[ltp] poll: how is your battery? (9-cell-battery lost about 25% capacity in 10 months)

[linux-thinkpad@linux-thinkpad.org]

Joel makes some good points there about battery techologies and power
drain.  Although the batteries I was comparing with *were* all LiIon.
But point taken that my IBM probably sucks more power than my Dells
ever did.

On Mon, 11 Jul 2005, Robert Thau wrote:

> Well, what's the safe limit?  I seem to be doing something right on my R51:
>
>  design capacity:         47520 mWh
>  last full capacity:      48160 mWh
>
> but it may just have been using the thing on the line most of the
> time; I'm starting to use the battery a lot more heavily than I have...

My current philosophy is just to leave the battery in all the time,
Robert, and stay online as much as possible.  As others have pointed
out, LiIon batteries have a limited charge cycle lifetime, but charging
should be intelligent enough to not start charging if you're near
100%, and not to let them completely discharge (this *kills* LiIon,
but devices should be clever enough not to let this happen).

As opposed to previous battery technologies, where part charges were
bad, LiIon batteries *like* part charges and top-ups - they don't
cost you a full charge cycle.  I've heard it's worthwhile running a
LiIon battery right down maybe once a month to recalibrate itself,
but no more if you can avoid it.  It won't kill it if you do, it just
costs you a bit more in lifetime.  Maybe a proper battery
technologist can confirm or deny this - there's so much anecdotal
advice about different battery care these days.

If my battery actually felt hot to touch when online, I'd take it out
- this might be the case for other models, e.g, more compact X
series?

Honey