Battery cycle count

[Retops]

Realize many of the readers of this board don't travel that much and probably don't cycle the battery as often as heavy travelers do, but I was wondering how many cycles the real road warriors out there have racked up so far on their Macbook Air? I am at 72 and all is well.

I use the MBA several times a day at various locations where I work. Lots of booting up since I don't like to carry the computer in sleep mode. I am really loving the lighter weight, so much so that I ditched my leather case for an even lighter ballistic nylon case.

[Zwhaler]

Cool, but may I ask what your battery health is? Still good?

[Retops]

Originally Posted by Zwhaler

Cool, but may I ask what your battery health is? Still good?

Good question. Yep, it is still showing good.

[Mhaddy]

What's your health at? I currently have 9 cycles and am running at 94% health... this has dropped from 99% in a little over a week...

[NC MacGuy]

Mines at 61 cycles and health 98%. Sometimes shows 97%. It actually started at 94%. Quite surprised.

[fredrickyoon]

Mine's at 21 cycles and battery health 94%.

[ayeying]

Im at 17 cycles and at 96-98% health. It can't make up its mind on the health meter.

[ncavs10]

what are you using to monitor your health?

[fredrickyoon]

Downloading iStat from the Apple website (downloads section).

[Darge13]

Originally Posted by NC MacGuy

Mines at 61 cycles and health 98%. Sometimes shows 97%. It actually started at 94%. Quite surprised.

Did the health come up after a few charge cycles or did it take awhile? I'm at 30 and the battery health reads 94% (4800mAh) but it has dipped as low as 91%...

[NC MacGuy]

Originally Posted by Darge13

Did the health come up after a few charge cycles or did it take awhile? I'm at 30 and the battery health reads 94% (4800mAh) but it has dipped as low as 91%...

No, it took awhile. Probably after 30-40 cycles it started inching up.

[fredrickyoon]

Kind of got worried about that, but I'm only at 21 cycles right now at 94% battery health.

[CaptainCannabis]

29 cycles, and 98% battery health.

I've had my 1.8/ssd since feb 5.

[ncavs10]

Originally Posted by fredrickyoon

Downloading iStat from the Apple website (downloads section).

sometimes istat is very inaccurate.

[super98111]

Originally Posted by ncavs10

sometimes istat is very inaccurate.

For low cycle, it may be true.

[bence8810]

I just got my MBA yesterday night, put it on charge while reinstalled the OS via Remote Install. This morning, i took it off the charger and started using it. I installed iStat Pro, and I saw the following:

My battery health is on 95%, not bad for a brand new machine
Charge Cycle: 1

and the weird thing happened just a few minutes ago. I again checked iStat Pro, and my charge cycle just climbed to 2. Wow, I mean, I havent even gone close to a charger and using the MBA from battery since morning, but my cycle counter went from 1 to 2, and as far as I am concerned, it should still be sitting on 0.......

Anyways, did someone else see this? Charge cycle goes up while not even being on charger?

Ben

[GeneKam]

81 cycles, health 94%

[Particular]

Health is 99%, Cycles is 15.

Mine started at 97% health and has increased

[JAdmiral]

So, I'm the kind of person that charges the battery whenever I have an opportunity. SHOULD I be?

Is it wrong to give the battery a lot of little charges, or does it matter?

Is there a way to condition or otherwise IMPROVE the battery health?

[fredrickyoon]

Now at 23 cycles and battery health at 93%. Users are saying that it takes a while for the battery health to increase. Just hoping that mine will as well.

[Retops]

Originally Posted by JAdmiral

So, I'm the kind of person that charges the battery whenever I have an opportunity. SHOULD I be?

Is it wrong to give the battery a lot of little charges, or does it matter?

Is there a way to condition or otherwise IMPROVE the battery health?

These kinds of questions always generate a lot of responses (often contradictory) but I will give you my experience. I recharge every chance I get because I use the machine a lot. My old laptops lasted years using this method. I have had no "memory" problems because normal use means that I occasionally run the battery all the way down and then do a full recharge. I have a six year old ibook that is still running on its original battery. It no longer lasts as long as it did when it was new, but it still works OK for a couple of hours.

Right now, for example, I am posting this on AC power even though my battery was above 50% when I started.

[ayeying]

I'd say, just use it however you like. If you wanna plug it in more, then plug it in more. If you're a road warrior and almost never plugs it in except for charging, then be that person. I use it on battery whenever I'm away from my room and when I get back to my room, I plug it back in regardless if I've only used 1% or the entire battery. But that's just me.

To be constantly worrying abotu the battery life... well, if you can't shell out 130 bucks for a new battery after a long period, its time to save up the pennies cause no matter what, if you plan on keeping the system for a long time, the battery would have to be replaced. Same to go for cars. You don't worry abotu the tread life of your tires constantly do you?

[tweety3537]

im not too heavy a traveler, but i suppose i do take mine with me whenever i do travel. im at 73 cycles - hah - and 100% health - macbook 4g (i think - i know thats sounds dumb) 2gb ram 2.2 GHz processor core two duo

[Suncusser]

69 cycles, 95% health here

[wolfie]

I'm at 106 cycles, and changes between 90-95 per cent health. About 40 cycles in I stopped caring about health and it's much more blissful this way. I use it however I want, regardless of charge.