The Impact of Constantly Plugging in Your Laptop Charger on Battery Life

KOMPAS.com – Are you a laptop user who always plugs in the charger while working in the office or at home? This method is indeed practical because the battery continues to be fully charged, but it should be avoided.

For older laptops, the reason is clear because there is a risk of overcharging the battery. Continuously using the charger can damage the battery, especially if the battery is indeed old.

Modern laptops are smarter because they only charge little by little when their capacity drops (trickle charging) and use power from the charger -not the battery- when connected.

Also read: 6 things you shouldn’t do when charging your cellphone, pay attention so that the battery lasts

Even so, constantly new laptops are actually not good for battery health. There are two reasons, as compiled by KompasTekno from PCWorld.

Voltage and heat affect laptop battery life

Lithium batteries experience an increase in voltage as their capacity increases. The more filled, the voltage is also higher. Voltage affects the aging process chemically, aka chemical aging.

The rate of chemical aging varies depending on the voltage, but occurs most rapidly when the battery is at the lowest voltage (low capacity) and highest voltage (fully charged).

In other words, overcharging a lithium battery to full or leaving it almost empty can shorten battery life.

Likewise, if you keep plugging your laptop into the charger so that its capacity never drops below 100 percent, then the battery will always be in a “stress” state where the voltage is high and the chemical aging process takes place quickly.

Also read: 20 Applications on the Most Battery-Intensive Smartphones

The second problem is heat, which also affects battery aging. Lithium batteries naturally lose their charge capacity gradually, even when not in use.

If it is continuously connected to the charger, the battery will always be recharged once its capacity drops slightly (trickle charging). This will keep the battery warm and contribute to speeding up the aging process.

Especially if while connected to the laptop charger is also actively used. The temperature of the device -including the battery- will also increase.

Too cold temperatures are not good for lithium batteries. Ideally, the battery temperature is kept between 10 and 40 degrees Celsius. Also avoid exposure to direct sunlight on the device.

How to charge a laptop safely

Lithium batteries should ideally be kept from completely discharging or fully charging, within 30-70 percent of maximum capacity.

You can charge the laptop to that range, then turn off the laptop and remove the battery before connecting it to the charger again if possible.

What about a laptop with a non-removable battery? Going back and forth between plugging and unplugging the charger is of course impractical, especially since lithium batteries have a limited charging cycle which will affect capacity when it’s over.

In this case, Windows laptop users can take advantage of the Smart Charging feature which will limit charging so it doesn’t reach 100 percent to extend battery life.

Also read: How to Check iPhone Battery Health, It’s Important to Know the Condition of the Battery

Information on how to use Smart Charging can be seen on the Microsoft website at following link or on the website of each laptop manufacturer.

For MacBook users, Apple also provides a guide on how to maximize battery life which can be seen at this link.

One more thing that can help is don’t use fake or fake chargers, such as the MagSafe MacBook charger, which has many imitations circulating.

This is because fake chargers have lower quality components so that the quality of the electricity output is poor and can damage the battery, besides there is a danger of shorting and burning.

If your laptop can be charged with a non-standard charger, for example via USB C, use a high-quality charger and cable with a power output rating that matches the needs of the laptop.

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2023-08-31 11:35:00
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