Huge hack revealed to extend battery life and avoid a mistake we all make

IF poor laptop battery life is haunting you, then it’s safe to say that it’s not the device that’s the problem, it’s you.

Fortunately, this is not a unique problem and is a lifelong burden for many.

There are a lot of people who make battery-fatal mistakes when it comes to their laptops.

The same pitfall even exists with your iPhone or Android.

The mistake? Permanent charging.

Although the name gives the clue, permanent charging means leaving your laptop plugged in almost permanently.

We’ve all been guilty of it at some point in our lives.

It’s the result of a long-standing myth that constant charging is actually good for overall performance.

Plus, this is easy to do if laptops can be left on a charger throughout the workday and overnight.

But it’s not healthy if your laptop battery needs to be topped up to 100 percent all the time.

Myth debunked

The myth that keeping your laptop permanently charged to 100 percent is a good thing is based on a common misconception.

When plugged in, your laptop doesn’t draw power from the wall outlet like your desktop computer.

Instead, it draws power from the battery.

Continuous charging means the battery is under a lot of pressure as it makes many small charges from 99 percent to 100 percent throughout the day and night.

Kent Griffith, an assistant professor at the University of California, San Diego, and battery degradation researcher, says this is the worst thing you can do for your computer.

“If your laptop battery is in this worst state (100 percent charge) for weeks or months, it can be quite damaging,” Griffith told Gizmodo.

“So if you take it out and expect it to last eight to 10 hours, it might only give you half of what you expect because it has deteriorated a lot in that time.”

Battery percentage ‘sweet spot’

The so-called sweet spot for your laptop battery is somewhere between 20 and 80 percent, according to Griffith.

Staying in this ‘mid-range’ zone for as long as possible will do wonders for extending the life of your battery.

During this time, you don’t need to plug in your laptop unless you’re charging it when you’re away from an electrical outlet.

But if you sit at your desk all day, unplug the cable!

Griffith recommends fully charging your laptop and then unplugging it so it can run on charge all day.