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Battery Health query for a 2011 MBP

P

Peter Franks

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jun 9, 2011
2,036
87
10.6.8
2.3 GHz Intel Core i5
4GB 1333 DDR3
SL

Out of interest people, what sort of health should a battery be in 2 years down the line? Battery life was never that great from day one, but it's now even worse.

However....

iStat is showing Health 94%

And the OS says..

Cycle Count: 292
Condition: Normal

I don't remember what is said before, does it ever say, 'good' etc. Is normal, the 'norm'?
 
simsaladimbamba

simsaladimbamba

Guest
Nov 28, 2010
22,670
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located
292 cycles with 94% batter health is more than okay. I have 442 cycles in almost four years with now 92% health (though I had 89% the weeks before).

And battery life is depending on a lot of factors like display brightness, WiFi/Bluetooth on/off, CPU activity and more.

______________________________________________________
This should answer most, if not all, of your battery questions:
Apple Notebook Battery FAQ by GGJstudios
The F.A.Q. includes the following topics:
  • BATTERY INFORMATION
  • BATTERY LIFE FROM A CHARGE
  • AC POWER
  • CALIBRATION
  • BATTERY LIFESPAN
  • CHECKING STATUS AND HEALTH
  • CHARGING
  • WHAT IS A CYCLE?
  • BATTERIES ARE NOT COVERED
  • BULGING OR SWELLING BATTERY

______________________________________________________​
 
P

Peter Franks

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jun 9, 2011
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Thanks, I had very little going on today, just paperwork and not much else doing, but it went down really quick from 100% to 7% and that's why I was alerted to it.

I get why it dies when I'm watching YouTube or Flash stuff, but today was pretty sparse and after a couple of hours it was gone. Was quite surprised.
 
P

Peter Franks

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jun 9, 2011
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Also like to add, that since I've had this, I've never used the keyboard backlight, It's always off, but beginning to feel it makes no odds to battery life at all. Didn't help any.. Anyone else turn theirs off
 
V

vistadude

macrumors 65816
Jan 3, 2010
1,423
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94% means it's good. Anything better than 80% is pretty good. When I bought my macbook, it was about 93% to start out with. Now more than 3 years later, it hovers from 84-87%. Using backlight shouldn't matter really, it's more about how many charges and discharges you go through.

Actually the most important thing is not the percentages, but rather how long it lasts. If it lasts 7 hours when brand new, I would replace it when it lasts 3 hours or less.
 
P

Peter Franks

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jun 9, 2011
2,036
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Sorry, I didn't see this.

I've never had 7 hours from it, since new. It's at 92% now with 296.

In fairness the only thing I really dislike about my MBP is the battery life. I really expected a lot more from battery when I switched to Mac, and sometimes it's a couple of hours at most. I don't think it was ever at it's peak, even when new. Maybe it was this model.
 
GGJstudios

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,545
943
Peter Franks said:
Out of interest people, what sort of health should a battery be in 2 years down the line? Battery life was never that great from day one, but it's now even worse.

iStat is showing Health 94%
Cycle Count: 292
Condition: Normal

I don't remember what is said before, does it ever say, 'good' etc. Is normal, the 'norm'?
Click to expand...
Good is the same as normal. It's called "Good" in Leopard, "Normal" in SL and later versions of OS X.

It is perfectly normal if your battery health (maximum capacity) is more or less than 100%, even when brand new, or if it fluctuates up or down over time. For further details, read the CHECKING STATUS AND HEALTH section of the following link.

Peter Franks said:
Thanks, I had very little going on today, just paperwork and not much else doing, but it went down really quick from 100% to 7% and that's why I was alerted to it.
Click to expand...
That's your battery charge level, not your battery health, that dropped from 100% to 7%.
Peter Franks said:
Also like to add, that since I've had this, I've never used the keyboard backlight, It's always off, but beginning to feel it makes no odds to battery life at all. Didn't help any.. Anyone else turn theirs off
Click to expand...
There are many factors that impact your battery life, and keyboard backlighting is one of the minor factors. See the BATTERY LIFE FROM A CHARGE section of the following link for details, including tips on how to maximize your battery life.
Peter Franks said:
I've never had 7 hours from it, since new.
Click to expand...
Apple never claimed you would get 7 hours. They said "up to 7 hours".

The link below should answer most, if not all, of your battery/charging questions. If you haven't already done so, I highly recommend you take the time to read it.
 
P

Peter Franks

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jun 9, 2011
2,036
87
Thanks, Yes, that was charge level, didn't mean health, obviously. I know it's up to 7 rather than definite 7, but I've never come anywhere near that.

Due to my set up in my house, I've only ever used WiFi, it's never plugged in. Presume that makes a difference, but would think most use wirelessly anyway
 
P

Peter Franks

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jun 9, 2011
2,036
87
Just a quick ask...

Is it normal that the health when I posted last on April 14 was showing 94% and now it's at 86% just a couple of weeks on? The cycle was 292 and now at 313, but should health deteriorate that quick, it's only been a few weeks?
 
T

The-Pro

macrumors 65816
Dec 2, 2010
1,453
40
Germany
Peter Franks said:
Just a quick ask...

Is it normal that the health when I posted last on April 14 was showing 94% and now it's at 86% just a couple of weeks on? The cycle was 292 and now at 313, but should health deteriorate that quick, it's only been a few weeks?
Click to expand...

It fluctuates and thats normal.
my 2010 15" MBP has 678 cycles and a battery health of 91%. IMPRESSED! :) But last months it said 79% health. , usually it stays aroun 85-88 in the last year.

If you put your screen brightness down below 50% and are just typing in Pages and browsing light webpages now and then you will easily get 7 hours.
I have managed to get 9 hours out of mine doing the above. I strictly dont use Word because I found it hardly ever goes below 20% CPU usage and often times for no apparent reason goes up to 60 for fun, even when just typing plain text. So i always use pages as it its below 5% for about everything.

If your battery drops too quickly for what you are doing, then check the activity monitor. Select all processes instead of my processes. In a lot of cases a printjob manager or some other task is hogging cpu and more then halves your battery life. See what is causing the cpu usage and quit the application if not needed.
Flash adds on websites are a real pain. They can make the WebProcess (part of safari) spike up to like 40% then back down again every couple seconds. Huge impact on battery life. Find the webpage and close it, if the info on the website is text and important, save it in your reading list and read it there.
Look into the clicktoflash and clicktoplugin safari extensions. They stop lots of flash ads from loading, better for ram usage and battery life.
 
Last edited:
P

Peter Franks

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jun 9, 2011
2,036
87
The-Pro said:
It fluctuates and thats normal.
my 2010 15" MBP has 678 cycles and a battery health of 91%. IMPRESSED! :) But last months it said 79% health. , usually it stays aroun 85-88 in the last year.

If you put your screen brightness down below 50% and are just typing in Pages and browsing light webpages now and then you will easily get 7 hours.
I have managed to get 9 hours out of mine doing the above. I strictly dont use Word because I found it hardly ever goes below 20% CPU usage and often times for no apparent reason goes up to 60 for fun, even when just typing plain text. So i always use pages as it its below 5% for about everything.

If your battery drops too quickly for what you are doing, then check the activity monitor. Select all processes instead of my processes. In a lot of cases a printjob manager or some other task is hogging cpu and more then halves your battery life. See what is causing the cpu usage and quit the application if not needed.
Flash adds on websites are a real pain. They can make the WebProcess (part of safari) spike up to like 40% then back down again every couple seconds. Huge impact on battery life. Find the webpage and close it, if the info on the website is text and important, save it in your reading list and read it there.
Look into the clicktoflash and clicktoplugin safari extensions. They stop lots of flash ads from loading, better for ram usage and battery life.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your help. I can charge battery to 100% and come on here and within 3 minutes it's on 95. I have to use Word for Invoices but I don't use it every day, and don't own a printer. All my invoices are emailed as PDFs. I use Mail more than anything I suppose. And obviously Safari a lot. They are the 2 that are always open. I've turned off all the things I'm supposed to do and never ever use the keyboard lights, that's always off, but I still don't get great battery. I really think it's luck of the draw with the MBP because many get great life, and many also like me who bought the mid 2011 have had problems. One thing I will say, I only use on WiFi, which I know probably doesn't help much. But I can turn that off to watch an AVI film and get the same battery leak. I expect it watching films though. And I cant make it through a 2 hour DVD so don't even try anymore on this.
 
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