In news:4cbc2cd4$0$9557$607ed4bc@cv.net,
Uncle Vinnie typed on Mon, 18 Oct 2010 07:18:09 -0400:
> Thanks for the reply and the inight! How long per day.. well,
> hardly.. which is my downfall. It generally sits plugged in, and is
> used maybe... maybe once a month...
>
> If I use it more often and not keep it plugged in, would I have a
> better shot of a long term battery???
Well speaking generically speaking about lithium, it is best to leave
them out when not in use or not charging. And some laptops still drain
the battery when off. So I would test like 24 or 48 hours later and see
what the charge level dropped to. Then decrease the checking like by
doubling the time to checked it the last time. And after a few weeks you
can guess pretty well how long the battery will last.
Lithium batteries go downhill fast if they are heated to say 90°F or
higher. That is why they shouldn't be in a working laptop since the
laptop itself creates enough heat to cause harm. Don't worry though, it
takes 18 months or longer to destroy a lithium battery in this fashion.
And if you leave them out and charge them say every 6 months to a year
they can last 10 years or longer.
There is something else to worry about with lithium's too. That is you
can't let the voltage to drop too low. I good lithium can sit in a
drawer for a year, two or even three before it reaches this dangerous
level. If you have a lithium dropping too low, they can burst in flames
during recharging. Don't worry though, the safely circuits prevent
charging if it goes that low. But then the battery is worthless unless
you manually recharge it and that would be iffy if you could get it to
work again. So you need to keep an eye on them and make sure they don't
get too low. They say storing them at 40% capacity is the best. But
letting sit they will loose about 2% capacity per month. And I have
found higher than 40% isn't too bad and they can sit longer without
recharging.
If you are going with the Ni-MH battery, this all changes. As you can
let them go flat and most of them should come back (not normally a good
thing though). And they can take heat better than lithium batteries. As
I don't think you have to worry about hurting Ni-MH until about 130°F.
And most laptops won't heat the batteries that hot. And if you want to
leave a Ni-MH in a laptop, I would check to see how fast to drain. If it
drains too fast, leave it out obviously.
> BillW50 wrote:
>> In news:4cbb6f73$0$20170$607ed4bc@cv.net,
>> Uncle Vinnie typed on Sun, 17 Oct 2010 17:49
8 -0400:
>>> I have an HP N5445 laptop where the battery went bad... LiOn...
>>> 5400mah. Lasts about 10 minutes and dies... 99%, 98, 97, 96..
>>> flatline...
>>> I use it very little and my choices seem to be LiOn 4400mah, LiOn
>>> 6600mh, and 6600mah NiMh.. all in the $30 - $45 range.
>>>
>>> The least expensive is the LiOn4400, second 6600 NiMh, and the most
>>> 6600 LiOn...
>>>
>>> What would be the best option for the occasional user??
>>>
>>> And, I hope that if it is the NiMh, will that recharge Ok with my
>>> existing laptop/power supply?
>>
>> NiMh charging is a bit different than for lithium (LiOn). But if that
>> battery is made for your model, I would say go for it. So how often
>> do you use it on battery? Did you know it is usually best to leave
>> the lithium battery out if you are using it on AC? As the heat from
>> the laptop shortens the life of lithium. I haven't done much research
>> whether this is true of NiMh as well.
>
> --
> Thanks & B'rgds,
>
> Uncle Vinnie
--
Bill
Gateway MX6124 ('06 era) 1 of 3 - Windows XP SP2
