In regards to fly fishing in BC, our northern winters allow us time to take stock of what we have, replenish supplies, re-organize tackle boxes and plan for this year's fishing trips. If you are like me, you took your fishing gear out of your vehicle after your final trip and put it into hiding for next season. Let me tell you, next season is almost here!
Now you want to discharge the battery. If you disable the hibernation setting or anything else that might make the computer go into power saving mode, it would be better. Let the computer run until it shuts down due to loss of battery power, then turn it back on.
There are two things that kill a notebook battery; heat and operating outside its voltage specifications, overcharge or undercharge in plain English. They are easy to avoid if you can identify the sources. Heat has two big group of players internal sources such as the processor graphics card hard disk drive and the internal lithium stock resistance of the battery itself.
Avoid deterioration from heat. Lithium-Ion accumulator cells used in today's notebooks are extremely vulnerable to heat. The notebooks are designed in a way that they drive heat away from the battery, but there are steps you can take yourself. Never close the lids on the bottom side, you can easily do that by putting them on a firm surface instead of your legs. Don't push them all the way in to the wall or against the wall with their exhaust lids as this is equally dangerous. Avoid direct sunlight whenever you can, choose a spot in your room where sun doesn't shine on the computer directly.
Avoid buying spares: Unlike wine and cheese, Li batteries do not improve with age. Avoid the temptation to buy spares, unless you use them frequently. Check the manufacture date, and never buy an old Lithium battery stocks, even if on sale.
What are your driving habits? What are the longest distances you will be traveling? When driving a pure electric vehicle; if the battery runs out completely with no charging stations available you will be stranded. With the long charge times, it will take some time to make the vehicle usable again. This is where the extended range Lithium mines Ontario Volt becomes more practical. Filling up the gas tank is faster than waiting for the battery to charge.
Don't empty the battery completely. Modern safety circuits take care of this, but if you take it to 3% capacity, then leave it like that for three months, it's most probably going to be damaged and lose some of its maximum capacity. If you have to store it for a while, charge it to 60%, and leave it like that in a dry and cold place.
For jobs where the batteries are required to be light weight as well as being reusable, then lithium batteries are ideal. But if a battery is needed to be very reliable or to remain unused for a long time then they might not be the right batteries for it.