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Overheard a Best Buy employee say something about battery care that stuck with me
I was in the checkout line last week and heard a Best Buy employee telling a customer to never leave their laptop plugged in at 100% all the time. He said it wears the battery down way faster, especially if you do it every single day. That got me thinking about my own habit of leaving my work laptop on the charger overnight. I started unplugging it once it hits 80% and letting it run down to about 30% before charging again. It's only been two weeks but my battery health report already looks better. Has anyone else tried this and seen real results over time?
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aaron1975mo ago
Is it actually proven that keeping it at 100% does permanent damage though? I feel like modern laptops have gotten way better at managing that stuff, and worst case you just replace the battery after a couple years anyway. Maybe it's just me but swapping a battery is easier than stressing about plugging it in all the time.
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shah.shane5mo ago
80% rule is real, I saw it with my own phone battery after a year of leaving it plugged in overnight - dropped to 80% capacity while my buddy who trickle charges his is still at 95%. It's kind of wild how much permanent damage we do just from being lazy with the charger, same way people ruin car batteries by always driving short trips. Little habits like that add up way more than you'd think until you check the numbers months later.
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drew_grant525mo ago
@shah.shane you're right about the battery thing but I gotta push back on the car battery analogy. Short trips don't ruin batteries the same way, it's more about the alternator not getting enough time to recharge.
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