Read the title: Life*SPAN*.
Jerks tell me to always keep my battery between 10% - 90% as a rule of thumb, because fully charging and then discharging makes battery kill.
And then someone says "that's bullshit, the battery doesn't care when or how you discharge it".
Then someone says "there's different types of batteries, so it depends".
And then everyone argues and I still don't know how to keep my laptop's battery lifespan nice and cozy, nor if it's bad to always keep it plugged in and at 100%.
Wut do?
Please help, friends. I'm sorry for being a bit arrogant in the OP.
different battery tech is different. old advice to fully discharge always is old and is bad for lithium batteries
lithium batteries last longer if you keep them topped off and avoid discharging completely. extended duration of being completely discharged can ruin a lithium battery
some devices will happily overcharge your batteries so you should know what type of battery your device is using. lipo batteries tend to not have safety features, and should be disconnected when fully charged.
>>54935269
Thanks anon, that was quite helpful.
One other question though: I used to have a device (a wireless headset) that I would sometimes not use for months at a time, and eventually it was not able to hold a charge for even a few moments. Which was expected, of course - but in my vain attempts to bring it back to life -- charging it, no dice, charging again, no dice -- eventually it started to work. And it eventually was able to hold a charge for a few hours, and was usable again.
Would you know what mechanics were behind this? (Though unfortunately I can't remember what type of battery it used, since the device is long-gone.)
http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/
>>54935716
Oh, wow, thanks anon. If I knew about a resource like this I would have not wasted thy fellows' time with my plebian questions.
I will read this, and recommend it to any batterytarded friends or fellows in the future.
>>54935269
>lipo batteries tend to not have safety features, and should be disconnected when fully charged.
The charging circuits and software contain the safeguards
>>54935743
The whole section under lithium ion is all pertinent to your questions. good stuff in the comments section too
>>54935771
On a (pic) related note, does all the magic in the rMBP's power adapter mean I can do the Christopher Poole and just take it easy?
That thing looks like it has some crazy engineering going on. And I think I remember reading an article once about how it differentiated from other power bricks in a weird way, though I can't remember the specifics.
>>54935771
still though. most cheap lipo chargers contain no safeguards
>>54935819
MacBooks don't use LiPos, they use LiFe.
>>54935126
You start reading.
http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries
http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_increase_the_runtime_of_your_wireless_device
>>54935866
Sorry for being unclear, I wasn't talking about lipo at all. I'm just trying to find out what kind of unique function the MBR's power brick did. Like I said earlier, I read some article talking about how it was uniquely engineered, and I think it had a processor or something on-board, or something like that.
Can't find the article for the life of me.
>>54935269
>lithium batteries last longer if you keep them topped off
Incorrect. Keeping a lithium battery topped off accelerates aging. This is why it's recommended to charge a LiIon to 50% for long-term storage.
>>54935866
>MacBooks don't use LiPos, they use LiFe.
No, they use Lithium Cobalt like every other laptop. LiFePO4 batteries have a much lower energy density.
>>54935771
>>lipo batteries tend to not have safety features, and should be disconnected when fully charged.
>The charging circuits and software contain the safeguards
No, both of you are wrong.
Smart laptop batteries conform to the SMB standard (guess where the acronym comes from), which contain a microprocessor charge counter and monitoring circuit. It independently safeguards the battery. The laptop is only responsible for drawing power and providing charging current. The laptop has no safeguards aside from fuses.
That said, the monitors in smart batteries do run firmware.
>>54935126
What I've read is that the important part is to not keep the battery at maximum charge, or empty, for extended periods of time. If you fill up and empty your batteries regularly, that is okay. But if you keep your phone on the charger for days on, or if you leave your MP3 player without a charge for weeks, that will reduce your battery's life span.
