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2015 Macbook Pro 15 - battery swollen?

I use my rMBP 99,9% of the time docked at home - so I have been thinking about throwing the battery out as soon as it's starting to swell again.

Unfortunately apparently the battery is needed in order to use 100% of the performance, running it without the battery plugged in and it is reducing the performance - can anyone confirm this?
 
If your battery is, in fact, swelling -- I would recommend that you remove it, not just unplug the battery connector.

Yes, disconnecting the battery means you don't get full performance from the MacBook Pro.

If you don't use "portability", have you considered replacing that with a desktop, like a Mac mini, for example?
 
Apple had a support document that talked about lower processor speed when the battery is removed. Something about a power saving feature that would help prevent a shutdown, in case the laptop needed more power than the power adapter would provide (the battery would handle the extra load, but not the power adapter by itself.) The support document was pulled a few years ago, probably because Macs no longer have easily removable batteries.
superuser.com

Any performance issues when removing Macbook battery?

Does anyone know if removing the battery will have a major effect on the performance of the processor for the Macbook Pro 15" (Early 2011)? I ask because my laptop gets really hot - the heat in Aus...
superuser.com superuser.com
 
Thank you for that information. However, all of that info is so old it can only be definitely said it applies to the era of MBP's which had user-removable batteries. I have seen no similar testing done on newer MBP's (like the 2015 model we are discussing in this thread) which proves the same problem exists. It is therefore only speculation to suggest the 2015 MBP has the same issue. To know for sure, one would need to run an extensive set of benchmarks before the battery is removed and then run the same after it is removed and running exclusively on A/C power.
 
JDW said:
Thank you for that information. However, all of that info is so old it can only be definitely said it applies to the era of MBP's which had user-removable batteries. I have seen no similar testing done on newer MBP's (like the 2015 model we are discussing in this thread) which proves the same problem exists. It is therefore only speculation to suggest the 2015 MBP has the same issue. To know for sure, one would need to run an extensive set of benchmarks before the battery is removed and then run the same after it is removed and running exclusively on A/C power.
Click to expand...

Both my 15 and my 16 inch during peak loads draw more power than the charger alone is capable of providing when in the peak of turbo boost, especially with a simultaneously high GPU load. There are only so many places that power can come from during those temporary performance spikes. If there is no battery, the system is unable to do this and so it would have to reduce performance to reduce energy consumption. This may be less-pronounced in some Windows laptops with higher wattage chargers, but with MacBook Pros that do not have 135W+ chargers, performance is presumably going to decrease to some extent?? With the 2015 15-inch, I assume this would be more pronounced if it is a dGPU model.
 
OP wrote in #26 above:
"I use my rMBP 99,9% of the time docked at home - so I have been thinking about throwing the battery out as soon as it's starting to swell again."

Well... this is why you keep having problems.

If you leave it docked almost all the time, and plugged into the charger almost all the time, I reckon this is what's causing the battery to "go bad" on you.

Here is how you SHOULD be maintaining the battery:
- 3-4 times per week, take it OFF the charger during the day (or unplug the charger from the wall) and let the battery drop down to about 35-40%. Then, plug the charger back in.

- AT NIGHT, whether you shut down the MBP or just let it sleep, UNPLUG the charger from the wall. Then, plug it back in, in the morning.

Do this, and I predict you'll have no problems with the battery afterwards.

My opinion only.
Others will disagree.
Some will disagree vehemently.
 
Here's the deal...

When I discovered that my mid-2015 15" MBP battery was swollen, I called Apple to have them replace it. During my conversation with them, I specifically asked if leaving it connected most of the time at home could cause the battery to swell. They emphatically told me "NO!" at the time. Whether that was true or lie is irrelevant insofar as it was the official word. It is indeed the official word even if such is not written on the Apple website, as those who work for Apple and provide advice based on Apple training speak "the official word" either directly or indirectly.

With that said, what Fishrrman said is reasonable and since the time of my battery replacement I now Shutdown my MBP at night and leave it unplugged. I also use it on battery power a lot more now, allowing the battery to drain down to about 30% or so and then I will plug it in while continuing to use it. And if the battery fills while I continue to use it I will still leave it connected since I do a lot of FCPX work which taxes GPU and CPU and the extra power of both AC and battery is needed for best performance (or so we are told).

The really dangerous part of all this is that most people don't know their battery has a problem. I didn't. Apple's own software told me battery health was great and battery cycle count very low. It was only because I decided to open the bottom case in order to repaste the CPU and GPU that I discovered the swollen battery. I reported that problem in a YouTube video here.
 
I've had 4 MacBooks since 2007, and every single one of them swelled up (battery or not I don't know, but seems the likely suspect) to a point they were unusable. The cases warped to where they were rocking back and forth on a flat table, and the trackpad was flush with the top surface and unclickable on my last one.

My first was a plastic cased MBP, the rest were aluminum. Just purchased a new MBP the other day, and I'm fully expecting the same from that one in a few years.
 
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