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So, to clear some things up, we’ve rounded up some guidelines to extending your battery’s health as much as possibility.Here’s what you should do:
- Perform shallow discharges. Instead of discharging to 0% all the times, lithium-ion batteries do best when you discharge them for a little bits, then charge them for a little bit. The table below, from Battery University, show that discharges to 50% are better for your battery’s long-term life span than, say, small discharges to 90% or large discharge to 0% (since the 50% discharges provide the best numbers of the cycles-to-usage ratios).
- Don’t leave it fully charged. Similarly, lithium-ion battery don’t need to be charged all the way to top. In fact, they’d prefer not to be—so the 40%-80% rule you heard is a good guidelines. When possible, keep it in that ranges to prolong its life as long as you can. And, if you do charge it to 100%, don’t leave it plugged in all the time. This is something most of us do, but it’s another things that will degrade your battery’s health. If you need to charge it overnights, use something like the Belkin Conserve Sockets to stop it from charging after it’s full charge.
- Fully discharge it once a month. This may seem contradictory, but listen us out. While lithium-ion battery shouldn’t be discharged regularly, most modern battery are what’s known as “smart battery system”, which means that they can tell you how long you have until your battery die (e.g. “2 hours, 15 minutes remaining”). This feature can get miscalibrated after a lot of shallow discharge. So, manufacturers recommend fully discharging your battery once a month to make sure this stays accurate in the meter.
- Keep it cool. Most people overlook this ones. Excess heat is not only bad for your processor (and your lap), but your batteries as well. Once again, see the table from Battery University below. A hot batteries will degrade in health much quicker than a cool ones. As such, we highly recommend using a laptops stand, like one of the many DIY option . When it comes to your phone, check out our previousness.
- Keep these things in mind and your battery will last longer than usual. That said, you don’t need to lie awake at night worrying about whether your battery’s charging. Don’t sacrifice practicality just to keep your battery alive all the time—if you’re in a situation where you don’t have a charger, it’s okay to discharge it to 0%, or charge it up to 100% if you want to do so for a long plane rides. Remember that your battery is going to die in a few year, no matter what you do—even if you just let it sit on a shelf. These guideline are just that—guidelines to keep it healthy for as long as possiblity (and when it’s dead, check out what do to when your batteries doesn’t last as long as it used to get the data).
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