[NCLUG] Laptop Battery Care

John L. Bass jbass at dmsd.com
Mon Dec 10 19:29:08 MST 2001


	My question is this: does anyone have any battery care hints? I don't plan
	to travel *much* with my laptop, so should I take the battery out and leave
	it uncharged for the months when I'm just using my laptop on the couch

Lion bat's are "nicer" than many first generation bat's, but still have many of
the same do's and don't. There biggest advantage is high density charge, biggest
disadvantage is high cost - like most bat's, don't let the little ones take them
apart and eat them - do not short discharge them.

They have a more rapid self-discharge rate, especially compared to NiMh bats which
stay charged for years, and left off the charger, will deep discharge themselves in
a few months.  Deep cycling Lion's, will significantly shorten their life span, as
will storing them discharged for extended periods. Like Lead/Acid bat's they are
much better suited to float applications, where they are only discharged 10-20%
typically.

This is unlike NiCads which need to be deep discharged, or plus over-charged to
avoid memory effect problems - deep cycling most other bat's including Lion's is bad.

There are also several different types of Lion bat's, chemistry optimized for
different applications.

John



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