Will my battery be damaged if my laptop is plugged in all the time? This is the most frequently searched question about batteries on the Internet. Some of you may be surprised, but there is no such thing as “overcharging” a battery. Instead, you should avoid overheating your laptop and completely draining its battery.
While we talk about new gadgets and software all the time, we often overlook the batteries that power all of this. Similarly, our laptop batteries are one of the most important components that are often overlooked during the “high-level” discussions about RAM and GPUs. Thus, we end up with questions like the ones above.
However, the answer to our original question is not that simple! Before solving this question, let me tell you some facts about your laptop battery, which will help you understand the answer.
Some basic battery elements!
Most laptop batteries are either lithium-ion or lithium-polymer. These batteries are designed to withstand multiple charges. These batteries cannot be overcharged, which means that once a battery is 100% charged, it will stop charging. These batteries stop receiving power, which goes directly to your laptop's power supply. So, keeping it plugged in won't harm your battery and won't make much of a difference in overall battery life. However, there are some other critical factors that we'll discuss below.
Another scenario to keep in mind is that there are some good practices that will extend the life of your laptop battery. Your battery has a finite number of recharge cycles. So, by discharging your battery completely and repeatedly you are going to harm its life.
Overheating: The biggest enemy of your battery!
You'd be surprised to learn that overheating is the most critical factor when it comes to longer battery life. We said above that keeping your laptop plugged in won't kill your battery. It will! But, you also need to take care of the overheating caused by the hardware .
So, if your laptop's CPU/HDD temperature is around 40°C, keeping the laptop plugged in is fine. But, if your laptop has a removable battery and you want to use your laptop intensively, we advise you to remove the battery from the slot.
So, what should I do? What is the final answer?
These days, not all laptops come with a removable battery. So, unplugging the battery to cool it down isn't a viable option. However, there is a simple method that can help you extend your battery life in a different way. According to tests conducted by Battery University, a battery charged to 100 percent will only last 300-500 charge-discharge cycles. On the other hand, if it's charged to 70-80 percent, it will last 1000-2000 recharge cycles.
So, to summarize the article, the most important parts we should keep in mind are:
- Avoid completely discharging your laptop after charging. The best thing you can do is try to keep the battery level between 40 and 80 percent.
- Make sure laptop isn't getting too hot and that your fan is working properly.
- Your laptop battery cannot be “overcharged” and damaged due to overcharging. It is “smart” enough to bypass charging.
