Thinkpads Forum

What steps do you do to ensure an optimal lifespan for your Thinkpad battery?

Depends on how you use it... the things to avoid are heat and high charge level (100% charge wears out faster).

I set the battery thresholds in the IBM Power Manager to start charge at 20 and stop at 80, because it's always plugged in (currently at only 7 cycles for the past few months). I should remove it totally to avoid heat as well.

However, if you use your battery often, those settings would be pretty annoying. I would do 60/80 if I used it daily, or whatever suits your preference.

I do 30/40 when I'm gonna be plugged in not on battery for a while, then change to 90/98 to charge it up before battery use. I leave it there when using it on battery.

Thanks guys.

Does anyone physically disconnect the battery when plugged in?

In my thinkpad, I don't. The 9 cell in my W500 stays pretty cool (by touch and according to power manager), so I don't worry about it.

propellen wrote:What steps do you do to ensure an optimal lifespan for your Thinkpad battery?

I use my T60p for presentations on my projection system, so it spends most of its life plugged into an Advanced Mini Dock, battery installed and AC plugged in. Once or twice a week, I take it with me on the road, and it also comes with me to conferences and on vacation. I have three of the 9-cell batteries since I wanted about 10 hours of continuous battery life away from an AC power source.

I generally set the charge thresholds to 70/80, and usually the battery is sitting at 80% while in the Thinkpad. Once in a while (maybe once a month or so... whenever I remember!), I will cycle out the battery, so that all three get roughly the same use. To do that, I drain the battery down to 40% first before removing it.

I have a power profile that maxes out all performance, but sets the low power alarm at 40% with Hibernate as the action. I unplug the dock and let the T60p drain the battery until it automatically hibernates at 40%. The next battery (they are numbered) is swapped in, I switch back to my usual power profile, and the new battery is charged up to 80%.

This means my batteries sit on a shelf with only a 40% charge, and the one in the laptop is normally at 80% charge. I am not entirely familiar with the lithium chemistry that makes this desireable, but it does seem to work!

After 18 months, all three batteries still show ~ 100% capacity. Here are the relevant stats for my current battery:

Remaining capacity: 67.29 Wh
Full charge capacity: 84.45 Wh
Temperature: 34 C
Cycle count: 72
Manufacturer name: SANYO
Manufacture date: 2007-03-01
First used date: 2007-03
Design capacity: 84.24 Wh

Another battery shows about 103% capacity, which amusingly the Power Manager thinks is a problem, and recommends buying a new battery!

i got a replacement battery from lenovo few months ago.
i didnt use it even once since.
i realized im using it pluged in all the time.
so i set hibernate when the lid is closed. just takes me a bit more time now when closing and opening. but nothing that i cannot live with. and zero cycles on my battery