Dell laptop battery life hours

How Long Is a Laptop Battery Supposed to Last?

Your laptop is an invaluable tool for business, enabling you to take work with you wherever you go. The battery, however, is more of a depreciating asset. With enough use, you will eventually have to replace it. When you have to replace your battery depends largely on how you use it and how often your laptop operates on battery power alone.

Average Life Span

Battery life span is not set in stone. If your laptop's manufacturer made any claims about the battery's overall lifespan, it wasn't a solid, infallible figure. Your computer, battery, average use and computing habits all factor in when determining how long your battery will last. Dell says "noticeable reduction in run time generally will be observed after 18 to 24 months." The Computer Hope website is a bit more optimistic, offering a time frame of two to four years, roughly 1,000 full charges.

Battery Use

Avoiding certain behaviors help extend the life of your laptop's battery. By the nature of the beast, the more you need to use the battery, the sooner you'll need to replace it. If you regularly unplug and plug in your laptop, your battery is working harder than somebody who left his computer plugged in all day. On a similar note, PC World points out that regularly running your battery to empty weakens it. Over time, this kind of behavior can put your battery's life expectancy on the lower side of the two to four year average.

Extending Battery Life

Certain actions help your battery experience a relatively long life. When you're on battery power, dim your screen, don't use your disc drive and turn off your computer's Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Not only do these help give your more battery time per charge, they help reduce the strain of discharging and recharging because you are using less power while working with the battery. PC World suggests removing the battery when you plan to run the PC via the AC adapter. On the other hand, the Seattle Times website says the minimal improvement in battery life span may not be worth the effort of constantly removing and reinserting the battery.

Check Your Battery

You can download free software that tells you your battery's health. Programs like HWMonitor, Battery Bar and Battery Care give you many statistics on your laptop's battery. The "Wear Level" statistic is present in all three programs. This percentage tells you to what degree your battery is used up. For example, if your wear level is 17 percent, your battery charges roughly 17 percent less than it did when it was new. Using these tools and the wear level stat, you can help anticipate potential battery problems and have a backup ready when your current battery either dies for good or no longer holds an adequate charge.

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