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Do you keep your SP3 on mains after full charge?

stsalkit

Member
Your opinions please on the following: I usually charge my SP3 overnight. During the morning I keep the charging cable plugged in since I need my SP3 fully charged until late afternoon when I disconnect it.
Does this "hurt" the battery in the long term? i.e. keeping the SP3 connected to the wall while it is already fully charged?
 

Spider

Super Moderator
Staff member
Does this "hurt" the battery in the long term? i.e. keeping the SP3 connected to the wall while it is already fully charged?

No, it won't "hurt" your battery. The circuitry prevents the battery from over charging.
 

hughlle

Super Moderator
Staff member
Mine has been plugged in for the past 2 months :) I am ignorant of such things, but i tend to think that technology has come on enough now that these debates are no longer relevant.
 

Johnny365

Member
Eh, after doing this with my tablet and original ipad the last 2-4 years with no noticeable degradation in battery life, I'll keep doing it on here.
 

Zeged

New Member
actually the battery is in big stress when you keep it fully charged at 100%.
in the same manner it also stresses the battery when it is empty.
the safe zone to prolong the battery life is to keep it always at about 40 to 80 percent.
it's not really applicable, but it is science.
 

andrew7783

New Member
actually the battery is in big stress when you keep it fully charged at 100%.
in the same manner it also stresses the battery when it is empty.
the safe zone to prolong the battery life is to keep it always at about 40 to 80 percent.
it's not really applicable, but it is science.

While this is technically true, from a practical standpoint, keeping your device plugged in is unlikely to cause any serious degradation. A decent lithium-ion battery should last for years before its capacity begins to show significant decline.
 

PCAnyWhere

Member
When working away at my desk I have it connected to go with a higher brightness and I also like to know that I have a full charge should I be called away and have to be unplugged for most of the day while bouncing from meeting to meeting.
 

fletch33

Member
there are a couple threads on this here but i personally stopped worrying about batteries many years ago and even my 4 year old laptops and phones charge and hold that charge very close to what they did when they were new.
 

Sanjay

Member
Considering that with Build 10130 the max I get is approx 2 hrs and never got better than 4 hrs with a charge, it's not like there's much of a choice but to keep the SP3 plugged in all the time.
 

GiGo

New Member
I would disagree to the majority on this. I had a EP121 for about 2 years and it was left plugged in for most of the time it was used. The battery now has given up the ghost near enough altogether! One of the reasons I brought my SP3! The EP121 batter would last 10 mins, 20mins, 2hrs, 5mins or simply not at all.

Personally I keep the my SP3 plugged in for a few hours at a time then unplug it for a couple, keeping the charge anywhere between 70% and 95%
 

Sanjay

Member
Personally I keep the my SP3 plugged in for a few hours at a time then unplug it for a couple, keeping the charge anywhere between 70% and 95%
Couple of hrs is all I get before the SP3 runs out of juice. This is with Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 10130. With Windows 8.1 I used to get a little over 4 hrs.
 

GiGo

New Member
Couple of hrs is all I get before the SP3 runs out of juice. This is with Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 10130. With Windows 8.1 I used to get a little over 4 hrs.

That's odd, I can get at least 4 hours with 10130 installed, with the keyboard plugged in, Bluetooth ear piece attached and watching video and light web browsing.

W10 preview certainly has decreased the life span of the SP3, I assume this will be resolved by the time W10 goes to final build
 
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