Should I keep my laptop constantly charged?

[Mr. Detective]

Hey guys,

I just bought a new gaming laptop. I am wondering if I should keep it plugged in all the time to get the best performance, especially when playing games, or if I should unplug it when it's full. I've seen different answers on google. Some says that the new laptops are built so that you can keep it plugged in all the time without shortening its life span. Others say that you should only charge when it's down to a certain percentage.

If I unplug the charger, the screen's brightness would decrease a little. Not really a big deal, but I kinda like it bright. I don't know how much difference would it make to play games while on battery. I've yet to really notice that, besides the brightness. So what would you guys recommend? Keep it plugged in always or no?

 

[KayZaman]

Playing while charging?! I'm worried about the battery life. Is your laptop battery attachable?

 

[Andar]

It depends on your laptops charging electronics and battery material.

Overcharging a battery will damage it and drop its capacity, that is a fact.
However, there are electronics that prevent overcharging even if connected to the powernet.

The question is whether your laptop contains those electronics or if the manufacturer did not want to pay for those additional parts to keep the laptop cheaper in production.


Additionally it is not only the brightness that gets reduced when the power is disconnected, usually the computer also reduces the CPU power because on ful power the battery would be drained faster. But that is something you can set in the windows energy saving properties (where you can also adjust the powersave brightness). Setting the computer to full capacity even when running on battery will use up the battery charge faster of course.

And in the last point: if you newer plan to use the laptop without battery, the damage to the battery is less important than if you need it mobile often, so you need to take more care if you need it mobile.

 

[Poryg]

Also, charging after X percent can harm battery too.
In past the batteries worked like this:
First the charger discharged them completely
then it recharged them.
Lithium batteries are less vulnerable towards it, so they begin charging immediately, but it still isn't good for the battery if you decrease the percentage to, let's say, 20 or 15 percent and then charge it. 10% is more suitable. but discharging it absolutely can actually hurt it more than help.
I keep my laptop permanently plugged in. It's constantly on 98%, so overcharging doesn't happen here, since the battery doesn't charge anymore. However, this lets the battery think that 98% is its' 100% capacity, which is why disconnecting a not fully charged battery can be harmful.

 

[Mr. Detective]

@KayZaman Yes, the battery is detachable. I can just remove it and keep the charger plug in with no issues. (I hope)

@Andar You think if I ask the seller directly, they would give me an honest answer? Their customer service has been top notch so far... By the way, if I can remove the battery and keep in plugged all the time, should I just remove the battery? I can just insert it in whenever I need to carry it somewhere. It seems more practical that way, no?

@Poryg I usually don't charge it until it gives me a warning that the battery level is low. That's like at 10% or less. I don't charge it unless it's below 20% or so. I don't remember how you cap a limit on your battery like that, but I think I've heard of it before.

 

[Poryg]

It does it automatically for me to prevent overcharging. Ine feature that I can be glad for from Asus... I won't ever buy a laptop from them again. After only 2 months my laptop went to a service center due to hdd damage (mechanical, but from something that doesn't seem logical to me) and brother's isn't any better. You can bend the screen with zero issues and after 7 months of using, the battery of his got fried.

 

[Andar]

By the way, if I can remove the battery and keep in plugged all the time, should I just remove the battery?

IF you can do this, and IF your local area has stable power connections.

The first if depends on which way the electronics handle the energy flow - if it goes always through the battery, the laptop won't work with the battery removed.
Then again, if it can work without battery then the chance is good that the electronics do monitor the battery and can reroute power to prevent battery overload. On the other hand if the laptop can't work without battery, there is a good chance that the electronic can't prevent overloading because it cannot disconnect the battery from charging.

There is a way to prevent overcharging without rerouting power, but that is rather unlikely to be done unless you have a really top-tier laptop (with top-tier price).

However, using a battery also prevents the computer from being damaged by powerspikes or loosing data on power-out. So if your local area regularly experiences power company problems, it might still be worth to keep the battery installed even if that does damage it.
Because that "Battery damage" does not mean that the laptop will cease to function if the battery is damaged - it just means that the capacity of the battery slowly gets reduced, until you're required to use the power connector most of times.

 

[Zeriab]

Modern laptops have smart chargers and smart batteries. Unless something doesn't work properly they should disconnect the battery once it's fully charged and while the charger/power supply is connected.
How keeping it plugged in all the time with plugging it in every now and then I dunno.

Do note that older batteries, particularly the nickel based ones, had best practices associated which are decidedly bad for modern laptop batteries.

@Andar: Hmm... I wonder if switch-mode helps a lot against powerspikes on 110V power grids.

*hugs*

 

[DjKniteX]

I always read to charge until full and then plug it in when it's dying. I leave mine always plugged in mainly because my laptop is about 5+ years old and went through so many use that I 'm not even worried about it anymore. It does last about 45 minutes of a charge so there's that lol

 

[Zeriab]

@DjKniteX Unfortunately that will deteriorate some batteries faster than, say, plugging the power in at 30% or 40%.
As a test, if it was half-charged (in the 40%~70% range), then it's probably best not to fully discharge it.

 

[Mr. Detective]

So I emailed customer support, and this is what they replied:

Thanks for your reply and I'm happy to hear the new battery is working well. In regards to charging, we recommend unplugging the system to utilize the battery at least once a week. The brightness will dim when you remove the AC adapter, but if you adjust the brightness settings your PC will remember how bright you prefer the panel to be both while plugged in or while on battery. Keeping a PC consistently plugged in would diminish the battery life over time. If you truly intend to use the PC on the AC adapter, we recommend removing the battery anywhere between 55-70% for storage. This would not cause any issues aside from immediate loss of power if the AC adapter were to be accidentally disconnected and you could certainly insert it back in when you need to go somewhere. Please let us know if you have any additional questions.

It seems that I can just remove the battery and keep it plugged in all the time with no problem. At least, I hope that's the case but I don't think they would lie. XD
He said the same thing you said, Andar. I wonder why he would recommend 55-70% and not 100%, lol.