I plan on using my 12th gen batch 2 mostly in a vertical stand, plugged into power and monitor 90% of the time, only 10% as an actual laptop while away from the home office.
I read there’s a battery charge limit setting with the 12th gen BIOS. Does it make sense to set that to 80% for my use case? Is there a better value to use when I’m not using it as a laptop, and then change it to 100% for a full charge before going unplugged on trips?
Pretty much the worst thing you can do to a lithium-ion battery is constantly keeping it topped off to 100%. The closer to 50% the better, but 90% already poses a major improvement in lifespan
I don’t know if this is just superstition on my part but I swear that I and my sister have better luck “recalibrating” the internal battery meter on lithium ion batteries by draining the battery until the device turns off and then charging them to 100%.
(protip on laptops/tablets - leave the device sitting in the BIOS so that you don’t have to worry about 1. the OS experiencing an unsafe shutdown 2. modern OSes automatically shutting down when percentage is low and 3. modern devices refusing to power on when the battery reads single-digit battery percentages; the latter 2 are particularly troublesome when dealing with a battery meter that needs calibration)
And to clarify to OP, the recalibration is because, when intentionally keeping the charge level more in the middle, you can eventually get funny situations like going straight from 75% to fully charged or sitting at 0% with the power on and charger unplugged for over an hour.
It’s my understanding that 30-40% is the actual “sweet spot” for long-term storage, but targeting 50% can be better to account for loss-of-charge when batteries are left in storage over time.
And for anyone else wondering, a cold, dry place above freezing is the ideal location for storage. A fridge is not ideal unless you live in a particularly dry climate where the dew point is typically as low as 32f/0c, otherwise the ambient air will immediately condense anytime it comes in contact with the cold air inside of the fridge whenever you open the fridge door.
Yes I have done that twice in the first six months.
I discharged until it powered off at 5%. Then I waited 30 minutes and switched on again. Although it was still at 5% I could use the computer for another 20 minutes and then is powered off at 2%.
I then charged to 100% and had quite a difference in calculated wear on the battery.
Does anybody know if Framework (or another company) has a Windows 10/11 application that can set a low and high limit between which charging does happen?
I know several major laptop manufacturers do supply those.
If you go for sustainability I would presume maximizing the battery lifespan should be high on the list.
Setting such limits is not necessarily going to do much.
You can check the ware of the battery and the cycles it goes through.
The cycles give an indication of it’s history and longevity given a designed number of cycles
The wear gives another and Framework somewhere tout 20% drop in two years.
However the reading of such is questionable.
I have been monitoring wear and can see a reduction, not an increase in wear, each time I purposfully use a cycle by using until there is an automatic power off.
See this and other posts/topics for more detail.
Link to follow . . .
The latest See post 13 below and the topic below for detail. Although posted on the fairphone website the data is for my 11G Framework
Heat from quick charging is the main killer not the level of charge.
@amoun thx for your quick reply an insights you have.
I do agree that heat is a killer and probably also one of the most important.
I’ve learned that if you do not use LiPo batteries the best and most reliable way is to store them around 50-60% charge level. This way you have the most secure way of a long battery life (over the years).
Since my laptop is plugged in main for 95% of the time, I would like to think that keeping the battery around that 55% marked is good practice. Of course I use the BIOS setting for that, but having an app to change it back to 100% before I travel would save me rebooting and closing my workflows.
That’s why I would love to see and app that gives these possibilities.
@amoun Is there a reason you chose 78%? I’ve read some users set the limit to 90%, others 80% and some as low as 60%. I would say 6 out of 7 days a week my laptop is at my desk so trying to find the right balance. Thanks!
I’ve set 60% for now. Roughly once a month I need to visit a client and will bring it up to 90% on such days. No need to go to 100% as I never need more than a couple of hours unplugged. But maybe I should at times…