How to get the best battery life out of my Acer product

Acer-Blayn · April 2020

Conditioning a new battery
Before you use a battery pack for the first time, there is a conditioning process that you should follow. This will ensure your battery accepts the maximum possible charge. Failure to follow this procedure will prevent you from obtaining the maximum battery charge, and will shorten the effective lifespan of the battery. We recommend this conditioning process for all new batteries, or if a battery has not been used for a long time.

Connect the AC adapter and fully charge the battery.
Turn on the computer and complete setting up the operating system.
Disconnect the AC adapter.
Operate the computer using battery power.
Reconnect the AC adapter and fully charge the battery again.
Follow these steps again until the battery has been charged and discharged three times.

Charging the battery

Only use the AC adapter that came with your computer.
Plug the AC adapter into the computer, and connect to a power outlet.
You can continue to operate your computer on AC power while your battery is charging.
Turning your computer off while the battery is charging will significantly reduce charging time.

Optimizing battery life

Remove accessories that are not being used (e.g. a USB disk drive), as they can continue to draw power.
Store your PC in a cool, dry place. The recommended temperature is 10° C (50° F) to 30° C (86° F). Higher temperatures cause the battery to self-discharge faster.
Excessive recharging decreases the battery life.

Conditions that can adversely affect the battery

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. An embedded battery has a life span of more than 1,000 charge/discharge cycles.

Checking the battery level
The power meter indicates the current battery level. Rest the cursor over the battery/power icon on the taskbar to see the battery's present charge level.

Battery-low warning
When using battery power pay attention to the power meter. If you receive a battery-low warning, connect your computer to the power adapter immediately, or save your work and turn off the computer until you can charge it.

enzed · April 2020

This suggests using AC power whenever possible to conserve battery, but that constant AC power will harm battery. Does this suggest using the machine connected to AC power when possible, but disconnecting it between uses unless it is being charged ready for a period of mobile use?

Ytinummoc · April 2020

enzed said:

This suggests using AC power whenever possible to conserve battery, but that constant AC power will harm battery. Does this suggest using the machine connected to AC power when possible, but disconnecting it between uses unless it is being charged ready for a period of mobile use?

Also it says to discharge the battery completely ("to its extremes") ... so what happens when the battery is at 50% and you have the opportunity to use it on AC power? Do you plug it in, or wait until the battery is completely discharged?

Actually, that's a rhetorical question. Completely discharging a lithium-ion battery is actually very hard on it. Use the laptop plugged-in when possible.

A complete discharge might be necessary to "calibrate" the battery, i.e., allow the laptop to figure out how much charge the battery can actually hold and how quickly it discharges, so it can give you an accurate percentage reading of how much charge you have left, but otherwise, completely discharging a battery is not recommended.

Benokyow · April 2020

The instructions are unclear. So do is it not safe if it's plugged in all the time?

Ytinummoc · April 2020

Benokyow said:

The instructions are unclear. So do is it not safe if it's plugged in all the time?

Not only are the instructions unclear, they contradict themselves.

Basically, plug your laptop in whenever you can. That way it will use power from the wall and not power from the battery. Draining the battery wears it out, so obviously you want to avoid that if possible.

The only downside is that keeping the battery charged at 100% wears it out a little too. But not as much as draining and recharging the battery. So keep it plugged in.

If you're going to store your laptop and not use it for a long time, you should ideally discharge it to ~50% before storing it. But this seems like a lot of work for maybe not very much benefit.

It would be good if laptop manufacturers made a setting that would stop charging the laptop when it got to 80% (like you can do for e.g. electric cars). Maybe in the future...

piet2 · April 2020

I assume i've got a Li-ion battery in my spin5. I read in several articles that keeping such a battery between 20% and 80% provides the best battery life !?

Ytinummoc · April 2020

piet2 said:

I assume i've got a Li-ion battery in my spin5. I read in several articles that keeping such a battery between 20% and 80% provides the best battery life !?

Yes, any laptop made in the last ~20 years will have a lithium-ion battery.

If you have to run on battery power then yes, definitely, avoid discharging it below 20%. This is actually pretty important.

I suppose, if you have the patience, you can keep an eye on the battery percentage while the laptop is charging and unplug it when it gets to 80%. But who has the time?

Again, if you're using the laptop and you have convenient access to a wall outlet, just plug it in. Your laptop will charge to 100% as you use it, which isn't optimal, but it's still much better than running the laptop on battery power (and thus putting wear on the battery).

abonnieweelass · May 2020

I have an older Chromebook and read about how to keep the battery at it's optimal levels, and it did state to "keep it plugged in when you can, and only use the battery when you can't plug it in". So, I've been doing that for about 2 years now, but I work from home and usually work from a recliner (I'm well aware of the image that conjures up, but I'm just really short and I can sit comfortably with my legs folded under me than having them dangling from a chair,

). I'm now wondering, since it's never just sitting idle on a desk, have I destroyed the charging port? Yesterday was the first time that the battery was discharged 100%. And now, the charger won't charge the Chromebook, I've tried all of the resets that I could find for my model, and nothing has worked so far. Any ideas?
Model: CB5-132T-C1LK Manufactured: 16 Oct 2017 Adapter: A13-045N2A

Ytinummoc · May 2020

abonnieweelass said:

I have an older Chromebook and read about how to keep the battery at it's optimal levels, and it did state to "keep it plugged in when you can, and only use the battery when you can't plug it in". So, I've been doing that for about 2 years now, but I work from home and usually work from a recliner (I'm well aware of the image that conjures up, but I'm just really short and I can sit comfortably with my legs folded under me than having them dangling from a chair, ). I'm now wondering, since it's never just sitting idle on a desk, have I destroyed the charging port? Yesterday was the first time that the battery was discharged 100%. And now, the charger won't charge the Chromebook, I've tried all of the resets that I could find for my model, and nothing has worked so far. Any ideas?
Model: CB5-132T-C1LK Manufactured: 16 Oct 2017 Adapter: A13-045N2A

If you're able to use the computer, then the charging port must be fine, because that's how it would get the power that it needs to work at all. I don't know why the battery might not be charging, sorry. I can't tell from the pictures online if the battery is the sort that can be removed easily. If you can remove the battery, maybe try popping it out and then back in again?

MohammadJabed · July 2020

I just want to know one think and answer i need either YES OR NO..
Can i use my Acer 15 while charging?
In any percentage?

Ytinummoc · July 2020

MohammadJabed said:

I just want to know one think and answer i need either YES OR NO..
Can i use my Acer 15 while charging?
In any percentage?

YES.

sallyhamm · October 2020

Good discussion to correct to confusing Acer instructions....(probably written in Korean (?) and translated into English) Many Thanks

Ytinummoc · October 2020

sallyhamm said:

Good discussion to correct to confusing Acer instructions....(probably written in Korean (?) and translated into English) Many Thanks

👍 ... Acer is a Taiwanese company. The original instructions would have almost certainly been written in Chinese.

Adamstudio · October 2020

Hey there,
Thanks for your help guys, it was really helpful and interesting, but I still wondering because I have just bought a brand new Acer predator Triton 300 some few days ago and I want to be sure if it is better if I use the ac adapter while I am using my laptop ( 12 hours per day ) than using only my battery? And does this affect my battery life or not?
I hope you help me as soon as possible and advise me please for having the best possible experience for a long time, and thank you !

Ytinummoc · October 2020

Adamstudio said:

Hey there,
Thanks for your help guys, it was really helpful and interesting, but I still wondering because I have just bought a brand new Acer predator Triton 300 some few days ago and I want to be sure if it is better if I use the ac adapter while I am using my laptop ( 12 hours per day ) than using only my battery? And does this affect my battery life or not?
I hope you help me as soon as possible and advise me please for having the best possible experience for a long time, and thank you !

KEEP YOUR LAPTOP PLUGGED IN IF POSSIBLE.

Batteries wear out when you use them, i.e., when you run your laptop on battery power.

When you plug your laptop into the wall, it uses wall power. Meaning it's not using battery power. Meaning that it's not wearing out your battery. So that's obviously much better.

The only disadvantage to using wall power is that your laptop battery will likely be kept at 100% charged, which is not super amazing for batteries. But it's better to keep a battery at 100% charge than wear it out by using it.

Zharia_Ehrel01 · November 2020

This is the first time that I owned a laptop and I want to make sure that I'm using it right. Is it okay if I sometimes use the laptop while charging and sometimes using it only the battery? Will it not affect the battery life of the laptop? 'cause sometimes I feel I need to remove the charger when it is fully charge but I also worry that it might decrease the battery life of the laptop.

Ytinummoc · November 2020

Zharia_Ehrel01 said:

This is the first time that I owned a laptop and I want to make sure that I'm using it right. Is it okay if I sometimes use the laptop while charging and sometimes using it only the battery? Will it not affect the battery life of the laptop? 'cause sometimes I feel I need to remove the charger when it is fully charge but I also worry that it might decrease the battery life of the laptop.

Your laptop battery will stop charging when it's full. You don't need to unplug the laptop when it reaches 100%.

Just plug the laptop in when it's convenient, that will maximize your laptop's battery life.

I hope you enjoy your new laptop.