13" TB MBP Battery Health dropping

[SBruv]

Hi all.

My 13" TB MBP started live (according to Coconut Battery) at about 104% Battery Health, as they all seem to. Now, though, after 19 charges, it's dropped quite considerably, alternating for the last couple of days between 98.3% and 99.1%.

I realise that battery health isn't a precise thing, and that my battery was never really at 104% of its maximum capacity, but this rapid drop feels a little troubling nonetheless.

Is anyone else getting similar figures after similar cycles?

Thanks!

 

[Samuelsan2001]

It happens all the time and may go back up, nothing to worry about until you see an impact on battery life. You have a year if it drops rapidly anymore take it back to Apple if not then it's just a new battery settling down blip.

 

[keysofanxiety]

Don't obsess about battery health. There's no need to monitor it on a brand-new machine, unless you're really having any issues with battery life.

Batteries fluctuate and it's unlikely you'd see any noticable real-world impact from anything above 90% health. Constantly checking and seeing a reduction in health will just fuel paranoia and negate the enjoyment of the machine.

 

[maflynn]

(according to Coconut Battery)

The only advice I can offer is delete Coconut Battery. I've seen similar threads back in the day when I got my 2012 rMBP. I've long ignored what my battery can (or cannot do) and its made a lot more peaceful. Batteries are consumable products and once you witness it not able to hold a charge, then deal with it.

For me nearly 5 years later my battery is definitely showing signs that it needs to be replaced. I think a 5 year run is great for a battery and computer that is used nearly every day.

 

[snaky69]

Hi all.

My 13" TB MBP started live (according to Coconut Battery) at about 104% Battery Health, as they all seem to. Now, though, after 19 charges, it's dropped quite considerably, alternating for the last couple of days between 98.3% and 99.1%.

I realise that battery health isn't a precise thing, and that my battery was never really at 104% of its maximum capacity, but this rapid drop feels a little troubling nonetheless.

Is anyone else getting similar figures after similar cycles?

Thanks!

I suggest you get rid of coconut battery and worry about something you have actual control over instead of monitoring your battery.

 

[SBruv]

I suggest you get rid of coconut battery and worry about something you have actual control over instead of monitoring your battery.

Yeah, thanks. I could have sworn I actually asked if anyone had similar figures, rather than put out a request for psychological counselling.

So, anyone with Coconut Battery installed fancy sharing their Battery Health figures..?

 

[keysofanxiety]

Yeah, thanks. I could have sworn I actually asked if anyone had similar figures, rather than put out a request for psychological counselling.

So, anyone with Coconut Battery installed fancy sharing their Battery Health figures..?

There you go, then. 4 years old. Always plugged in where I can. Other people with identical usage have had failures years ago. So it's really luck of the draw – I got lucky. Others didn't. It doesn't matter.

Two things can happen:

1) You'll use your Mac without worrying about battery health. If you notice a reduction in battery life, or you get 'Service Battery', you can worry about it then. Otherwise, you continue to work and enjoy your laptop.

2) You'll obsessively check the battery health – which is as much good as obsessively checking your own pulse every few moments – and end up worrying about something you can't change or reasonably effect. If a battery dies, it dies. If it doesn't, it doesn't.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Yeah, thanks. I could have sworn I actually asked if anyone had similar figures, rather than put out a request for psychological counselling.

So, anyone with Coconut Battery installed fancy sharing their Battery Health figures..?

For what reason? every battery is different and every battery reading is a very rough guesstimate it will mean nothing to you.

 

[SBruv]

For what reason? every battery is different and every battery reading is a very rough guesstimate it will mean nothing to you.

Seriously? Can someone not just make a simple request for information around here without people like you piping up with this kind of horses**t every time?

I'm quite happy with a rough guesstimate, thanks. I'm not sitting here with a shotgun in my mouth waiting for bad news – just wondering if people with the same battery as me in the same Mac as me are seeing roughly the same drop in Health over roughly the same number of cycles as me. And yes, every battery is different, but I think it's safe to say that within 20 cycles on a brand new Mac, there's probably going to be quite degree a high of consistency between them. Being such a master of logic, you would surely have to agree, no?

Feel free to go and do something else, really…
[doublepost=1486649777][/doublepost]

There you go, then. 4 years old. Always plugged in where I can. Other people with identical usage have had failures years ago. So it's really luck of the draw – I got lucky. Others didn't. It doesn't matter.

Two things can happen:

1) You'll use your Mac without worrying about battery health. If you notice a reduction in battery life, or you get 'Service Battery', you can worry about it then. Otherwise, you continue to work and enjoy your laptop.

2) You'll obsessively check the battery health – which is as much good as obsessively checking your own pulse every few moments – and end up worrying about something you can't change or reasonably effect. If a battery dies, it dies. If it doesn't, it doesn't.

View attachment 687751

Thanks for that – much appreciated. I'm actually talking about a brand new MBP, though, so if my battery died, I'd be getting it replaced under warranty.

 

[KayM8]

haha I've been recording my nTB's coconutbattery stats about every day just because this is something I'll never be able to come back and do, so might as well record the battery history, I find this stuff fascinating http://imgur.com/a/BlAd8

 

[BenTrovato]

Bruv.. your figures are on par for nearly every laptop I've owned. All batteries are different, whether you want to hear that or not.

If you polled every new MBP owner in here on what Coconut reported on the design capacity right out of the box, some would have 99% and they would go up to around 106%. Some will degrade much more quickly to fall in line with normal operating and some will stay more consistent. So no, in these figures specifically, there isn't a high degree of consistency as you hypothesized.

 

[ZapNZs]

I would not worry, if it were me, personally. FWIW, every computer I have owned has seen the battery health go up and down slightly throughout its life. Further, every rechargeable NiMH, LiCo, and LiMn cell I have owned has had a slightly different actual capacity when both new and as they age. I only worry if the battery's design capacity is dramatically smaller than it should be when new, if massive drops in capacity/health stats occur over a short period, or if the battery provides noticeably poorer run time on a device & that change was sudden & could not be explained by the device itself or usage patterns.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Seriously? Can someone not just make a simple request for information around here without people like you piping up with this kind of horses**t every time?

I'm quite happy with a rough guesstimate, thanks. I'm not sitting here with a shotgun in my mouth waiting for bad news – just wondering if people with the same battery as me in the same Mac as me are seeing roughly the same drop in Health over roughly the same number of cycles as me. And yes, every battery is different, but I think it's safe to say that within 20 cycles on a brand new Mac, there's probably going to be quite degree a high of consistency between them. Being such a master of logic, you would surely have to agree, no?

Feel free to go and do something else, really…
[doublepost=1486649777][/doublepost]
Thanks for that – much appreciated. I'm actually talking about a brand new MBP, though, so if my battery died, I'd be getting it replaced under warranty.

I disagree totally the tolerances on batteries in production are huge the accuracy of the app is questionable at best logically the information you are asking for will mean nothing.

There will be absolutely no consistency at all, this is from years Reading endless battery nonsense on these forums almost always with exactly this scenario and coconut battery, that is why we have pretty much all told you not to bother.

It's from experience with people trying to get some consistent and understandable data it hasn't happened yet and won't happen with a tiny random sample on macrumours forums. You will have some with 90% already some still at 106% and in two months time they might be at 92% and 98% and in two years times both at 90%.

If your computer battery life is good and seems stable just forget about it it's a laptop and that's all you can hope for if it rapidly drops off then it's got an issue and you take it for servicing.

 

[Weaselboy]

just wondering if people with the same battery as me in the same Mac as me are seeing roughly the same drop in Health over roughly the same number of cycles as me.

I have the same model as you and my battery capacity has drifted around between 99 and 102. From other MacBooks I have owned, this seems pretty average and normal.
[doublepost=1486655592][/doublepost]

the accuracy of the app is questionable at best

Coconut battery just pulls the mAh data from the OS and does the math then shows the percentages in a GUI. It is spot on accurate. You can check the numbers in System Report and do the math yourself and you will see it is accurate.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

I have the same model as you and my battery capacity has drifted around between 99 and 102. From other MacBooks I have owned, this seems pretty average and normal.
[doublepost=1486655592][/doublepost]

Coconut battery just pulls the mAh data from the OS and does the math then shows the percentages in a GUI. It is spot on accurate. You can check the numbers in System Report and do the math yourself and you will see it is accurate.

Assuming that the OS is getting it right of course and that's the important assumption here.

 

[Weaselboy]

Assuming that the is isn't just guessing which it is.

I'm not following your comment?

 

[SBruv]

Bruv.. your figures are on par for nearly every laptop I've owned. All batteries are different, whether you want to hear that or not.

If you polled every new MBP owner in here on what Coconut reported on the design capacity right out of the box, some would have 99% and they would go up to around 106%. Some will degrade much more quickly to fall in line with normal operating and some will stay more consistent. So no, in these figures specifically, there isn't a high degree of consistency as you hypothesized.

I've handled no less than five of the very same MBP through work, and every single one of them came out of the box saying between 104% and 106% Battery Health in Coconut Battery, so there is indeed a high degree of consistency, in my experience.
[doublepost=1486657136][/doublepost]

I have the same model as you and my battery capacity has drifted around between 99 and 102. From other MacBooks I have owned, this seems pretty average and normal.
[doublepost=1486655592][/doublepost]

Coconut battery just pulls the mAh data from the OS and does the math then shows the percentages in a GUI. It is spot on accurate. You can check the numbers in System Report and do the math yourself and you will see it is accurate.

Thank you.

 

[BenTrovato]

I've handled no less than five of the very same MBP through work, and every single one of them came out of the box saying between 104% and 106% Battery Health in Coconut Battery, so there is indeed a high degree of consistency, in my experience.
[doublepost=1486657136][/doublepost]
Thank you.

In your experience of 5 laptops, mathematically that confidence interval is very low if not irrelevant. In my experience of many more, I have seen a wider range than just 2% and I would not go as far as to say my experience of noticing 7% is good enough to draw any conclusions.

 

[SBruv]

I disagree totally the tolerances on batteries in production are huge the accuracy of the app is questionable at best logically the information you are asking for will mean nothing.

There will be absolutely no consistency at all, this is from years Reading endless battery nonsense on these forums almost always with exactly this scenario and coconut battery, that is why we have pretty much all told you not to bother.

It's from experience with people trying to get some consistent and understandable data it hasn't happened yet and won't happen with a tiny random sample on macrumours forums. You will have some with 90% already some still at 106% and in two months time they might be at 92% and 98% and in two years times both at 90%.

If your computer battery life is good and seems stable just forget about it it's a laptop and that's all you can hope for if it rapidly drops off then it's got an issue and you take it for servicing.

So you wouldn't call a drop from 104% to 98% in 19 cycles

In your experience of 5 laptops, mathematically that confidence interval is very low if not irrelevant. In my experience of many more, I have seen a wider range than just 2% and I would not go as far as to say my experience of noticing 7% is good enough to draw any conclusions.

Sigh…

I'm not trying to make any kind of scientific point or draw any conclusions; I'm just wondering if anyone else has experienced anything like 6% drop in their stated Battery Health within 20-odd cycles with a 13" TB MBP – and that's all!

And I'm not sure I believe you have experience of 'many more' than five 13" TB MBPs, but whatever…

 

[ZapNZs]

I disagree totally the tolerances on batteries in production are huge the accuracy of the app is questionable at best logically the information you are asking for will mean nothing.

There will be absolutely no consistency at all, this is from years Reading endless battery nonsense on these forums almost always with exactly this scenario and coconut battery, that is why we have pretty much all told you not to bother.

It's from experience with people trying to get some consistent and understandable data it hasn't happened yet and won't happen with a tiny random sample on macrumours forums. You will have some with 90% already some still at 106% and in two months time they might be at 92% and 98% and in two years times both at 90%.

If your computer battery life is good and seems stable just forget about it it's a laptop and that's all you can hope for if it rapidly drops off then it's got an issue and you take it for servicing.

I assume by tolerances you mean that the quality/safety control tolerances on OEM batteries are narrow, but the actual capacities can vary quite a bit? That's always been my experience, even when using chargers that run several cycles to bench the actual capacity, such as my Powerex C9000 for NiMH, or one of my XTARs for lithium.

With OEM Apple batteries, I assume there is a guaranteed minimum capacity (which is likely a different number than the advertised capacity, which virtually everyone overrates), and that Apple only sells those batteries that meet that minimum capacity spec, and, no differently than the eneloop/Sanyo NiMH cells and some Panasonic LiMn cells, some are close to the minimum and some exceed it by quite a bit (for example, I have some some eneloop Pros that have a minimum advertised capacity of 2450 mAh and an actual capacity of right around 2450 mAh, but I have some other Pros from a different lot with the same advertised minimum capacity but an actual capacity of around 2725 mAh - both meet the minimum standard...one lot just happens to exceed that minimum standard by an extra 10%.)