Good battery life is an important aspect of a laptop. One of the biggest selling points of laptops is the fact that with the battery backup, you can get your work done sitting anywhere in the world. But, if you have a laptop with a faulty battery and you can only use a laptop sitting on your desk with the charger plugged in, then you are better off with a desktop PC.
But, what causes the battery life of a laptop to deteriorate so much. Very rarely does it happen that a brand new laptop comes with a battery that is damaged or not performing up to the mark. In this article, we are going to talk about things that can damage a laptop’s battery. When you avoid these things, you can save yourself all the trouble of having to replace your laptop’s battery.
Letting It Heat Up
Heat is one thing that causes the most damage to battery life and performance. When you use your laptop for some heavy-duty tasks, it heats up, and the heat usually reaches the battery too. When the battery heats up, all sorts of chemical reactions start to happen inside the battery, especially in the brand new Lithium-Ion batteries. If it ever reaches too hot temperatures, the batteries can sustain permanent damage as well, so you might end up buying a brand new HP Elitebook 830 G5 Battery if that happens.
The best solution for this is to keep a cooling pad under your laptop and never keep your laptop on your lap. Make sure whatever heat the laptop is generating is escaping through the vents and not going towards the battery.
Letting It Go To Zero
Most people will tell you that you should try and complete battery cycles by charging the battery to 100% and then letting it discharge all the way to 0%. That is half right and half wrong. You should charge a laptop battery to 100% as often as you can but never let it go all the way down to 0%. As soon as the laptop shows 20% battery left, you should plug in the charge.
The reason for that is, using a laptop when the battery levels are below 20% puts extreme strain on the battery, more than usual, which can lead to damage to the battery and its cells. So, no matter what, never let your battery go down to 0%.
Don’t Store In Hot Places
If you are going on a trip and are thinking about storing your laptop in a safe space for a week or two, we suggest you find a cool place to do so. As we said earlier, heat is harmful to batteries. If you leave your laptop in a hot place, the battery might go through physical expansion and various chemical reactions, which will not only damage the battery but also affect the laptop as well.
We aren’t talking about storing it in the refrigerator, but keep it at a place that has 30 to 40-celsius temperature. Also, when storing away for a long period, it is better to recharge the battery fully than turn the laptop off to store it. You can also remove the battery and keep it separate from the laptop. Just keep it in a cool space, preferably away from sunlight.
Conclusion
You should always take good care of your laptop’s battery because if the battery sustains serious damage, it will also cause problems for the rest of the laptop hardware. The more you take care of the battery, the longer it will last, and you won’t have to replace it every year.