Thinkpads Forum

I am just wondering how many people have an Ultrabay Media Battery and what their experiences are?

The media bay battery is not a normal lithium ion battery, but rather a lithium polymer which is a different technology. I am not sure what the best practice is to keep this battery functioning at its full potential.use it

When I purchased my T-60 (2007-62U), I purchased a media bay battery at the same time. I used it from time to time and when it wasn't in use, I stored it with 20-30% remaining charge. The battery sat unused for more than 3 months and when I went to use it, the battery utility reported it as "bad" and it wouldn't hold a charge.

Lenovo was kind enough to replace the battery under warranty as it was less than a year old, but I would like it to be reliable. Any opinions on how best to care for a lithium polymer battery and in this particular case the media bay battery.

Right now I am leaving the battery in the media bay and using it (charges and discharges) on a daily basis. I have does this for years with normal lithium ion batteries, but the media battery is a new and different technology.

Opinions are welcome.....

Robert

the battery is actually "Old" technology. LI-POL was the old battery types but then came Lithium Ion. With if you're gonna store the battery at 20-30% you're supposed to top it off once a month. Even at 20% the battery will self discharge anyways so it'l run down. When it says it's BAD and wont charge you have to leave it in your system for about 12hrs for the system to charge it again. Once a battery deep discharges you have to charge it for up to 24hrs again before it can hold charges.

Lithium polymer is a *newer* battery chemistry based on older lithium-ion chemistry. The bonus with lithium polymer is that it doesn't need a rigid containment structure to protect against explosion.

Also, both lithium ion and lithium polymer batteries have a self-discharge rate of about 5% per month. Compare with a truly older rechargeable battery tech like NiMH which features a particularly sucktacular self-discharge rate of 30% per month.

I use a bay battery in my T60, but its capacity diminished quickly over about 5 months. It still has some use, but I question now whether it's worthwhile to keep it in place, or whether I should buy a bay filler.