Iconia W3 battery optimization advice in manual - Please clarify

eldaniel

Hi,

 

This advice is included in manual for Acer Iconia W3:

 

"In addition, the useful lifespan of the battery is adversely affected by the following usage patterns:

• Using the computer on constant AC power.

• Not discharging and recharging the battery to its extremes, as described above.
• Frequent use; the more you use the battery, the faster it will reach the end of its effective life. A standard computer battery has a life span of about 300 charges.

 

Optimizing battery life

Optimizing battery life helps you get the most out of battery operation, prolonging the charge/recharge cycle and improving recharging efficiency. You are advised to follow the suggestions set out below: • Use AC power whenever possible, reserving battery for mobile use. • Remove accessories that are not being used (e.g. a USB disk drive), as they can continue to draw power."

 

Am I right that both sentences in bold are actually contradicting each other?

Is using device on constant AC power really damaging for battery. I thought it would not be... Also life span of 300 charges sounds quite bad. So after a year I will have to work on constant AC power if I charge every day of the year?

 

Please help.

aleunge

What I hear is that for Lithium batteries, you don't want it to be fully charged and continually plugged into AC power.  Not only does the laptop keep topping it up, but especially for laptops, it tops up at a higher voltage as well (to really push and maximize charge).  This kind of stress will wear out the battery.  Deep discharging (not quite possible with safe cutoff circuitry in electronics), heat, rapid discharge, very quick charging (not in our control for laptops), and repeated partial discharges are all supposed to be bad for the battery... pretty much anything that seems like it would "stress" it.

 

I usually just make sure I fully charge when I can, disconnect soon after hitting 100%, and do full discharge and charge once in a while.  Not much you can really to do be sure since everything I read contradicts each other about Lithium batteries on the good old net....  someone wanna chime in?

 

and yes, those sentences seem to make no sense to me too...