How long should a laptop battery last until replacement?

[CK SatGuy]

So I got an Acer laptop with a core i5 processor here for what I thought was a pretty good deal. I bought it from Officemax in Sept. 2010 at around $600. I knew at the time Acer wasn't a top brand, but figured I'd give them a shot. In Spring 2011 I was having some battery issues where the battery wouldn't charge fully and since the laptop was under warranty, I got a replacement battery for free. I've been using this battery since then. Now over a year later, the shelf life of this battery has gone downhill with the battery wear at about 50%. Since my laptop is out of warranty I know I have to buy a new battery now, which I'm OK with but it would really annoy me if I have to buy a new battery for my laptop every year. Does anyone know what's the average shelf life of a laptop battery is suppose to be. Would I just be better off buying a new laptop now in the long run? Any answers are appreciated.

 

[rdehaven]

Depends on the battery technology it uses but I've heard about 300 charge/discharge cycles.

 

[mike123abc]

I have seen them last anywhere from 1 year to 5 years depending on how often they are charged. The better batteries are probably around 500 charges, the not so good ones about 300...

 

[berck]

They go downhill faster if you leave your computer pulled in most of the time with the battery staying at 100%. Also, do just charge it up, and then drain it nearly empty every time. Its good to be dynamic. I found that if I left it in in the 30 to70% range, I get good life. Let it drain below and fully charge when needed.

 

[chrisn]

They go downhill faster if you leave your computer pulled in most of the time with the battery staying at 100%. Also, do just charge it up, and then drain it nearly empty every time. Its good to be dynamic. I found that if I left it in in the 30 to70% range, I get good life. Let it drain below and fully charge when needed.

Agree. Leaving it plugged in for long periods seems to really bring down a battery's lifespan. Also, sometimes these aftermarket batteries, which get a bad rap, can outperform the manufactures.

Anyway, replacing the battery once per year seems too frequent. This laptop doesn't have Vista on it, does it? I could see that pig sucking away battery life.

 

[CK SatGuy]

No, it uses windows 7. I use almost everyday, sometimes to stream video (which I know that can drain battery life) and usually just to surf the web. I don't use it for work just personal stuff. I should check to see what programs are running in the background. It usually takes up to 5 minutes to get it to shoe the desktop when I boot it up and I know that's way too long.

 

[Ramy]

Yes, you do not want to leave them plugged in all the time. I let mine drain down to about 20% or so before charging it again.

 

[Hall]

I think we learned the hard way about running one of the laptops plugged in all the time. I should have realized this though as I'm 99% positive that many years, HP, at least on the "business" side, offered dummy batteries that they recommended people to use in place of the real battery in cases where people's laptops were left plugged in 24/7. On some laptops, you needed something in there as otherwise, it may not sit level or would 'rock'.

Found out on my wife's ACER that it runs just fine without the battery inserted. Makes it a LOT lighter too !