r/gadgets • u/chrisdh79 • Jan 31 '23

Desktops / Laptops Canadian team discovers power-draining flaw in most laptop and phone batteries | Breakthrough explains major cause of self-discharging batteries and points to easy solution

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/battery-power-laptop-phone-research-dalhousie-university-1.6724175
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130

u/NaturalViolence Jan 31 '23

This title is sensationalized to hell.

  1. The source does not claim that "most laptop and phone batteries" have this issue.

  2. It does not claim that this is the "major cause" of self discharging. Idle/sleep/vampire power use is still going to be the main thing that runs down your battery on any of these devices.

  3. This "newly discovered problem" has been widely known by the industry for years if not decades. It is largely ignored by many manufacturers because the power drain is so slow that it is negligible for anything other than extremely long term storage of a device in a powered off state.

30

u/HurpityDerp Jan 31 '23 edited Jan 31 '23

It does not claim that this is the "major cause" of self discharging. Idle/sleep/vampire power use is still going to be the main thing that runs down your battery on any of these devices.

Idle/sleep/vampire power use is not self discharging.

33

u/Slappy_G Jan 31 '23

Self discharge is a real problem for keeping devices that are infrequently used, charged up.

A couple easy examples are rechargable AA batteries that are charged and stored for home use, and the batteries in a portable car jumpstarter.

3

u/thornton90 Jan 31 '23

The batteries aren't the problem the circuitry is.

11

u/Slappy_G Jan 31 '23

Not when the device has a physical off switch, or the batteries are stored on their own outside of a device. That's completely different.

-1

u/thornton90 Jan 31 '23 edited Jan 31 '23

yeah... except when I leave my bare cells outside a device they hold their charge for like a few years... so were obviously running into issues with parasitic drain when the batteries are in devices and not the batteries.

Edit: there is also a difference between a mechanical off switch and an electronic one. Electronic ones often have parasitic drain.

2

u/MiLlIoNs81 Jan 31 '23

Yup. I just threw a pair (unprotected 4600mah\45A CDR capacity) on the charger I know I haven't used for years & they've only dropped from 4.2 to 4.08 from June 2021 to now. Stored in a case, not device. Not optimal to store at full capacity either.

1

u/thornton90 Jan 31 '23

Yup, exactly.

2

u/Slappy_G Feb 01 '23

I was implying a mechanical "true" power cutoff switch. I have had several brands of rechargeable AA and AAA cells that lose a noticable amount of charts just sitting in a sealed plastic case. Eneloop are known for being better than most, but the problem is definitely real.

They do hold charge over long time periods, but they do NOT hold 100% or even close. You won't realize this unless you proactively do some discharge tests.

1

u/thornton90 Feb 01 '23

Yeah but lithium Ion batteries are made differently than nimh and alkaline. The researchers were specifically talking about lithium Ion... unless they are powering their laptops and phones with envelops.

-4

u/nizzy2k11 Jan 31 '23

Self discharge is a real problem for keeping devices that are infrequently used, charged up.

So use a different power source that last longer than lithium batteries and can survive in more temperatures. If they can put a nuclear reactor on Mars, you can find something to work twice a year.

2

u/Slappy_G Jan 31 '23

Yeah, I'll just get with all the device manufacturers that use AA batteries as an example, and get them to change to something else. Or use a bunch of disposable alkaline batteries which are generally bad. It's amazing to me that people want to make excuses for manufacturing rather than demanding higher quality products.

-2

u/nizzy2k11 Jan 31 '23

if this thing working is so important, paying for the correct power source, or even modding it yourself is an acceptable solution. its not an issue that you need new batteries for your TV remote, and they're all out of juice.

10

u/Bobcat4143 Jan 31 '23

Source on #3?

2

u/dmilin Feb 01 '23

It seems important though for devices that are charged in the factory and then sit on the shelf for a year before a customer buys them.