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One of the fundamental parts of laptops are batteries. Just as living things need a daily intake of nutrients to maintain vital functions, the operation of electronic devices depends on the energy supplied by the batteries.
Someday, as science fiction has been predicting for decades, the time may come when human beings and machines share a power supply, although for now transhumanism has not reached that level.
Returning to 2020, although the technology of these components has evolved, they still carry some myths about their care and operation . To separate the science of folklore we have compiled some of the most widespread beliefs, in addition to many other tips that will extend the life of the batteries.
As desktop PC
Can I always have the laptop plugged in? Should I remove the battery if it is going to be plugged in for a long time? Many doubts of laptop users correspond to its use as a desktop PC. The theory says that laptops can remain plugged in all the time without posing a danger to the user and without suffering from overheating, although if we are going to use a program that consumes many resources or use it to play, it would be best to have a cooling base.
The problem of this practice would be the degradation that can be assumed for the battery, which will depend on each model and manufacturer. The ideal would be to avoid that it is always connected , something easy for laptops that have the option to extract it, a feature that 100% of the computers on the market do not share.
Is it removed when I mark 100% charge? No, the key would be to keep the load between 20 and 80% . This rule, also applicable to tablets and smartphones, will reduce the degradation of lithium-ion battery cells. Keeping the laptop with the battery always connected would result in a progressive reduction of autonomy. If we are going to have it placed, the ideal would be to acquire the habit of unplugging the laptop when the charge reaches 80% and plugging it when it drops to 20% , avoiding forcing the use of the battery below 15%.
This does not mean that from time to time it can be completely downloaded and 100% loaded. Something recommended according to several technical services experts such as Jesús Juárez , who after more than fifteen years of experience fixing laptops, suggests this practice at least once a year. "I always advise to calibrate the battery once a year, discharging it completely, if possible slowly and lowering 15%. After resting for 3 or 4 hours, the next charge is left until it reaches 100%. To prevent the laptops go into suspension, hibernation or turn off before completely discharging the battery, use LiveCD, "explains the technician to PIXEL.
The battery will always degrade
Bad news, whatever you do your laptop will lose autonomy , although following the advice above we will reduce the speed of degradation of the battery, delaying the bitter moment when it stops working.
In some models the battery is not removable, so it should be plugged in and unplugged following the above tips, a detail to consider when buying a laptop. However, if the battery is to be removed for storage, the rule of percentages is the same , the charge is always between 80 and 20%. Still disconnected, it will degrade, so we also recommend plugging it in from time to time to make sure it stays in that load range.
Don't forget the battery in a drawer
Although it sounds repetitive, even if we remove the battery at 70%, disconnected it has a self-discharge rate, so if we forget about it for too long we risk having an expensive paperweight. Why? A battery may suffer a prolonged deep discharge from which it may not recover . Lithium-ion batteries have a protection circuit that prevents them from becoming unusable if they over discharge.
As if it were a defibrillator, the chargers have a system that applies a small impulse load of very short duration, but of great voltage, which activates the protection circuit. If it detects that one of the cells has begun to charge, the start of charging will continue on a regular basis and we will have 'awakened' the battery of our laptop from its lethargy, although this does not always work.
Obsession for percentages
The 0% of the battery that marks our laptop does not mean that it is completely discharged, nor does it mean the minimum marked by the battery manufacturer. To avoid dangers, the same thing happens with 100%, because at these extremes there are risks . Below the battery could be rendered useless and above it would present a risk to the user. Depending on the manufacturer and its internal chemistry, they have a minimum voltage, a medium voltage, and a cap.
On the other hand, there is the charging circuit of our laptop. Each company has its own algorithms, being healthier than others for batteries and offering a higher or lower charging speed.
If we talk about concepts, there are two to consider. The state of charge (SOC), percentage that represents the maximum capacity, and the depth of discharge (DOD), percentage that represents the maximum discharge. If this last code exceeds 80%, it would mean that the battery has entered the deep discharge phase as explained above.
The heat is his enemy
The heat directly affects the useful life of the batteries and conditions their operation , being able to turn them into small explosives, something that apart from being scandals and leaving images for posterity (like those of a burning hoverboard surrounded by firemen in the middle of a street from New York), has caused many returns.
According to Battery University, the use of equipment in places that exceed 30 degrees of temperature can have consequences for its useful life. "Electronic devices suffer the same stress when exposed to heat as when subjected to a high voltage load."
The temperature directly affects the performance of the batteries, so we recommend that the place where they are stored after extraction is fresh and dry . To protect them from dirt and dust, hermetically sealed bags are the best solution and cover the metal terminals with electrical tape, you can avoid accidental conductivity or short circuits.
Why do batteries hate heat so much? The reason has to do with the electrolytes that fill the spaces between the layers of lithium oxide and cobalt and those of graphite, preventing the two components from touching. This is what lithium ions go through when they travel between the two layers, so it is quite important for the battery structure.
At high temperatures, these electrolytes begin to break down, which causes the battery to degrade over the course of a few hundred charge cycles . For example, this is a very important problem for electric vehicle batteries, which often spend much of the day in the sun. However, if you do not plan to work every day from a beach, keep the laptop's battery at room temperature It will be quite simple.
The cold is your ally
"Using the battery at low temperatures and keeping it cold is much better for its life," says Juarez. Likewise, the technician also recommends not overheating the equipment while they are charging and not leaving them in the sun inside a car.
At very low temperatures, something like working abroad in Siberia, laptop performance could slow down. Lithium ions move more slowly with very cold temperatures , meaning that the battery may not be able to provide enough power to the components. However, the change is usually slight and not related to any permanent damage.
Despite what is said in some forums, storing batteries in the freezer is not a great idea . Condensation can cause corrosion in the contacts and in the seal. However, it is true that this technique has been able to solve a case of 'dead' battery. Some users have reported that seemingly unrecoverable batteries (perfect component to experiment because if it doesn't work we have nothing to lose), after spending 14 or 15 hours in the freezer they have returned to 'life'.
The process involves putting the battery in a sealed bag, taking it out and letting it acquire room temperature before inserting it into the equipment and finally, carrying out several full charge cycles.
The key is in the charge cycles
The shelf life is measured in charge cycles. There is no standard that encompasses all laptops on the market, but as a general rule, it is quantified as a charging cycle when we recharge the battery after discharging around or below 20% . Some manufacturers, such as Apple, claim that recharging from 50% would only count as a half-charge cycle, extending the life of the component over time.
It should be noted that all batteries reduce their capacity as the charging cycles are consumed. According to the analysis of Battery University, 88-94% of initial capacity went to 73-84% after 250 recharge cycles .
What happens if I reach the maximum number of cycles? We can continue using that battery but the reduction in autonomy will be noticeable and will worsen over time.
Each laptop is a world and each one supports doing a number of charge cycles. In Apple they offer an estimate of their equipment in which quantities appear that can range from 300 cycles to 1,000. Although not many manufacturers make it so clear.
From the command console we can get an idea of the state of our battery. If we execute "powercfg / batteryreport", in the directory "C: WindowsSystem32battery_report.html" a report will be created with the original capacity (Design Capacity) and the current one (Full Charge Capacity).
Be careful with handling the voltages
We are not Nikola Tesla or the Norse god of thunder, so it is not advisable to play with voltages to increase charge cycles . Reducing the voltage will increase the number of cycles but reduce the full charge capacity of the battery. According to Battery University, "every 70mV reduction in charging voltage reduces the usable capacity of the battery by 10%."
Eye with the chargers
Not all chargers are the same and that could have a detrimental effect on battery life and operation. Chargers have all kinds of controls that limit the amount of power supplied and stop charging when the battery is full, but some white markings may not have such rigorous security settings.
If too much current is supplied to a battery, it could mean removing too many lithium ions and accelerating degradation. This does not mean that all white label chargers can be harmful but it may be better to keep an official model.
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