How To Charge a Laptop Battery

I get asked all the time what is the best way to charge a laptop battery. There are many schools of thought on this but I will explain what the best battery manufacturers have told me. First, when you receive a battery, it will not have a full charge.

The reason for this is that the Lithium cells inside the battery pack are highly volitile and you do not want to transport the battery this way. When you install the battery, you can do two things. You can either charge it up overnight and then drain it down completely or you can drain it completely and then charge it up fully for 8-12 hours.

I am not sure there is a difference between the two but most manufacturers say you should do this three times when you get your new battery. Lithium batteries are only good for about 300-500 charges. In my experience though, they seem to last longest when you charge up the battery fully and drain it fully once a week. As mentioned earlier though, do not leave the battery fully charged if you plan to store it for a while. You may leave it in your laptop while plugged in but you should drain it at least once a week for maximum usability.