Batteries don\u2019t last forever. As you charge and discharge your battery, it degrades and over time, you get less battery life from a full charge. Eventually, the battery\u2014or the device\u2014needs to be replaced.<\/p>\n
Battery Capacity Decreases Over Time<\/p>\n
A battery doesn\u2019t just go from good one day to bad the next. Instead, batteries slowly degrade over time. This capacity decrease is a gradual process\u2014happening over many charge cycles\u2014and you won\u2019t necessarily notice until you realize you used to get a few more hours of battery power from a charge.<\/p>\n
You can help prolong your battery\u2019s life and keep its capacity up by properly caring for your battery. But you can\u2019t avoid battery degradation forever. If you replace devices often\u2014say a new phone every couple of years\u2014you may never notice. Or, you may notice but the problem won\u2019t get bad enough to do anything about before it\u2019s time to replace your device again. But for devices like laptops, which you\u2019re likely to keep for longer, you may have to replace your battery at some point.<\/p>\n
Some devices will even warn you when it\u2019s getting time to replace your battery. For other devices, you can often find third-party apps that let you check up on your battery\u2019s health.<\/p>\n
How to View a Device\u2019s Battery Health<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, many devices don\u2019t display battery health warnings ahead of time. You\u2019ll either notice a problem yourself or the battery will simply fail. Even devices that do include some kind of warning often don\u2019t give you much advance notice. It pays to check up on battery health yourself once in a while.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s how to find battery health information on some common operating systems and devices:<\/p>\n
\u009f Windows Laptops: We recommend NirSoft\u2019s BatteryInfoView to find a Windows laptop\u2019s battery health, but there are other utilities you can use instead.
\n\u009f MacBooks: Hold down the Option key and click the battery icon on the menu bar. You\u2019ll see a \u201cCondition:\u201d line displayed here.
\n\u009f iPhones and iPads: You can actually ask Apple support to tell you your iPhone or iPad\u2019s battery health
\n\u009f Android Phones: Unfortunately, most Android users are out of luck. Some older phones would show battery health information if you opened the dialer and typed *#*#4636#*#*, but this doesn\u2019t seem to work on modern phones.
\nFor other devices, search for the type of device and \u201cbattery health\u201d to get instructions.<\/p>\n
When It\u2019s Time to Replace a Battery<\/p>\n
Whatever your device says about the health of its battery, the rest is up to you. If your battery reports it\u2019s at 40 percent of its original capacity, but you\u2019re still happy with how much battery life you get, there\u2019s not much need to pay for a replacement until it declines to a point where it becomes bothersome.<\/p>\n
How to Replace a Battery<\/p>\n
If you have a smartphone, tablet, laptop, or another device with a removable battery, replacement is easy. You just need to purchase a replacement battery designed specifically for your device, power down your device, and then replace the current battery with the new one. This gives your device a fresh battery with maximum capacity.<\/p>\n
However, devices these days are often made so that you can\u2019t access the battery yourself\u2014at least not easily or without voiding your warranty. Instead, you\u2019ll need to have the manufacturer replace the battery for you. For example, you can take an old iPhone, iPad, or MacBook to an Apple Store and pay a fee to have Apple employees open your device and replace the battery for you. Check if your manufacturer offers this service.<\/p>\n
Of course, even on devices without an easily accessible battery, if you\u2019re so inclined and don\u2019t mind the associated risks, you always have the option of doing it yourself. You could open up your device, get a replacement battery, and try to seal it back up again. We don\u2019t necessarily recommend this, though. Too many modern devices have batteries and other components that are glued together and not designed to be opened.<\/p>\n
The battery health status your device reports can help you decide whether it\u2019s time to replace your battery, but the decision is ultimately up to you. If your battery feels okay to you, then you don\u2019t need to do a thing right now. Better to put that money toward a future device replacement. If the battery is no longer performing adequately and you\u2019re not interested in replacing your device, then it\u2019s time for a replacement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Batteries don\u2019t last forever. As you charge and discharge your battery, it degrades and over time, you get less battery life from a full charge. Eventually, the battery\u2014or the device\u2014needs to be replaced. Battery Capacity Decreases Over Time A battery doesn\u2019t just go from good one day to bad the next. Instead, batteries slowly degrade […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.notebookbattery.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1487"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.notebookbattery.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.notebookbattery.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.notebookbattery.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.notebookbattery.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.notebookbattery.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1487\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.notebookbattery.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.notebookbattery.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.notebookbattery.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}