Should I continuously charge my laptop?

Does this do any harm to the laptop? Let’s find us.

Many people who use laptops (laptops) often have the habit of constantly plugging in the charger to use it as a desktop computer. However, is that the right thing to do, let’s find the answer in the following article.

There are two main types of batteries used on laptops: lithium-ion and lithium-polymer. Although they are made based on different technologies, their basic mechanism of action is the same: Electric current is generated based on the movement of electrons. This shift helps the laptop’s battery to work well for a long time.

The battery cannot be overcharged. When you plug the charger continuously into the battery, there is no danger because when the battery is 100% full, the battery will automatically disconnect and not receive any more power unless the energy drops below a certain level. On the contrary, with current battery technology, using until the battery is exhausted and then charging will damage the battery as well as lead to an inability to restore capacity.

Thus, in theory, constantly plugging in the laptop charger does not cause any harm. However, the problem is not so simple.

One truth about these batteries is that they are unstable. Lithium batteries start to lose capacity as soon as they are manufactured and there are many factors that accelerate this process including:

– Number of charging cycles: Each battery is specified by the manufacturer with a certain number of charging cycles. The number of charging cycles is calculated from when the battery is from 0% to 100%. For example, you charge the laptop battery from 0% to 50% and then pull it out, which means it will only charge 1/2 cycle, in the next charge you will charge another 50% to complete a charging cycle. Over time, the more charge cycles you use, the more the battery will gradually degrade.

– Voltage: The lower the voltage, the faster the battery will bottle and fail. The voltage of the battery also decreases with time of use.

– Temperature: High temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius can seriously affect the operation of the winch as well as the battery life.

Of the three factors mentioned above, temperature and voltage can affect the battery the most. The degree of harm would be even greater if these two factors were combined.

If temperature greatly affects the battery capacity, the question is whether to remove the battery from the laptop to plug in the charger or not? Currently, there are many laptops designed with non-removable batteries, so it is difficult to remove the battery from the laptop.

In case your laptop can remove the battery, whether to remove it or not depends on the manufacturer. For example, Acer always encourages users of their laptops to remove the battery. Meanwhile, when Apple was still making laptops with removable batteries, it didn’t want that. And if you still want to remove the battery, the best way to do it is to leave the capacity between 40 and 70% and then store it in an ideal temperature, not too hot.

With the question raised at the beginning of the article, it is really difficult to have an absolute answer because it depends on many factors including the recommendations of the laptop manufacturer. As stated, Acer always wants users to remove the battery to start the laptop, HP recommends that users only plug in the charger for 2 weeks and then use it, and Dell thinks that constantly plugging in the charger will not affect anything. their device.

Constantly plugging in the charger as well as using the battery on the laptop too much will also cause many consequences. Continuously plugging in the laptop charger, although it does not affect the battery in the short term, in the long run will cause the battery to decrease in capacity while using the laptop without a charger will increase the charging cycle and also make the battery bottle. Therefore, the best answer is to combine both uses such as using the laptop with the battery for a few days and then plugging it in again. Besides, we also need to pay attention to the temperature when using the laptop with the battery.

(Refer to QTM)