Battery (All the time On?)

[CEnTR4L]

Since I've got my mbp last Tuesday I was going round and round about battery care.

I have read all Apple's notes on batteries except this...

my previous notebook (Acer Aspire 2001) I was charging-recharging the battery all the time, I do not unplug the battery what so ever, its always on, and I haven't experienced that much of battery life loss.

My question is: Can I do that (Plugging the MBP battery all the time 24/7 no matter what), Will this suck the life out of it by any chance? or damaging it?

[snaky69]

Why do you buy a laptop if you mean to keep it plugged in all the time? I'd get an iMac.

[akm3]

Why do you buy a laptop if you mean to keep it plugged in all the time? I'd get an iMac.

That is very helpful!

Lots of people use a laptop (especially a Macbook Pro) as a portable desktop. That is, it is plugged in on one desk, and then commutes to a second desk (at work) where it is plugged in. And then returns home ... to get plugged into the home desk again.

This is a perfectly valid use of a notebook and an iMac would not be suitable in this situation.

So, to the OP I don't know the answer to your question but would like to know as well!

-Allen

[Jasper2k]

My question is: Can I do that (Plugging the MBP battery all the time 24/7 no matter what), Will this suck the life out of it by any chance? or damaging it?


Apple doesn't recommend leaving it on charge all the time, and actually has an iCal reminder that tells you when to do a discharge / recharge cycle:

http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html

Hope this helps! :)

[Viremia]

I have a 18 month old MBP and leave it plugged it all the time (carry it from home to work everyday). I haven't cycled/condition the battery in many months. So yesterday, I decided to run it down. I got a whopping 50 minutes of battery life and the health, which had been listed at 90-something percent, has now dropped to 32%.

I only use it on battery about once every other month or so, when I go to visit my folks (they don't have an outlet near the couch I usually sit on).

So, I'm going to be running it down again, all night, to see if I can regain some health and battery life. When I just let it run down this morning, it again only got ~50 minutes of life, which is pathetic.

[asmallchild]

i believe the recommendation is to at least use the battery once a month

and to calibrate the meter once a month as well (which, incidentally, requires usage of the battery)

i kept my old dell laptop plugged in constantly and can squeeze 20 minutes out of it at the most (then again, age will do that anyway as my old laptop is now 6 years old)

[CEnTR4L]

Viremiam, man, sounds the battery doesn't take that crap

anyways, my use of never unplug the battery is that I'm always running wireless test and I plug the mbp to TV/hometheater occasionally so unplugging/plugging the battery all the time is a bit annoying...

the weird thing is my previous acer laptop battery didn't get that much of a damage that Viremiam did, so thats tricky thing...

we diffenetly need more experienced users to share their stories about this thought.

[Consultant]

Viremiam, man, sounds the battery doesn't take that crap

anyways, my use of never unplug the battery is that I'm always running wireless test and I plug the mbp to TV/hometheater occasionally so unplugging/plugging the battery all the time is a bit annoying...

the weird thing is my previous acer laptop battery didn't get that much of a damage that Viremiam did, so thats tricky thing...

we diffenetly need more experienced users to share their stories about this thought.


You will not notice any loss in battery life if you never run it on battery. Simple as that. Let me guess, you always shut down your laptop when you move it from location to location?

Why do you need "more experienced users"? You think someone just put this information out without doing any research?
http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html

[RandiC]

Why do you buy a laptop if you mean to keep it plugged in all the time? I'd get an iMac.

Oh... You can set the Imac on your lap now?

[Viremia]

I called applecare yesterday about my battery issue. I had recycled it 3 times: leaving it on overnight unplugged with no change in battery life. I also noticed that the cycles changed from the 70's to 25. Anyway, applecare said they agreed it shouldn't drop from a health in the 90s to 30s and something was wrong, but they wouldn't replace it. Guess I'm gonna have to go buy a replacement.

I'm a bit ticked at apple about this. I understand that batteries aren't covered in applecare (unless something is demonstrably wrong with it), but the customer support guy agreed that there was something wrong with it but that since they didn't have any reports on batteries behaving this way he couldn't replace it.

[earnjam]

I called applecare yesterday about my battery issue. I had recycled it 3 times: leaving it on overnight unplugged with no change in battery life. I also noticed that the cycles changed from the 70's to 25. Anyway, applecare said they agreed it shouldn't drop from a health in the 90s to 30s and something was wrong, but they wouldn't replace it. Guess I'm gonna have to go buy a replacement.

I'm a bit ticked at apple about this. I understand that batteries aren't covered in applecare (unless something is demonstrably wrong with it), but the customer support guy agreed that there was something wrong with it but that since they didn't have any reports on batteries behaving this way he couldn't replace it.

Seems like that IS a report of a battery behaving that way!!

[Viremia]

Seems like that IS a report of a battery behaving that way!!

yeah, well, that's what I said, and it got me nowhere

[lavrishevo]

Batteries are meant to be used. It does more damage to the battery not to drain it down and recharge here and there. As Apple suggested do a full drain, and let sleep for 6 or more hours then charge to full + 2 hours once a month. I have followed this and it has worked excellent. After 2+ years on my MBP and 197 cycles I still get excellent battery life and can barely tell the difference between now and day 1.