Charge your laptop battery right

Charging laptop battery has limitations. Find the following tips and know about how to choose your laptop battery and laptop charger.

How to buy laptop batteries

Batteries have two main ratings on them: Volts and Amperes. Because laptop batteries do not carry a very large amount of power, most companies show their ratings with Volts and Milliamperes. One thousand Milliamperes equals 1 Ampere. When buying a battery, always go for the battery with the most Milliamperes (or mAh). Batteries are also rated by Watt-Hours, which equals Volts multiplying Amperes. Take Dell Inspiron E1505 Battery for example, which is 11.1 Volts, 4400mAh.

11.1 volts X 4.4 amperes = 48.84 watt-hours

This battery has 48.84 Watt-Hours. The term Watt Hour signifies the energy needed to power one watt for one hour. Thus this battery can power 48.84 watts for one hour. We may find out which battery is stronger based on the watt-hours.

Charge your laptop battery with specified adapter volts

Theoretically, it is necessary that a higher voltage the charger provides than the rechargeable battery does. If the charger provides lower voltage than the battery does, the rechargeable battery would not be charged. For instance, Dell Inspiron E1505 ac adapter or Dell Inspiron E1505 auto/air adapter is specified 19.5 +/¡V1.0 volts and sticking to specified volts does matter. Plugging anything that's over-rated into the pack will cause excessive heat and probably cause the cell to rupture and catch fire. Plugging anything underrated in is likely to do the same over a longer period of time because of heat build up and failure to charge.

What happened to overcharge my laptop battery

Over-charging occurs when the charger keeps the battery at a temperature that is warm to touch (body temperature) while in ready condition. Overcharging does not affect the life span other than potentially destroying the battery. A lithium-based battery should never be allowed to get warm in a charger. If you have this happen, the battery is no good or the charger is not working properly. Don¡¦t continue to use the battery or charger if this happens. A Lithium-ion battery may be damaged by extensive overcharging (continuously on a charger for more than 24 hours). Damage to the battery from overcharging would only occur in the very unlikely event of a malfunction of the charging system.