2013 Macbook Air Mavericks Battery Life thread

[deltaray]

Just a question, I have a 15 week old 13-inch Macbook Air and using coconut battery I'm already at 96% battery health. I've been mainly using it for gaming and a few browsing here and there. I don't have it constantly plugged in while playing and I have a mini-fan to prevent it from heating. I use it together with an external display and a USB-hub with a keyboard and a mouse.

Is this normal battery health for a fairly new MBA?

Thanks!

 

[jksu]

10.9.2 solves battery life issue

back to >11 hours battery life with 10.9.2 on my 2013 mba 11"....was 3-4 hours with 10.9.1

 

[SSD-GUY]

Hi guys

I know this is a bit of an old thread but needed some help. Thought I would post here before starting a new thread.

What is the best version of mavericks for battery life for my mid 2013 11' MacBook Air?

I'm currently on a clean install of 10.9.5 (done repair disk permissions, SMC reset and PRAM reset) but my battery life is still quite a few hours under 9. When the Mac starts up and I click the 100% battery, it shows around 12 hours remaining but this pretty much jumps down even with light safari usage!

I'm losing about 1% every 4 minutes according to battery logger with wifi on, bt off, brightness at 4 boxes empty (which is what apple runs its test with and gets 9 hours!) which would equate to me getting around 400 minutes of battery life per full charge which is 6 hours and 40 minutes. All I'm doing is some light-medium safari browsing with no flash (have click to flash) and no other programmes running! I have around 5/7 tabs open.

I've read reviews were people get around 9 hours or more with just browsing, I'm getting a few hours below that.

There is some caveats though, when my battery says 95% for example on the top battery indicator bar, coconut battery always shows around 5% less so right now it's showing 90.4%

Also, I have 200 cycles and my battery health is already at 90%, could these issues be why I'm having bad battery?

Thanks

 

[GGJstudios]

What is the best version of mavericks for battery life for my mid 2013 11' MacBook Air?

You should be on the most current version of Mavericks for many reasons, none of which has to do with battery life.

I'm currently on a clean install of 10.9.5 (done repair disk permissions, SMC reset and PRAM reset) but my battery life is still quite a few hours under 9.

Apple doesn't guarantee 9 hours. They say "up to 9 hours". Your actual life from a charge will depend on your settings and workload. There are many factors that impact your battery life. See the BATTERY LIFE FROM A CHARGE section of the following link for details, including tips on how to maximize your battery life.

​

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.

Apple Notebook Battery FAQ​

Also, I have 200 cycles and my battery health is already at 90%, could these issues be why I'm having bad battery?

Your battery health is fine. You don't have a bad battery. It's functioning normally.

 

[SSD-GUY]

You should be on the most current version of Mavericks for many reasons, none of which has to do with battery life.

Apple doesn't guarantee 9 hours. They say "up to 9 hours". Your actual life from a charge will depend on your settings and workload. There are many factors that impact your battery life. See the BATTERY LIFE FROM A CHARGE section of the following link for details, including tips on how to maximize your battery life.

​

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.

Apple Notebook Battery FAQ​

Your battery health is fine. You don't have a bad battery. It's functioning normally.

Thanks for replying GGJ

My issue is that the battery life is well below what some others on this forum have quoted. I get like 6/7 hours with light browsing with nothing else open. Others get at least the 9 hours if not more.

Also, please take a look at my screenshot. My Mac is currently showing 67% battery on the top bar yet coconut battery shows 64%. Why the difference? Sometimes this difference is even greater.

The reason I asked to go back to 10.9.2 is that the poster above has seen around 11 hours of usage with his MacBook Air on it. Can I ask why it's not good to go back to 10.9.2 as that is what my MBA came with?

Thanks

 

[GGJstudios]

My issue is that the battery life is well below what some others on this forum have quoted. I get like 6/7 hours with light browsing with nothing else open. Others get at least the 9 hours if not more.

Did you read the FAQ as suggested? As already stated, there are many factors that impact battery life. Read the section recommended to determine what is affecting your battery life.

Also, please take a look at my screenshot. My Mac is currently showing 67% battery on the top bar yet coconut battery shows 64%. Why the difference? Sometimes this difference is even greater.

That is normal. Such apps are not entirely accurate, especially coconutBattery, which has a history of accuracy issues.

The reason I asked to go back to 10.9.2 is that the poster above has seen around 11 hours of usage with his MacBook Air on it. Can I ask why it's not good to go back to 10.9.2 as that is what my MBA came with?

Updates include security patches that address vulnerability issues. It's always wise to be on the most current release for your version.

Rather than obsessing about getting 11 full hours of battery life from a charge (which isn't always going to be possible), read and follow the suggestions in the FAQ and then relax and enjoy using your Mac.

 

[SSD-GUY]

Did you read the FAQ as suggested? As already stated, there are many factors that impact battery life. Read the section recommended to determine what is affecting your battery life.

That is normal. Such apps are not entirely accurate, especially coconutBattery, which has a history of accuracy issues.

Updates include security patches that address vulnerability issues. It's always wise to be on the most current release for your version.

Rather than obsessing about getting 11 full hours of battery life from a charge (which isn't always going to be possible), read and follow the suggestions in the FAQ and then relax and enjoy using your Mac.

Just read it. All I have installed is microsoft office and click to flash (I don't even have flash installed on here yet!)

On actiivty monitor the highest CPU usage is safari web content at 12%

Also when I open my MacBook lid and the password screen comes up the battery is at say 58%, but when I login that figure magically jumps to 61%?

What else can I do to improve it as I seriously feel there is something wrong. I'm not after getting 11 hours, just anything near the 9 hours, because at the moment I'm just over half of that

 

[GGJstudios]

What else can I do to improve it as I seriously feel there is something wrong. I'm not after getting 11 hours, just anything near the 9 hours, because at the moment I'm just over half of that

Nothing is wrong. Again, Apple says "up to 11 hours", and that is based on very specific conditions. Most users won't get that because most won't operate day-to-day under the restrictive conditions that Apple used to get the 11 hours. It greatly varies with your workload and with what is running at any point in time. Seriously, nothing is wrong with your Mac or your battery.

 

[Weaselboy]

Also, please take a look at my screenshot. My Mac is currently showing 67% battery on the top bar yet coconut battery shows 64%. Why the difference? Sometimes this difference is even greater.

Don't worry about this. Coconut battery is accurate and the menu battery item fudges the numbers. I suspect so people don't get concerned about small fluctuations.

If you look at your real battery numbers there in the system report you can see that the numbers add up to exactly what Coconut battery is reporting.

3056/4717= ~.64.78

 

[SSD-GUY]

Nothing is wrong. Again, Apple says "up to 11 hours", and that is based on very specific conditions. Most users won't get that because most won't operate day-to-day under the restrictive conditions that Apple used to get the 11 hours. It greatly varies with your workload and with what is running at any point in time. Seriously, nothing is wrong with your Mac or your battery.

Don't worry about this. Coconut battery is accurate and the menu battery item fudges the numbers. I suspect so people don't get concerned about small fluctuations.

If you look at your real battery numbers there in the system report you can see that the numbers add up to exactly what Coconut battery is reporting.

3056/4717= ~.64.78

Thanks for your replies.

I've followed everything in your battery thread and apple guides and have done all the SMC/PRAM resets but still, with only light safari browsing OR a video playing (both with brightess at 12/16 and wifi on which what apple uses to test) I get around 6 hours at most!

Is there anything else I can check as I seriously think there is something wrong.

Also, whenever I do an SMC reset with a full battery and magesafe plugged in and green, the battery always charges for an extra 30mins to an hour, even though it was meant to be fully charged.

 

[Weaselboy]

Is there anything else I can check as I seriously think there is something wrong.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201464

Take a look at this link for an explanation of the items you can view in the Activity Monitor. Use your Mac on battery for a while then look in the Energy tab and it will show what is using the most power. That will give you an idea of what is going on.

Also take a look in the CPU tab for processes that are using up unusual amounts of CPU power. For example, if you are watching a video in Safari, but Activity Monitor shows iTunes using a lot of CPU cycles, that might be an indication something is up with iTunes. Make sense?

It could be that nothing is really wrong and the things you are doing just consume that amount of power.

 

[motrek]

...
I've followed everything in your battery thread and apple guides and have done all the SMC/PRAM resets but still, with only light safari browsing OR a video playing (both with brightess at 12/16 and wifi on which what apple uses to test) I get around 6 hours at most!
...

Video playing can be one of the most demanding things you can do with a computer, if you're streaming video in a web browser via Flash or Silverlight.

Web browsing can also be one of the most demanding things, if the pages you have open are written poorly.

So saying that you're web browsing or playing video doesn't mean you aren't using a ton of power.

 

[SSD-GUY]

Video playing can be one of the most demanding things you can do with a computer, if you're streaming video in a web browser via Flash or Silverlight.

Web browsing can also be one of the most demanding things, if the pages you have open are written poorly.

So saying that you're web browsing or playing video doesn't mean you aren't using a ton of power.

I'm viewing a 720p video stored on my laptop. The same way apple conducts it's playback tests.

I don't even have flash installed.

In terms of websites, I'm only browsing sites like bbc news, macrumors and a few other mainly news websites. I don't have flash or silverlight installed so I don't see how they could be using a lot of power


----------

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201464

Take a look at this link for an explanation of the items you can view in the Activity Monitor. Use your Mac on battery for a while then look in the Energy tab and it will show what is using the most power. That will give you an idea of what is going on.

Also take a look in the CPU tab for processes that are using up unusual amounts of CPU power. For example, if you are watching a video in Safari, but Activity Monitor shows iTunes using a lot of CPU cycles, that might be an indication something is up with iTunes. Make sense?

It could be that nothing is really wrong and the things you are doing just consume that amount of power.

Nothing out of the ordinary in activity monitor for cpu usage. I haven't even run iTunes once.

The only two programmes I've used so far to conduct these tests have been Safari and VLC.

EDIT: Kernel task is using 1.3% Cpu, has a Cpu time of 1:10 and has 86 threads. Is this normal? This is whilst the video is being played by the way.

 

[Weaselboy]

Kernel task is using 1.3% Cpu, has a Cpu time of 1:10 and has 86 threads. Is this normal? This is whilst the video is being played by the way.

That is normal. I only mentioned iTunes as an example. What do you see under the Energy tab in Activity Monitor after running on battery for an hour or so. That will show you what is using up the battery.

 

[SSD-GUY]

That is normal. I only mentioned iTunes as an example. What do you see under the Energy tab in Activity Monitor after running on battery for an hour or so. That will show you what is using up the battery.

Nothing out of the ordinary. Top 3 things are window server at 4.5%, quicktime at 3.5%, kernel task at 0.8%.

Quick question, would a 720p MKV file played in VLC use more battery than a 720p MP4 file played in ITunes or Quicktime?

And which is more efficient for video playback, iTunes or quicktime?

Thanks

 

[Weaselboy]

Quick question, would a 720p MKV file played in VLC use more battery than a 720p MP4 file played in ITunes or Quicktime?

I'm sorry, I have no idea. But playing 720p videos would chew up some battery life if that is what you are doing.

And which is more efficient for video playback, iTunes or quicktime?

I believe iTunes uses the QT framework for video playback, so it would not matter.

 

[SSD-GUY]

I'm sorry, I have no idea. But playing 720p videos would chew up some battery life if that is what you are doing.



I believe iTunes uses the QT framework for video playback, so it would not matter.

Thanks for your help bud.

I'm going to charge it over night and do some safari tests tomorrow and will get back to everyone on this thread.

 

[motrek]

Thanks for your help bud.

I'm going to charge it over night and do some safari tests tomorrow and will get back to everyone on this thread.

Please be aware that almost everything to do with a battery is just an estimate, e.g., charge capacity and charge remaining. And discharge rate is not linear.

So to do this test correctly you will have to charge the battery and play a video on a loop until the laptop dies.

----------

I'm viewing a 720p video stored on my laptop. The same way apple conducts it's playback tests.

I don't even have flash installed.

In terms of websites, I'm only browsing sites like bbc news, macrumors and a few other mainly news websites. I don't have flash or silverlight installed so I don't see how they could be using a lot of power

Flash and Silverlight aren't the only things about web sites that use power. More and more sites are heavy on JavaScript these days and it's very easy for a site to max out a core running some poorly written JavaScript (either in the pages or in the ads).

Listing the names of some web sites is worthless when you're trying to tell how much CPU power your browser is using. Just open Activity Monitor and check.

 

[SSD-GUY]

Please be aware that almost everything to do with a battery is just an estimate, e.g., charge capacity and charge remaining. And discharge rate is not linear.

So to do this test correctly you will have to charge the battery and play a video on a loop until the laptop dies.

----------



Flash and Silverlight aren't the only things about web sites that use power. More and more sites are heavy on JavaScript these days and it's very easy for a site to max out a core running some poorly written JavaScript (either in the pages or in the ads).

Listing the names of some web sites is worthless when you're trying to tell how much CPU power your browser is using. Just open Activity Monitor and check.

I did the peacekeeper test that Macworld runs. They scored 4 hours and 5 minutes, however I got 3 hours. A whole hour difference.

 

[mubeenshahid]

I get 7-8 hours per charge on a core i7 mba haswell using xcode , pdf files, downloading, playing video and safari
On Yosemite

 

[motrek]

I did the peacekeeper test that Macworld runs. They scored 4 hours and 5 minutes, however I got 3 hours. A whole hour difference.

Did you have your screen brightness at the same settings as they did?

Was your computer as close as possible to your wifi router, if you were on wifi?

Are you sure your computer wasn't doing anything else at the same time, e.g., downloading/installing an update or doing Spotlight housekeeping? Do you have FileVault turned on?

 

[SSD-GUY]

Did you have your screen brightness at the same settings as they did?

Was your computer as close as possible to your wifi router, if you were on wifi?

Are you sure your computer wasn't doing anything else at the same time, e.g., downloading/installing an update or doing Spotlight housekeeping? Do you have FileVault turned on?

Yes I ran the test exactly the same. Same brightness at 75%, I was practically next to my router, couldn't get any closer unless it's on the desk next to me. Nothing else going on as there is nothing else installed on the MacBook. I installed a clean fresh OS with none of my backups so there was no spotlight indexing. Filevault is off, never used it.

Going to test it for a few more days before I contact Apple. I think an hour difference in the same test where macworld scored 4 hours is quite big. Even to compensate for my battery capacity being at 90%, I should have scored around 3.75 hours.

 

[motrek]

Yes I ran the test exactly the same. Same brightness at 75%, I was practically next to my router, couldn't get any closer unless it's on the desk next to me. Nothing else going on as there is nothing else installed on the MacBook. I installed a clean fresh OS with none of my backups so there was no spotlight indexing. Filevault is off, never used it.

Going to test it for a few more days before I contact Apple. I think an hour difference in the same test where macworld scored 4 hours is quite big. Even to compensate for my battery capacity being at 90%, I should have scored around 3.75 hours.

Did you run the test right after the OS install? Because Spotlight could definitely have been indexing. Spotlight doesn't just index your own files, it indexes everything on your drive. A base install of OS X has gigabytes of data and thousands of files. Did you confirm with Activity Monitor that your computer was completely idle before starting the test?

 

[SSD-GUY]

Did you run the test right after the OS install? Because Spotlight could definitely have been indexing. Spotlight doesn't just index your own files, it indexes everything on your drive. A base install of OS X has gigabytes of data and thousands of files. Did you confirm with Activity Monitor that your computer was completely idle before starting the test?

No I ran it about 2 days after I'd just done a fresh install. Yup I had activity monitor on before and nothing was out of the ordinary. Of course when the test was running it was maxing out CPU, which I think is normal as I run the same test on my desktop mac and was getting pretty much the same usage spikes and percentages in activity monitor.

I think it kind of makes sense as my battery capacity already has 10% shaved off it and when I look at my actual battery percentage on system report compared to what the top bar has, there is also a 5% give or take discrepancy with what the top bar has, and what my battery life actually is when using the system report numbers and getting a percentage. That percentage combined is around 15/20% which is roughly the difference of what my Mac is getting compared to what the Macworld test got.

I will be doing a few more days of testing before I call up apple and ask them to change the battery I think.

 

[Y So Jelly]

After ********* myself trying to get Yosemite to play with my 5ghz band Wifi (I deleted the systemconfiguration folder following advice from the internet).. I wiped the drive and did clean installs of both Mavericks 10.9.5 and Yosemite 10.10.2 on separate partitions.

I am finally getting 10hr+ battery life on both (I never had anything near that after upgrading from the original Mountain Lion). However, Mavericks feels a little bit faster opening programs and such.. and I also had to disable transparency and iCloud on Yosemite. I am sticking with Yosemite as I am vain and prefer the GUI tweaks.

So for battery life, in my experience, Mountain Lion >>> Mavericks = Yosemite w/ features disabled >> Yosemite.