My signature is right-side up. It's the whole forum that's upside down.
It says: "want to find answers before you ask the questions? try MRoogle"
Heheh okay that really helped me out man, thanks.. Allright peoples.. it's been fun, i'm out!
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
I'm calibrating my battery every day! Good or bad ?
- Thread starter andromedaan
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Heheh okay that really helped me out man, thanks.. Allright peoples.. it's been fun, i'm out!
GGJstudios,
I would like to thank you for all your posts and links! Thank you!! I've learnt so much from them!! You're officially a Battery God!!
Much appreciated, mate!!
I would like to thank you for all your posts and links! Thank you!! I've learnt so much from them!! You're officially a Battery God!!
Much appreciated, mate!!
wow this isnt a complicated things READ apple site and numerous other posts..I dont have a laptop and I know how to do this...Calibrating does not affect battery life it helps the COMPUTER indicator be a little more accurate so its a better gauge. Alright and if you need to USE your entire battery everyday then go for it. Its a tool (laptop) to get your job done and therefore worry about your work more then your tools. Im saying yes you should take care of this beautifully created machine of yours but not to the point that you do not use it to its bought purpose. Like having a Ferrari and never driving it. This is so true I know individuals who own expensive cars and such and barely use it because they are afraid of natural wear...what I say is...you bought it to use it so use it to the extent you want to but do not do anything stupid like sit on it or use it as a cup holder, ect...just use it for what its designed and hey if you need a new battery a little sooner (due to heat degradation) then so be it at least you used your laptop more then the other guy with a 1000 cycles running at 50% max or something.
Don't know about the latest MacBook Pros, but mine (March 2006) continues to use the power adapter source. Maybe that's how my Energy Saver preferences are set. Look in yours.This thread helped me, thanks.
I was unclear if it was bad to use use an entire charge once a day (school)
I have question though (sorry if I'm threadstealing
Does MBP switch to battery use when the MagSafe turns green ?
I'm glad my posts were helpful, but I'm hardly a "Battery God". I just know how to search and read. I use MRoogle to search this forum and very quickly find answers that have already been posted, and I use Google (just add "site:apple.com" or "site:support.apple.com" to the end of any search) to search the Apple site for the other links I post from there. Everyone in this forum can do the same thing and accelerate your learning about Mac OS X and Apple hardware. I have over 7,000 posts in the forum, but I've only started 28 threads. That's because it's rare to have a question that you can't find answers for in existing threads.GGJstudios,
I would like to thank you for all your posts and links! Thank you!! I've learnt so much from them!! You're officially a Battery God!!
Much appreciated, mate!!
Again, I'm glad I could help, and I hope this helps, as well.
No, it still runs on A/C power, but it just stops charging once it turns green. It won't overcharge your battery.
I have a question...
At what percent does the batter count a cycle? In other words, i would rather run the battery down to 10% then charge it back to 100% and count 1 cycle rather than run it down to 60% and count it as a cycle
At what percent does the batter count a cycle? In other words, i would rather run the battery down to 10% then charge it back to 100% and count 1 cycle rather than run it down to 60% and count it as a cycle
thanks. Good to know i dont use a full cycle if i run it down to 60% and recharge!
Thank you :] I've been very careful with it so far, as I need the battery to work for as long as possible. (school school school)
Isn't it better to use a full charge, than to use 40% of the battery, and then recharge it ?
Or did I completely misunderstand everything?
Actually you should never go under 10% charge as it "damage" the battery...
And lithium battery will take each % as a % of a cycle nothing to worry...
No, just use it however you need and plug it in when you can. If you only need 40%, intentionally draining it all the way puts unnecessary cycles on your battery.
That is complete nonsense! Stop posting this misinformation in multiple threads! If that were true, Apple would never recommend calibrating, which drains the battery completely. It will NOT damage a battery to drain it below 10%.
This kind of statement confuses me, given the other information on the thread. Why would any use put unnecessary cylces on the battery. As far as I have read, a cycle constitues one use of the full capacity of the battery, regardless of when the capacity is used. I can use my computer in two ways:
1. I use the computer for 3 hours, draining it to 50% and then plug it in. I then use it for another 3 hours as it's recharging. The next day I use it for 3 hours on the battery. Once again its at 50%. Bam, one cycle.
2. I use the computer for 6 hours on the first day on the battery. When it gets down to 5%, at about 5:50, I plug it in to recharge. The next day I use it for 3 hours while leaving it plugged in. One cycle used.
How are these two scenarios different? I suppose if I attempted to always use it on the battery, unless it was charging, I could go through cycles faster (i.e. same as scenario 2 but use on the battery the next day?)
As I said, if you only use 40%, then recharge it, you haven't used a complete cycle. If you intentionally drain it all the way, when you only needed to drain it 40%, you have added a cycle when you didn't need to.
A cycle consists of charging the battery 100%'s, doesn't matter if you only use 10% and charge it 10 times or use it once to 0% and charge it full. You should also not leave your batter on a charger at 100% for an extended period of time.
I think the confusion might come because Apple has changed the way it defines a "cycle". IIRC it used to define a cycle as one full discharge of the battery ie from 100% right down to 0%. In that case GGJStudios is right.
But in the last couple of years (I think?) Apple has changed the definition to the diagram & text on this page http://www.apple.com/batteries/ where it seems a cycle is taking one capacity's worth out of the battery, regardless of how many times you plug into the charger between times. In that case I think col sandurz is right.
I think the change in definition happened since 2006, I'm pretty sure my 2006 MB defines cycle in the old way, while my 2009 MBP defines it in the new way.
Based on the new definition you're stuffed any way you use the battery. For my ~5000 mAhr battery, every mAhr I take out of it is 1/5000th of a cycle, regardless of what tricks I play with recharging.
A lot of misinformation here...
Draining the battery to 0% WILL NOT DAMAGE it!
The truth is, draining a Li-Ion under 3V (under load) WILL DAMAGE it. Do it once and you can lose permanently as much as half the battery capacity. I've experienced it with loose cells.
With a laptop battery pack, this is a non-issue. There is electronic present to protect against overcharge and against overdischarge. More than that, most overdischarge protection consider 0% to be way over 3V to protect against imbalance between cells in the battery pack. I think I've seen 3.6V but I never checked with my MacBook. I'll be back on this when I finish discharging it.
The worse thing for laptop battery pack is heat. Lithium batteries permanently lose capacity much faster in a hot environment and a notebook will often run hotter when plugged.
In my experience, I've seen more batteries die faster from not being used than from being used. At the price it cost to replace them, it's better to use them when you need it, even if it means cycling it once or more a day. No batteries are made equal and it's also a matter of luck for it to die quickly or to last for years. I've seen in this forum people posting screenshots of coconutBattery with over 900 cycles in less than 3 years with capacity over 90%. When I had a ThinkPad, I always ran it plugged most of the time and my battery went under 80% with less than 100 cycles in under 2 years then quickly under 50% before it got to its 3th year...
Draining the battery to 0% WILL NOT DAMAGE it!
The truth is, draining a Li-Ion under 3V (under load) WILL DAMAGE it. Do it once and you can lose permanently as much as half the battery capacity. I've experienced it with loose cells.
With a laptop battery pack, this is a non-issue. There is electronic present to protect against overcharge and against overdischarge. More than that, most overdischarge protection consider 0% to be way over 3V to protect against imbalance between cells in the battery pack. I think I've seen 3.6V but I never checked with my MacBook. I'll be back on this when I finish discharging it.
The worse thing for laptop battery pack is heat. Lithium batteries permanently lose capacity much faster in a hot environment and a notebook will often run hotter when plugged.
In my experience, I've seen more batteries die faster from not being used than from being used. At the price it cost to replace them, it's better to use them when you need it, even if it means cycling it once or more a day. No batteries are made equal and it's also a matter of luck for it to die quickly or to last for years. I've seen in this forum people posting screenshots of coconutBattery with over 900 cycles in less than 3 years with capacity over 90%. When I had a ThinkPad, I always ran it plugged most of the time and my battery went under 80% with less than 100 cycles in under 2 years then quickly under 50% before it got to its 3th year...
I was not saying you were incorrect. My question is, is there any point to basically plugging the laptop in after every time you use it, regardless of the amount used (i.e. 40%)? It would seem the answer is no, becuase if you don't use the full capacity now you will use it later. From my understanding and what has been said here, if you use a laptop down to 60% every day of the week and charge at night, you will still have used about 3 cycles (40% used X 7 = 280%). Your statement seemed to imply that by not reaching 0% you would never use a cycle.
Now, it would also seem that the charge every night use might use more cycles if you are not savy about it. Why, well if you are comfortable draining the battery in use and then plugging it in, the time your are using during recharge is the second half of the cycle and not "wasted" at night. Using my example above, the person would start the recharge about halfway during the third day. The computer would probably fully recharge during the second half of the third day; so, one cycle (100%) would be used in 3 days. Then the same would repeat over the next 3 days (now 200% total use). The final day they would use the same 40%. Total use for the week would be 240% rather than 280%, closer to 2 cycles.
This has been my experience with rechargables. So, I tend to use my laptop down to near full disharge and then plug it in. My current laptop, a 12" iBook G4, maintained about 3½ hours per charge since I got in in 2004, up until early this year. Now it discharges in about an hour to 1½ hours. But, after 6 years, I can accept the battery is dead and will replace it soon.
No, it didn't imply that at all. It only means what I said, that if you drain 40% of its capacity and recharge it, you have not used a complete cycle. That doesn't in any way imply that if you do that repeatedly, that you wouldn't use any cycles.
If you use 25% every day and recharge every day, you will go through one complete cycle in 4 days. If you use 25% every day, but don't recharge each day, you will still use a complete cycle in 4 days. The advantage to recharging after each use is that you have a fully charged battery when you need it.
My original point is that if you only need to use 25% per day, but drain it all the way to zero each day anyway, you are using 4 cycles in 4 days, rather than one. You have put 3 extra cycles on your battery unnecessarily.
Yes, but, you're making it seem by your statement that never reaching 0% will mean you have not used a cycle. I think we've all cleared up the confusion.
As I said, my statement never implied that. If you start with a fully charged battery and drain it 40%, whether you recharge it or not, you haven't used a cycle. If you never use the battery again, you will have never used a cycle, but I never said or implied that anyone would stop using it. Anyone who thinks that simply misread my post.