It has become a habit of most of the users to keep the charger plugged in throughout the night and they are concern whether it damages the battery life or not ? The question is can I leave my laptop plugged in all the time and is this harmful for the laptop battery ?
We have discussed about this topic with great detail in the following.
Source of Power for A Laptop Plugged In
This question raises in everybody’s mind that when we leave laptop plugged in all the time, whether it gets power from battery or the plug. Its answer will also help them in drawing the conclusion about does this damage the battery or not ?
When laptop is plugged in, a Laptop / Computer consume power directly from the main connection instead of battery. It stores full power on battery but still consuming the power directly from the main source. This is the reason latest or modern laptops never get overcharged which otherwise would definitely be damaging for its life.
Type of Batteries In Latest Laptops
All latest laptops are using Lithium-ion batteries which maintenance is very easy. The best thing about Lithium-ion battery is that once it is fully charged, it automatically get disconnected from charging process. It would not let the laptop overcharged which reduces battery life and also leads to overheating issues.
Lithium-ion is very much in demand because every user wants to take advantage of this efficient technology which is very promising for the better user experience.
This battery is smart in many ways because it comes with protection circuit which maintains the voltage for every battery cell during its charge. Its protection circuit technology maintains the cell voltage and also its temperature which is amazing feature for the laptop overall quality life.
Even you leave the laptop plugged for a week, it will never get the laptop overcharged and be using the power directly from the main connection. There are experiments available where people left their laptop plugged for a week and then found it all good.
Battery Life
Its Lithium or any other type of battery, its life period will decline over the time. Battery will offer full capacity on its first day and probably reduce to 95% after six months. This battery life thing is also depends upon the usage, the rough usage is going to affect the battery performance more.
As far as Lithium-ion battery is concerned, it has higher number of discharge which all needs to be consumed before battery dies and after that it stops being charged. Lithium-ion battery has highest number of discharge comparing to any other type of battery which makes it long lasting and cost effective.
Many visitors have asked about can we remove the battery and get the power directly from charger. The answer is Yes, you can remove the battery and laptop may get its power directly through the charger but few things needs to be remembered.
- Do not keep the battery removed and not using it for too long.
- Battery must be placed somewhere under the maintained temperature which is 32F to 95F.
- Re-charge the battery before putting it back.
How Can We Improve the Battery’s Life
The average life of laptop battery is in between 18 months to 24 months, and then it has to be replaced with the new one. However, an intensive usage of laptop by professionals and freelancers reduces the average battery life and its life can over before given time period.
Research and studies have confirmed that maintaining the battery charging in between 40% to 80% extends its life and overall health. Those users who are concerned about their battery life and wants to extend it, needs to unplug the charger when it reaches at 80% and then plug it back at 40%.
Otherwise, keep the battery fully charged and use it till 1% charging is very harmful. We understand that to stay active and remain the battery charging in between 40%-80% is a tough job; this would also offer you extended battery life as well.
You can also extend the battery life and bring overall improvements by following these techniques. Do not keep the screen brightness full all the time when you do not need it. It is better increase the brightness while watching HD movie or Netflix to enjoy the content most.
Keep removing the all applications running in background when they are already closed down, these background running apps are consuming great amount of battery for no good.
Always try to keep laptop cool, an overheated laptop damages its battery too much. The use of outdated drivers and virus affected software contributes into laptop overheating, these issues needs to be addressed.
The Confusions Regarding Plugged In
Everybody asks this questions whether leaving the charger plugged in damages the battery life and its overall charging capacity ?
The answer is big No for both questions asked above. The latest batteries comes with technology which do not accept overcharging after it gets fully charged and even it always keep the charging at 99%. Therefore, there is no harm leaving the charged plugged in; it will not damage the laptop battery anyway.
What If I Leave the Charger Plugged In the Direct Switch Board ?
We would definitely not recommend you to leave the charger plugged in the direct switch board. It can catch the fire after suffering from overheating and damage your other property in around.
How To Extend Battery Run Time ?
Lithium-ion batteries are already highly efficient and long lasting comparing to old technologies in batteries. A user can extend battery run time by manually performing due diligence and making its most efficient usage. To avoid the useless stress on battery can extend its run time.
User can apply power saving techniques to increase the battery run time. We as a laptop users always keep some features enabled which are not in our use. We can disable our Wi-Fi or Bluetooth during watching movie offline which can save 25% to 35% of our battery for good.
Keep the laptop battery protected from direct exposure of heat and keep it under normal temperature. Direct heat exposure is extremely dangerous for the battery life.
How Mac Users Can Check the Battery Status ?
A MacBook owner can check its battery status by clicking on the battery icon and select the required option. This shows how much battery each app is consuming which provides you valuable information. User can also take advantage from battery health mode feature which helps the user in applying all useful techniques which improves its life.
It’s another feature Apple Diagnostic which provides the report on what issues are there with the battery and how to fix it.
Can I Turn My Laptop Off While Charging It ?
This question raises in the mind that is it OK charging the laptop while it is turned off ? The answer is Yes, it will keep the battery charging as long as it is connected to the charger. You can set the laptop on sleep mode while charging because it keeps the screen off but everything else will work normal. This will keep your battery charging faster comparing to when screen is not turned off.
Difference Between Sleep Mode and Hibernate
Sleep mode can be defined as such a mode in which all programs / applications are stopped but still there while screen is off. The memory still holds all opened documents but not showing them on screen.
Hibernate mode is more effective comparing to Sleep Mode in terms of saving battery power. It keeps and saves the all open documents in hard disk instead of RAM which also consumes the battery power. Rest of the things is same in Hibernate and Sleep mode.
Hibernate mode consumes no power at all, whereas sleep mode consumes power because it is running the RAM.
Final Words
Leaving the laptop plugged in all the time is not a wise practice but still it is not harmful because of latest technology introduced in batteries which are made of lithium. Though, charging the laptop from direct connection is harmful when the user leaves it to be unplugged.
