Overcharging Your Laptop Is The Quickest Way To Kill It
There is a tradition in my family. Every day, once we wake up and freshen, we take our laptops to our desks. I and my sister use them for school and my parents for their work. But before sitting, we keep our laptops on charge.
It does not matter if the laptop is ninety percent charged or even a hundred percent. It must always be in charge.
At the end of the day, once we finish our work, only then do we remove the charger from the laptops.
My first laptop was a Dell one. It was a good laptop, but its battery became terrible in just one year. It took over an hour to charge but only twenty minutes to discharge.
My next laptop, which is also my current laptop, is HP ProBook 430 G3. I bought it just two years ago, but it has already become terrible. It has the same problem, battery issues.
I used to think that my luck was bad, and I always got a laptop with some internal defects. However, a little research on Google enlightened me.
It turns out that the problem with my laptop is not the laptop itself, but me. The problem was how I used the laptop. How I continuously charged it even though it didn’t need any charge.
How Your Laptop’s Battery Works
Laptops come in many designs and functions, so the specifics of your computer might not be identical to what is normal for most laptops.
That said, the vast majority of modern laptop batteries are made from lithium-ion or comparable lithium compounds, and they all work pretty much the same way.
These batteries are preferred for their longevity and low maintenance requirements.
Most laptop batteries are rated for hundreds of recharges, but that brings this article to the most important point.
Every time a battery is charged, it takes a little bit of chemical damage in the process.
Eventually, that chemical damage adds up, and the battery won’t last as long as it used to. What it means is that no battery will last forever. Over time, it will hold less charge than it used to, and eventually, it won’t be able to hold any charge at all.
What Happens When You Overcharge Your Laptop
Your lithium-ion battery is well-designed. When it is low, it will accept a charge from the plug until it is full. Once full, the battery won’t accept charge anymore.
So, when you leave your laptop charging, it will ultimately fill the battery, and then the battery will stop charging.
But there’s a catch.
As long as the battery is plugged into the computer, it will slowly release very small amounts of electricity to the computer.
This is called a trickle charge, and as the trickle charge drains a few fractions of a percent of your laptop’s battery capacity, the battery will once again accept juice from the charger.
This will happen on and off again countless times after the battery gets full for the first time. The thing to remember is that this is happening on a very small scale. The trickle charge and recharge will have no discernable impact on your battery’s health.
But when it’s overcharged, again and again, for a few weeks or months continuously, it spoils.
First, your battery won’t charge that quickly. Soon, it starts discharging very fast. Later, your battery will go bust and you will need to buy a new one.
How To Charge Your Laptop
The first thing to know is that some things hurt the battery a lot more than other things.
For instance, draining the battery to zero and leaving it there is the fastest way to ruin it. You’re much better off plugging the laptop in as soon as you get any low battery warnings.
Experts disagree on the magic number, but it’s a good idea to charge your battery when it gets down to about twenty percent. If you jump in before that number, you’re erring on the safe side.
As soon as it becomes a hundred percent, unplug it. Every second longer you take, the worse your battery becomes.
If you are forgetful, unplug it when it reaches the nineties. Or, you can download Full Battery, an app that reminds you when it becomes full. (I use the app)
Few More Tips
- If your laptop is not being used, don’t keep it on sleep, instead, shut it down. Laptops only take a few seconds to start, so there’s no excuse for you.
- Another thing that can annihilate your battery is extreme temperatures. When the battery gets too hot, it sustains damage, and it won’t charge as well as it used to. Stop using your laptop if it is ever uncomfortably hot to the touch.
- Remove the battery when you aren’t going to use it for a long time (A week or more.) Keep in mind that not all batteries are removable. Especially with ultra-thin laptops, they might be enclosed or soldered.
- Treat your laptop like a human. If you need a jacket, it’s probably too cold to store the laptop for a long time. If you’re sure it’s below freezing, definitely get the computer to a warmer place.
Authors Note - What you just read is mostly true for every gadget, be it a phone, an iPad, or some other device. It doesn’t matter if it is a costly one or has high-end features, it will spoil if you overcharge it.
