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Any problem keeping it plugged in constantly?

S

soccerfan

macrumors member
Original poster
Just got my new powerbook! Yoo Hoo!

Anyway, is there any problem with keeping it plugged and running in for hours (or days) when it's already completely charged?

I generally have it at home, and figure I might as well keep it fully charged for the times when I take it out, but wondred if there's any problem doing that....
 
I have a HPC device with a long life lithium rechargeable battery - which is pretty much in everything these days - and was told by a rep that it should not be on a "trickle charge" (plugged in) all the time. Occasionally, do a deep discharge by running the device on battery until it is almost spent and then recharging.

However I can't seem to confirm this anywhere else, so I'd also be curious to see if others suggest something else.
 
You have to keep power moving through the battery or it will eventually become damaged. So it's OK to keep it plugged in most of the time but run it on battery occasionally, couple of times a week should be enough.

Apple Battery Page.
 
Kind of a follow up on this - is it OK to leave the power adapter plugged in, even if it's not hooked up to the PB? ie Can I leave the thing plugged in, and attach my PB to it whenever I feel like it?
 
soccerfan said:
Kind of a follow up on this - is it OK to leave the power adapter plugged in, even if it's not hooked up to the PB? ie Can I leave the thing plugged in, and attach my PB to it whenever I feel like it?
Click to expand...
Yeah it's pretty much designed to work that way so shouldn't be a problem. Personally I switch it off at the wall most of the time, I'm a little paranoid about fire hazards and it should extend it's life a little bit longer.
 
There is no problem leaving it plugged in, see this apple page concerning the ipod battery (which is the same type of battery as is found in apple's laptops).
 
telecomm said:
There is no problem leaving it plugged in, see this apple page concerning the ipod battery (which is the same type of battery as is found in apple's laptops).
Click to expand...

Not so.

apple may have said that about the iPod, but on the laptop battery page (http://www.apple.com./batteries/notebooks.html), Apple says, "For proper maintenance of a lithium-based battery, it’s important to keep the electrons in it moving occasionally. Apple does not recommend leaving your portable plugged in all the time."
 
This past winter I used my 3G iPod daily while trekking to class (at least twenty minute walk) through rain, sleet, and snow. It got to below freezing many times, and I always had the iPod in my coat pocket taking it out occassionaly to change playlists and the like. Never had any problems with it playing.

That said, I did notice that the screen type would fade when it was REALLY cold out.. But it came back to normal once it was inside for a bit. Doesn't seem to have done any permanent damage either. 😉

I'm in New Hampshire so definitely not foreign to cold and long winters.

Now that I think about it, on those extra extra cold days the white headphones cord would stiffen up. Never interfered with audio quality and always went back to normal once it was inside for a bit.
 
C-Mezak said:
Not so.

apple may have said that about the iPod, but on the laptop battery page (http://www.apple.com./batteries/notebooks.html), Apple says, "For proper maintenance of a lithium-based battery, it’s important to keep the electrons in it moving occasionally. Apple does not recommend leaving your portable plugged in all the time."
Click to expand...

OK, but there's a difference between leaving it plugged in between uses and leaving it plugged in all the time.

Just a little bit down on the page I had suggested you'll find the comment "If you don't use your device often, be sure to complete a charge cycle at least once per month", i.e., don't leave the device plugged in all the time.
 
Originally Posted by colinp

This past winter I used my 3G iPod daily while trekking to class (at least twenty minute walk) through rain, sleet, and snow. It got to below freezing many times, and I always had the iPod in my coat pocket taking it out occassionaly to change playlists and the like. Never had any problems with it playing.

That said, I did notice that the screen type would fade when it was REALLY cold out.. But it came back to normal once it was inside for a bit. Doesn't seem to have done any permanent damage either.

I'm in New Hampshire so definitely not foreign to cold and long winters.

Now that I think about it, on those extra extra cold days the white headphones cord would stiffen up. Never interfered with audio quality and always went back to normal once it was inside for a bit.
Click to expand...


--- I did the same thing (go to University of Vermont so I know the winters too). MY iPod would be in my pocket the whole time and I never once thought about the cold affecting it. The only time the cold would affect it is when I would leave it in my car over night and try to turn it on, the battery would be completely dead even though it might have had a full charge when it went in. My headphones also became hard on those long cold walks, I thought it was funny, but they would always go back to normal as soon as I entered a building. That was two years ago and I still have that iPod and it STILL gets a good 9+ hours on a full charge.
 
Finiksa said:
You have to keep power moving through the battery or it will eventually become damaged. So it's OK to keep it plugged in most of the time but run it on battery occasionally, couple of times a week should be enough.

Apple Battery Page.
Click to expand...

Li-Ion batteries have no memory, so you don't have to do a complete charge-discharge so often. Once a month is fine. Keep it plugged in if you wish, but use it on battery life once in a while. And if you use it and drain the battery until it gets to 47% or something (ie: if you don't drain it completely empty), charge it anyway. Don't ALWAYS perform a full discharge before you charge it again. You're supposed to do partial charges (eg: charge a battery from 56% back to 100%). Otherwise, your battery capacity will actually decrease.

I made the mistake of doing a full charge-discharge every time I used my laptop on battery power, but this isn't a battery from 10 years ago. Its modern tech. My battery life on my 12" 1GHz G4 Powerbook is 2h50min, which is low for a rev B 12" PB, considering it was at 3h30 minutes 2 months ago. I can fix it, though, just by performing partial charges for a few weeks, and maybe doing a full discharge-charge for recalibration. It should be back to normal in a few weeks, but I seriously have to avoid screwing up my battery again.

Copy and paste in terminal: ioreg -l | grep -i IOBatteryInfo

Capacity/amperage = battery life. My Capacity has decreased from 3950 to 3512. My Amperage is usually around 1200, so I seriously messed my capacity up in the past month or so.
 
Your supposed to operate a device within a certain temperature range in order to get optimal battery performance. Exrteme cold may get the display to fade and react slowly but thats normal. If you use expose your iPod to the cold for a longer period of time, the battery will drain faster during that time.
 
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