Is it okay to keep your laptop plugged in all the time?

• Although technically safe, plugging in a laptop drains the battery faster than necessary.
• Lithium-ion batteries age from being stored at high temperatures and charges, which shortens their lifespan.
• Use the techniques offered to check battery health and avoid overcharging to extend its life.

Portability is usually the first thing people consider when choosing a laptop. Ultraportable computers made specifically for travel are also available. If you’re anything like me, your laptop will be plugged into a charger on your desk when you’re not using it for mobility.

Is it safe to leave your laptop plugged in all the time?

Yes, keeping your laptop plugged in at all times is perfectly safe from a physical security point of view.

There is almost no chance of anything catching fire. Even with the charger plugged in, voltage control is a feature of many modern laptops that detects when the battery is full and reduces the charge. Rarely do these processes fail and laptops are equipped with security features that cut the connection before any significant damage is done.

There is almost no chance of anything catching fire.

Meanwhile, this is all assuming that both the charger and the electrical outlet it’s connected to are in excellent operating condition. An electrical short in an outlet can’t cause a laptop to catch fire just because it’s charging. That being said, always remember to check your outlets.

Should you keep your laptop charging all the time?

This is when things get complicated. Lithium-ion batteries are adversely affected by many factors. If the battery is kept at too low or too high a charge level, it can age more quickly. Batteries lose their ability to hold a full charge as they age. As a result, even if it doesn’t blow up your laptop, you may find that battery life isn’t as long as it used to be.

If the battery is kept at too low or too high a charge level, it can age more quickly.

Heat is another concern. Over time, even when the gadget is turned off, lithium-ion batteries lose their charge. This means that the battery is charging virtually non-stop, which generates heat. As with high or low charge, heat can also cause a battery to age prematurely, ultimately reducing charge capacity.

After all, every lithium battery has a limit to how much charge it can withstand before it loses its ability to charge. The battery doesn’t need an extra charge cycle when you leave the AC on because it’s off. This will further reduce battery life.

You will age out your laptop battery much faster than if you used it off of AC power from time to time.

How to see your laptop’s battery damage

There are ways to monitor battery health on Windows and macOS computers. After quickly going over each, we’ll discuss how to read the report.

Mac

• Select System Information from the Apple menu by clicking the button.
• After opening the Hardware section in the left margin, select Power Options.
• Your battery information will be.

In this sense, MacOS is undoubtedly much easier than Windows, so you should find out soon.

Windows PC

• Open a command prompt. The easiest method to accomplish this is to enter “CMD” without the quotation marks in the Windows search box.
• On your keyboard, type powercfg /batteryreport and press Enter.
• When you type a command, Command Prompt will generate a battery report and save it in the folder that displays it.
• Open that folder on your computer to view the report.

The report can only be viewed using a browser as it is in HTML format. Thankfully, HTML files are supported by all browsers.

What to make of your laptop’s battery information

Mac

In the power section you can see the cycle count a measure of how many times you’ve charged the battery. It comes under condition. Plan to visit an Apple Store so it can be seen if it indicates anything other than normal.

The maximum capacity of your battery indicates how much charge it can hold. Only newer MacBooks display 100% so you should expect to see yours below 100%.

Windows PC

When it comes to Windows, the data is divided into days when you use your laptop. So you can check how long your battery should last that day by looking under the Full Charge section and the Active column.

To compare how long the battery will last in brand new condition, you can compare it to the At Design Capacity section under the Active column. To determine the battery life you’ve lost, compare.

How to prevent damaging your laptop battery

Generally speaking, don’t let it charge longer than absolutely necessary. After it’s charged to capacity, unplug it, then wait to plug it back in until it needs another charge. Nothing stops a battery from aging, so this won’t stop, but when the battery isn’t kept at 100% charge by the charger, it will age more slowly. It’s possible that you’ll lose a few percent of battery life by the time you turn it back on, but that’s a minor inconvenience.

Related

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Using OS-level mitigating tools is an additional choice. With Windows, you may use its  smart charging feature to charge the device in a way that doesn’t overtax the battery. That’s what Apple’s  Optimized Battery Charging function does. These set a limit on the battery’s charge, preventing it from constantly charging.

Avoiding doing pointless battery discharges and recharges as well as leaving the battery on the charger all the time is what you’re attempting to prevent.

Avoiding doing pointless battery discharges and recharges as well as leaving the battery on the charger all the time is what you’re attempting to prevent. Cutting off your

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