Battery Life

When Is It Time For a New Battery?

Batteries are like car tires. Remember when your tires were new? You could stop on a dime. Rain or shine they never let you down and you felt safe and in control. Unfortunately though, tires do not last forever. Eventually the rubber begins to crack, they start to go bald and your traction is nothing like it used to be. Batteries are the same way. When you first bought your computer, your battery could probably hold a charge of three or four hours. Yet after a great deal of use and a reasonable amount of time, you may find your faithful battery is unable to hold the charge it once did.

While modern technology has enabled us to extend the life of rechargeable batteries, they only last for a certain number of charge cycles. If your battery will not hold a charge of at least 80 percent, then it is probably time for a new battery, as runtimes between charges will rapidly begin to decrease.

Battery Lifecycle

A computer battery is a storage receptacle for energy that has a limited life. There are a certain number of “cycles” a battery has before it loses its ability to hold a charge. Rechargeable batteries begin loosing life the moment they leave the factory, whether they are in use or not. This is why FreshBattery puts the “born on” date right on the battery. This way you know it is fresh and at full capacity.

Battery lifespan and battery runtime are two different things. Battery runtime is the amount of charge a battery is able to hold, which equates to how long it will run. Battery lifespan refers to the amount of cycles a battery has before it is unable to hold a useable charge.

Charge Cycle

A charge cycle is when your battery is fully charged, then discharges completely, and is then fully charged again. Your battery has a certain number of charge cycles before it is time for a new one. This timeframe varies depending on care and usage.

A full charge cycle occurs only when your battery charge goes from 100 to zero percent. When your battery is fully charged and you use, for example, 50 percent of battery life, and then charge it again, you have used only 50 percent of a charge cycle.

It may take several uses before you reach one charge cycle. In the past, this was inconvenient because of the memory effect. If you consistently did not fully discharge your battery, then the inactive cells would “forget” that they did not need a charge to function and would become ineffective. However, unlike batteries of the past, a lithium ion battery allows you to use a partial charge without affecting battery performance.