Laptop batteries generally come in two types: nickel cadmium and nickel metal hydride. It is important to charge new batteries in cycles of fourteen to sixteen hours. Batteries should be allowed to cool before recharging because overcharging will shorten their life.
Prices for laptop battery chargers range from $200 to $300 and typically come with a twelve-month warranty period. Easy access to chargers is important because nickel cadmium can suffer from a ‘memory defect’. A laptop user may face this problem if the batteries are not fully discharged before recharging. A nickel cadmium battery should be charged only after it has been fully depleted, otherwise the battery ‘thinks’ it only has fifty percent of its original capacity and only uses half of its potential, thus increasing the laptop time constraints.
A user can recharge a laptop’s batteries in two ways. First of all, every time the PC uses AC power, a small flow of electricity runs to the battery, which is called a trickle charge. This charging will automatically recharge the batteries after the laptop is unplugged. Another method of charging a battery is with an external battery charger. The batteries are placed in the charger, and then the charger is plugged into a standard electrical outlet. Some chargers that are available in the market offer to charge the batteries in seven hours but this can damage the batteries forever. Nickel cadmium batteries are likely to self-discharge, which means they can lose power when not in use. Battery chargers solve this problem by giving the battery a small charge that keeps it fully charged.
Nickel Cadmium batteries work most efficiently when fully discharged and then recharged. If a battery is used in a more fragmented way, discharging it completely from time to time before recharging it will improve the productivity of the battery. Some battery chargers do this automatically, but leaving the laptop overnight and recharging the battery in the morning can also efficiently strengthen the battery.
