I am charging my laptop with one of the “quick charging” phone chargers right now, currently it says 5 hours until full charge. Does this wear out the battery faster or something? Or does it make no difference apart from taking a little bit longer?

  • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Some of it is the cord, but usually the limiter is the AC DC adapter. “The brick” some would call it. The battery should be fine as far as my limited knowledge goes. Stay at 80% and below and you should keep the life of a lithium ion battery long

    • Thorry@feddit.org
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      1 month ago

      Good advice about the 80%! But just to add: Check if this is really needed, I’ve seen a bunch of devices where 100% indicated actually means 80% of the physical cells. The BMS won’t allow charging over 80%, so that’s where it caps out.

      Also, even if the BMS doesn’t self limit, check how you use the laptop. If it’s plugging in 99% of the time, just keep it plugged in and let it sit at 100%. The laptop will run directly off the wall power and the BMS will trickle charge the cells to keep them topped up. This prevents discharge-charge cycles, which is usually better for the battery in the long run.

      I’ve seen people say to always fully discharge the battery before charging it, absolutely do not do that. Deep discharge cycles are terrible for modern batteries. Just use it as needed and as soon as there is the convenient option to charge, just charge it right away regardless of the level.

      • Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        It was better for NiCad batteries to drain them completely, but now that everything is Lithium, there’s no need to drain them.

        • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          You think that, but every iPhone and Android phone says otherwise that has a lithium ion battery. It’s built in their OS as a feature to ensure longer battery duration long term. Unless Apple, Samsung, Google are all doing it for a myth… I have my doubts. They essentially set it to go to 80% then slow charge to 100 the last bit before you wake so it won’t sit trying to restart charging from 99% to 100% for hours.

          (And yes it is orchestrated around your alarm going off time)