If you’ve never used your laptop’s battery, there’s a good chance it’s still in great condition. But what if you don’t use your laptop for a while? Your battery might not last as long if it hasn’t been used in a while. And even if you do use your battery regularly, it’s still possible for it to go bad. The best way to tell if your battery is going bad is to check the voltage. If the voltage is low, the battery might be going bad. But even if the voltage is high, that doesn’t mean the battery is perfect. Sometimes batteries can have low voltages even when they’re in good condition. So how can you tell if your battery is going bad? The best way to find out is to charge it up and see how long it lasts before needing to be charged again. If it lasts less than half an hour, then the battery probably needs to be replaced. ..
If you bought a new replacement laptop battery as a precaution, will it go bad if you let it sit around unused until some future date when it might be needed? Today’s SuperUser Q&A post offers advice in response to a curious reader’s question.
Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-driven grouping of Q&A web sites.
Photo courtesy of Quentin Meulepas (Flickr).
The Question
SuperUser reader ‘Dude named Ben’ wants to know if a new unused laptop battery will go bad if left sitting around:
Will letting the new battery sit around unused cause it to go bad or should Ben swap the two batteries out every so often?
After I received the new power adapter I discovered that the old adapter was indeed the problem, so I continued to use the original battery.
My question is, can I leave the new Lithium-Ion generic battery I bought in its sealed packaging until I need it? Will it degrade if left unused or should I swap them out once a week to keep the new one alive?
The Answer
SuperUser contributor Jamie Hanrahan has the answer for us:
Have something to add to the explanation? Sound off in the comments. Want to read more answers from other tech-savvy Stack Exchange users? Check out the full discussion thread here.
It probably came to you with a charge in the 40-60 percent range since that is the most stable charge level for storage.
If you are not going to use it, I would check it every month or so. If it drops below 20 percent, then charge it to bring it back up to around 60 percent or so before storing it again.
If it were me, I would switch to the new battery and keep the old one as a “just in case” spare. The new one should give your laptop a much longer running time.
