to 100 times may your battery life actually decrease by 80 percent.

My advice, although no problems should occur, just charge it when the battery life reaches <%10 and charge it at 100percent for about an hour. The trickle charge will maintain the battery voltage.

edit: Lol just read nitestick's. Yeh, what he said

 

[Schecters]

I honestly don't care all that much, haha. I leave my charger in my bag, so whenever I take my laptop, I have it.

 

[Alvin.C]

Keeping Li-ion batteries at high temperatures and at a high state of charge (high capacity, high voltage) promotes non-recoverable capacity loss [1].

Personally, despite the consequences, I keep the battery in my laptop with the AC power adapter connected, whether it's charging or fully charged. I used to remove the battery, but there has been many occasions where the power adapter has been accidentally unplugged from the laptop, resulting in the loss of the session and all unsaved work (frustrating to say the least). In addition, keeping the battery in the laptop has saved my bacon in power brownouts and dropouts (kind of like a basic Uninteruptable Power Supply).

I recall someone saying to buy an extra battery and store it. It is not a good idea to stockpile Li-ion batteries because they start deteriorating the moment they have been produced and leave the factory.

The following is a good referenced article about laptop batteries, with information about the danger of Li-ion batteries, how to increase runtime, prolonging battery life and how to go about buying a new laptop battery: h! - Power That Laptop!

 

[CalcProgrammer1]

Considering I use my laptop as a desktop replacement (use my laptop more than my desktop, always have, even when I had a slower laptop than my desktop, the ease of use of a laptop is just good), it's usually always at my desk. If I do use the battery, it's usually just unplugging it and going out to the kitchen to get something to eat. That lasts maybe 30 minutes then I come back and plug it in again. Other than that, it's plugged in at my desk.