<VV> Electric Corvairs

[Joel McGregor]

The car batteries are treated much better.  I think the computer in the car keeps the charge level between 10 and 90% or something like that.  They all have cooling systems for the batteries too.  Heat and over/under charging are the quickest way to kill Lithium-ion batteries.  Most laptops will completely charge and discharge the battery which supposedly shortens the life significantly.  My experience with laptops is that newer batteries are much worse than older ones.  I have a Compaq R3000 that is about 8 years old and the battery is still fine.  A lot of other laptops I've had the battery starts degrading quickly after about a year.  My Fujitsu charges the battery to 100% but won't start charging again until it drops below 92-94%.  The Fujitsu will completely self discharge in a couple of weeks where the Compaq only loses around 2%.  I've had much better luck with cell phone batteries but my phones all quit charging when the battery gets hot.
Corvair content:  The laptop I use to monitor/tune the Megasquirt in my '65 has about a 10 year old battery in it and only lasts about 2-3 minutes which is good enough for when the inverter drops out when I'm starting the car.
Joel McGregor
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If lithium-ion batteries are so long lived, then why do the ones we use in
our laptops die out after 4 or 5 years?  The first one I got with my Dell
lasted a little over 4 years and the second one is already down almost 40%
in  capacity after about 3 years of use.  My usage is primarily plugged into
120 volts AC with only very occasional use on only the Li-ion battery.
What aging experience do the rest of you get with the Li-ion batteries in
your laptops??????????

Frank Burkhard
Boonton, NJ