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11 Months Old MBP's Battery - 93% Health / 17 Cycles

J

jlin615

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 4, 2006
205
0
Los Angeles, CA.
My MacBook Pro is about 11 months old, I have just did a full drain/charge cycle on the battery since I forgot to calibrate my battery for the last 5 months. I just looked up the battery health, it shows 93% health/17 Cycles.
Does this health percentage seem normal?
 
you should use it on the battery more often, it will keep the battery healthy (point of reference, I have an 11 month old MacBook that I use on battery at least once a day, even if not for a full drain - 179 cycles and 100% health)
 
Yeah, I have 81 load-cycles in 5 months and still 100% battery life (though I question it now, actually, because my "original battery capacity" according to Coconut Battery is 5200 mAh and my "current battery capacity" is 5333 mAh. :confused: Still, can't complain.

jW
 
so I guess my condition is leaning toward the bad side. you guys think if I calibrate it again will improve the health? since the last time I didn't continuosly drain the battery, first 50% drain in the morning and other 50% at night.
 
hey all... wats up with my mbp? its jus 8 weeks old and the number of clcyles is 15 and health is jus 96~~!!!:confused: wats up with it??? i did drain the battery jus once and the charge back up but thats about it..
 
jlin615 said:
My MacBook Pro is about 11 months old, I have just did a full drain/charge cycle on the battery since I forgot to calibrate my battery for the last 5 months. I just looked up the battery health, it shows 93% health/17 Cycles.
Does this health percentage seem normal?
Click to expand...
You're definitely not exercising your battery enough.

Use it or lose it!!!

aerove said:
hey all... wats up with my mbp? its jus 8 weeks old and the number of clcyles is 15 and health is jus 96~~!!!:confused: wats up with it??? i did drain the battery jus once and the charge back up but thats about it..
Click to expand...

Probably within the normal range, but you should probably completely drain it and rechange it at least once a month.
 
Good job taking care of your battery. My 17" PowerBook was purchased in February of 2006, so it's 19 months old. Here are my stats:
 

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Honestly, 93% is fine. Anyhow it probably doesn't matter all that much to you since you rarely use it.

My battery went down to 89% health after 80 cycles, which I found to be pretty bad, but then I sold that MBP so now I'm back to 99% with 17 cycles, 1 month old :D
 
jlin615 said:
so I guess my condition is leaning toward the bad side. you guys think if I calibrate it again will improve the health? since the last time I didn't continuosly drain the battery, first 50% drain in the morning and other 50% at night.
Click to expand...

Well that shouldn't have affected it. The important thing is that you let your battery die fully, ie, let it rest for more than six hours before plugging it back in. Only this gives actually calibrates the battery properly, as the computer has a better idea of what "0" is.

aerove said:
hey all... wats up with my mbp? its jus 8 weeks old and the number of clcyles is 15 and health is jus 96~~!!!:confused: wats up with it??? i did drain the battery jus once and the charge back up but thats about it..
Click to expand...
You are fine. There is always a slight amount of variation. Remember that your battery might have been manufactured several weeks/months before you began using it. There will be some minor loss of capacity as a result of that. Also, it doesn't seem like you calibrated correctly. Remember to let it sit for six or more hours without plugging it in. That's what makes it a "calibration."
 
I've noticed that if I don't let mine drain very far and then charge it back up it makes the health drop. I dropped back down to 93% recently, but I drained it a little lower than I have been and it jumped back up to 97% after I charged it. Just do a calibrate and you'll jump back up, I'm sure.

Oh, BTW, I'm at 20 cycles.
 
I been keep the power adapter plugged in practically at all time in the last several month since I haven't had the need to take it anywhere, so I almost forgot there's a battery exist. It is amazing how some of you still maintain at 100% with that much cycles, at least compared to mine.

My last calibration was like 2 days ago. Actually, I drained first 90% of the battery in the morning (why? because I needed to run to work), then last 10% at night until complete empty. From there I brought it to full charge overnight, then noticed the battery health was in the mid-80's, so I drain out 10% and brought it to full charge again. Now the health stays at 93%.

I'm going to keep my MBP charged tonight (like it has been), and start continuously draining the battery tomorrow morning until empty. With the battery empty and MBP powered down I will charge it fully, and then check the health again. I really hope it gets back to at least 98%, maybe it just need extra round of calibration since the electrons been kept for 5 months (just a guess).
 

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jlin615 said:
so I guess my condition is leaning toward the bad side. you guys think if I calibrate it again will improve the health? since the last time I didn't continuosly drain the battery, first 50% drain in the morning and other 50% at night.
Click to expand...

Someone correct me if i'm wrong, but the calibration will not improve health directly.

You need to know that the battery is made of two independant parts.

-The battery itself that contain the charge.
-A small chip that can read some data about the battery and also decide to when stop the charge (when it estimate that the battery is 100% charged)

The chip can only make estimate of what is left in the battery based on volt and amp. It's complicated, but essentially, theses datas ( i don't know exactly how) varies in a load cycle, so it can estimate a graph that represent what normally is left when the CHIP read one voltage. The problem is that with time, this variation in voltage in a cycle does change, so the graph used for the estimate will become more unnacurate over time.

What a normal calibration do is that you give the time to the battery to be fully charged for a long period, so that the chip can make a precise value of what are the datas when the battery is clearly full, and then when you use the battery power until it drain off, it takes information to make a more precise graph of the battery usage on this time.

The calibration help the chip to know more precisely when the battery, on is actual capacity, is full. Also, since it is not good for battery life to be overcharge, having a chip that know more precisely when to stop a charge, then calibration is good for your battery health.

So, if you calibrate it and you gain 1% of health, it is just the reading that is more precise and it will not represent an actual gain in the battery life.

(sorry for my poor english, it is not my first language.)
 
Also, since the calibration is more about recreating an ideal environment for the chip to make precise data, shutting it off or putting it to sleep will makes differences in the data the chip gets.

Stick with what Apple recommend :

1. Plug in the power adapter and fully charge your PowerBook's battery until the light ring or LED on the power adapter plug changes to green and the onscreen meter in the menu bar indicates that the battery is fully charged.
2. Allow the battery to rest in the fully charged state for at least two hours. You may use your computer during this time as long as the adapter is plugged in.
3. Disconnect the power adapter with the computer still on and start running the computer off battery power. You may use your computer during this time. When your battery gets low, you will see the low battery warning dialog on the screen.
4. Continue to keep your computer on until it goes to sleep. Save all your work and close all applications when the battery gets very low, before the computer goes to sleep.
5. Turn off the computer or allow it to sleep for five hours or more.
6. Connect the power adapter and leave it connected until the battery is fully charged again.

----

Do everything exactly as told. Interrupting the charging or the use of the computer simply destroy the purpose of the calibration.

Important, when the cpu is fully charged and when you want to begin using the battery until it stop, leave the computer plugged in, open the computer and when you are in MAC OS X, simply unplug the computer.

You may want to turn off automatic sleeping when you want to totally drain the battery.
 
/V\acpower said:
Someone correct me if i'm wrong, but the calibration will not improve health directly.

You need to know that the battery is made of two independant parts.

-The battery itself that contain the charge.
-A small chip that can read some data about the battery and also decide to when stop the charge (when it estimate that the battery is 100% charged)

The chip can only make estimate of what is left in the battery based on volt and amp. It's complicated, but essentially, theses datas ( i don't know exactly how) varies in a load cycle, so it can estimate a graph that represent what normally is left when the CHIP read one voltage. The problem is that with time, this variation in voltage in a cycle does change, so the graph used for the estimate will become more unnacurate over time.

What a normal calibration do is that you give the time to the battery to be fully charged for a long period, so that the chip can make a precise value of what are the datas when the battery is clearly full, and then when you use the battery power until it drain off, it takes information to make a more precise graph of the battery usage on this time.

The calibration help the chip to know more precisely when the battery, on is actual capacity, is full. Also, since it is not good for battery life to be overcharge, having a chip that know more precisely when to stop a charge, then calibration is good for your battery health.

So, if you calibrate it and you gain 1% of health, it is just the reading that is more precise and it will not represent an actual gain in the battery life.

(sorry for my poor english, it is not my first language.)
Click to expand...

Actually, you did really well:) Your post was pretty much dead on. Well done:)

PS: You claimed that English is not your first language, but your writing is sadly better than some native speakers.
 
Wow. I just got my MacBook 2 weeks (and 2 days) ago. And mine is already:


attachment.php
 
Man, I need to grab one of these. I'm posting from a PC laptop right now whose battery (after 14 months) is at 8% capacity.
 
MacBook Battery / 54 cycles / 87%

My last battery showed 98 percent after 150 cycles...ended up being a ***** battery, so if your cycles-to-health ratio seems to good to be true it probably is.:eek:
 
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