My ramblings for today will concern one of the most notorious 'urban legend' in Indonesia. Its called leaking battery. The story goes like this, one day, I just got home from work, and there I found my sister studying on her laptop. So being a nice brother I approach her and talk about the day. BUT then I noticed something, Theres a black bar next to her laptop. So I asked her "Itu apa?". "Batere" she replied. "Emang kamu ada 2 batere?". "Ngga, cuma satu tapi khan ini lagi dipake." she said. That got me thinking, I wasn't sure what she meant. Once again I asked "Emang kenapa dicopot kalo lagi dipake? Khan bisa langsung ngecharge." She stared at me and goes "Lho kalo dipake khan bisa bocor?" I was dumbfounded with that answer, So I checked the battery its a Lithium-Ion. It makes sense for her not to know any difference in batteries, but for other people who told her about , especially the engineers, I was shocked. Any engineers more specifically electronic engineers that survives first year should know the difference in batteries. 'Batere Bocor' literally means leaking battery, but I think they meant 'Memory Effect' (Otherwise known as Voltage Depression) in batteries where the battery cant be used as long as it used to. But the thing is... LITHIUM BATTERIES DO NOT SUFFER FROM MEMORY EFFECT!!!
Now I will try to give a concise explanation of NiCd, NiMh and Lithium battery with respect to both Leaking in literal term and 'Memory Effect' and to hopefully rebut the concept of 'Leaking Battery'. I'll try not to be too technical and give you some references at the end of the article if you want to pursue this further. (For the technically adept, the memory effect I am discussing is Strictly Voltage Depression and nothing else)
I'll start my discussion with NiCd otherwise known as Nickel Cadmium. This is the type of rechargeable battery that suffers from 'Memory Effect'. Memory effect happens due to over-charging in NiCd which creates an extra resistance of the battery, which is why my sister took her battery out every time its fully charged. In terms of literal leaking, as the name implies, NiCd contains cadmium, a kind of heavy metal toxic material. Constant exposure to Cadmium may cause cancer or other diseases.
Second, NiMh, Otherwise known as Nickel Metal Hydride. One thing to mention is that the memory effect in NiMh batteries are more obtuse than than NiCd. Which means that although the battery can decrease in performance it can be fixed by doing some discharge-recharge cycles. So still no harms done, It can easily be fixed. Regarding literal leaking. I cant find any reference to the toxicity of NiMh So I wont be able to comment on it.
Third, Lithium batteries the one that my sister is using. This is taken from wikipedia "Lithium-ion batteries (sometimes abbreviated Li-ion batteries) are a type of rechargeable battery commonly used in consumer electronics. They are currently one of the most popular types of battery for portable electronics, with one of the best energy-to-weight ratios, no memory effect, and a slow loss of charge when not in use." There you go... And also true leakage in Lithium batteries can cause explosion.In short, THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH LEAVING YOUR BATTERY IN YOUR LAPTOP WHILE USING IT AS LONG AS THEY ARE LITHIUM ION. The only caused of it not as good as it was originally is the obvious, Which is "Older battery will NOT last as long as new batteries" If anything, the cause of it the degradation in performance is the heat of the laptop, but most modern laptop are well ventilated so this is not an issue. I hope that clear something up
