Ah, laptops, the work-horses of the pandemic and post-pandemic world, with so many people working from home, on their couches, even in their beds (hey, no judgment – we’ve done it too!). When practically your entire career depends on that one machine, understandably we’re pretty invested in keeping it at peak performance. Since laptops can also be on the shorter-lived side of personal devices, due to issues with battery life, among other things, let’s chat about some ways we can help maximize our laptop investment with good battery care.
Resist the urge to charge to 100%
We get it: you’re about to head out for a workday out of the house and you want to make sure you have maximum battery life but don’t need to worry about where you can plug in. So you charge up to 100% battery. Then you do it again the next day. And again a few days after that. The problem here is that a battery can only be charged from empty to full about 500 times before it starts degrading. Charging up to only 80% can give you almost the same time away from your power cord but give you up to 1500 charges before you start seeing a loss in battery life. Similarly, to get the full benefits of this practice, don’t let it get fully empty before plugging in, either.
Just like you, batteries don’t like to get hot.
Both when running and when resting, your laptop battery will do better if it stays cool. Using your computer when plugged into your charger is actually not a problem for battery health, unless you are working in a hot location or doing some intensive computing that heats up the battery. Making sure you keep your device out of direct sunlight and off surfaces that trap heat against the battery (maybe don’t work in bed, after all) can help preserve your battery health for longer. Also keeping your computer in a cool, ventilated location when it’s off helps the battery retain it’s charging capacity for longer. Experts recommend less than 86F for inside the laptop, so subtract a few degrees from that since the inside of your device is certainly hotter than the ambient temperature and maybe try to keep your device in a room below 75F.
Is it already too late for your laptop’s battery?
Don’t worry. We can help. Laptop battery replacements are a common, straightforward repair that computer experts like us can handle for you for just a fraction of the cost of a new work laptop.
