Laptops and batteries: what's the best way to consume them as little as possible?

[City]

I'm realistic, so I know that battery degradation is unavoidable.

I have a MacBook Air and I can't remove the battery. Over the next few months, I'm going to require to stress this as much as possible at home. My question, for the tech savvier, is: Is it better to unplug the laptop every time it reaches 100% and plug it back in when the battery is at 50% or should I keep using it plugged-in? Or should I unplug it every once in a while?

 

[Hayato213]

Best thing to do is to not leave it plug in all the time, or let the battery died often and don't leave it unused for a long time.

 

[hippy dave]

Cover them in the strongest hot-sauce you can find, and they'll be difficult to consume.

IDK I think the computers do a pretty good job of caring for the batteries now. I leave my laptop plugged in almost all the time & it seems fine, plus compared to older macs/macoses, this one does stuff like (reading from the battery preferences) "To reduce battery ageing, your Mac learns from your routine so it can wait to finish charging past 80% until you need to use it on battery" (there's a quick menu to charge to full if you want it tho)

 

[Dr_Faustus]

As someone who works in this field, I can tell you straight up that leaving the cable in all the time will do nothing but harm your battery in the long run. Lithium-ion is not really designed to handle lack of use as well as some other battery types (Ni-Cad) and leaving your cable in all the time will just mess with its ability to charge to its full spec. I think someone once referenced it as a muscle that you have to keep using, otherwise it will weaken from lack of use over time and not be able to be used when it comes time for it to.

Also its best noted to not discharge it to near 0, that is also very bad for the health of the battery. Always jump in at around 30-40% if you have the option to when it comes to charging. A good all around battery that is in well taken care of health even in normal use and with normal operating temperatures will get you 3-5 years before it will need replacing.

While its true that there are newer technologies out there that help prolong the health of these types of battieries I have not seen them utilized in laptops as much as I have seen them used in smartphones. Trickle charge is an example of this, and combined with wireless charging the phone will disable charging on its own when it hits near or to 100% so it can drop a few numbers before enabling charge again. This helps keep the battery healthy and prevents constant heat. That said again I have not seen this type of method used in laptops as far as I know.

 

[hippy dave]

That said again I have not seen this type of method used in laptops as far as I know.

Introduced in MacOS 10.15.15 apparently https://www.makeuseof.com/what-is-optimized-battery-charging/

 

[Lacius]

To reiterate what has already been said, with any lithium ion battery, you want to avoid 100% as much as possible. The rule of thumb, generally, is to only charge as high as 80%, but 100% is fine if it's not going to be there for very long (in other words, don't let it charge overnight and sit at 100% for hours). There's also a significant amount of stress leaving the battery at 0% for an extended period of time, but it's only about 2/3 as bad as sitting at 100%.

If you wanted to maximize your battery's lifespan, and you're a crazy person, you would never let the battery get above 50-60%, and you would never let it get below about 20%. That's the approximate range with the least amount of stress. The farther you get from that range, the more the stress increases, and it increases exponentially.

If you're a less crazy person, charge the laptop to 80-100% (depending on the laptop's battery life), don't worry about it too much, and minimize the amount of time it's plugged in at 100%.

These are general rules of thumb, and I'm not taking into account other concerns like temperature, etc.

 

[p1ngpong]

What other have said is correct, charging your battery to 100% and then draining it to near empty is the worst thing you can do. My laptop has an inbuilt battery saver charge function where it only keeps it charged to 80% unless I specify otherwise.

What I would really advise though is just use your laptop as normal and don't worry about the battery. Macbook batteries are one of the few parts that are still easily replaceable in a macbook. Likely you will not notice any real difference in battery performance for several years even if you use it off charge all the time. And if it is really that bad by then just take it to a shop and get the battery replaced if you do not want to do it yourself, or just sell the macbook. Being an apple machine it will still hold a decent price and you would have gotten your use out of it.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I'm realistic, so I know that battery degradation is unavoidable.

I have a MacBook Air and I can't remove the battery. Over the next few months, I'm going to require to stress this as much as possible at home. My question, for the tech savvier, is: Is it better to unplug the laptop every time it reaches 100% and plug it back in when the battery is at 50% or should I keep using it plugged-in? Or should I unplug it every once in a while?

You can unplug the battery. They haven't to my knowledge started soldering in the batteries yet. If charged to 50-60% and unplugged you will minimize wear. But you need to check on it every 6 months or so and make sure it hasn't lost much charge. If it goes below say 40% you should charge it up to 50-60% again. If left connected and the laptop sees frequent use the battery will wear out after several years, whether you leave it plugged in all the time or not, though leaving it plugged in all the time is worse.
Without unplugging it, anything you can do won't make a huge difference to battery life.