2017 15" MacBook Pro - Battery Health @ 82% after 96 cycles???

[djlman]

My trusted 2017 MacBook Pro seems to be losing charge at a rapid rate these days. It appears I have lost 18% of its capacity over 2 years of ownership, and only 96 cycles. Is this right? Surely it should be lasting longer than this, and not be degrading this quickly?

 

[BigMcGuire]

My wife and I have a 2017 MBP - a year and a few months of ownership (purchased at same time last year).

She has 92 cycles and 94.5% capacity.
I have 55 cycles and 97% capacity.

Do you have AppleCare+? If that dips below 80% you're eligible for a free replacement. Apple says on their website you should be able to hit 1000 cycles and maintain >=80% capacity.

So definitely looks like your battery isn't living up to par. May be able to ask for a replacement.

 

[jav6454]

Try doing a battery calibration/reset. What is that? Charge the battery to 100%, then drain it until your Mac self shuts down.

Charge for the next few hours and then check your battery status. If it still shows up as 82%, then it's likely a faulty battery.

 

[LogicalApex]

I don't know why people run widget and etcetera to monitor "battery status". It isn't really all that useful unless you're getting a number from Apple directly...

Each of these apps have their own algorithms that can be wrong. Additionally, the values can vary widely based on everything from ambient temperature to current battery charge state when you look at the utility. On top of all of this, battery "health" isn't like tires. You don't lose x% of health every "cycle". They can lose capacity very quickly or very slowly based on a variety of factors (but most important is heat).

That's why Apple says that the battery should still have 80% of its capacity up to 1K cycles. Some batteries will drop like a rock to 85% very quickly and hold it there for years....

Hell, my iPhone X has been at 87% for almost a year now according to Apple iPhone Battery Health.

Don't bother yourself with it unless you're negatively impacted by your current battery life realities. Otherwise, wasted time stressing over nothing IMHO.

 

[uptownnyc]

Are you usually plugged-in? If so, the cycles count can be pretty irrelevant to the overall activity that the battery has sustained while maintaining a constant full charge.

 

[collin_]

Judging by the cycles vs. years of ownership, it seems like you mostly leave your laptop plugged in. That would explain the poor battery health as lithium ion batteries degrade the fastest when they are full or near full. Keeping it at 100% most of the time is worse than cycling it each day. If you want to get the longest life from your battery, you should do partial discharges, not going too low or high and not exceeding about 50% at a time (e.g. charge when it hits 25%, then unplug when it hits 75%). You may still want to do a full discharge/charge every few months so that it remains calibrated and displays the correct percentage.

 

[0906742]

I don't know why people run widget and etcetera to monitor "battery status". It isn't really all that useful unless you're getting a number from Apple directly...

I haven't seen any app that gets information elsewhere, all I've seen rely on information they get directly from Apple.

Each of these apps have their own algorithms that can be wrong. Additionally, the values can vary widely based on everything from ambient temperature to current battery charge state when you look at the utility.

Since you seem to know more about these apps, can you give example of the apps that give you different result from what Apple gives through MacOS?

So far all the apps, I've seen report identical numbers as Apple, but they can show it different way (user friendly). Like Apple MacOS shows you battery FCC, CC, voltage and load amperage, then common program like CoconutBattery shows you the same first two values but it calculates load by using voltage and amperage and convert it to watts.

Looking forward to hear more from your findings.

 

[ascender]

My trusted 2017 MacBook Pro seems to be losing charge at a rapid rate these days. It appears I have lost 18% of its capacity over 2 years of ownership, and only 96 cycles. Is this right? Surely it should be lasting longer than this, and not be degrading this quickly?
View attachment 855096

Does the laptop still work on battery power for an expected/reasonable amount of time? That’s all I’d be worried about to be honest.

If it doesn’t, then get in touch with Apple. I’ve never understood the obsession about battery cycles on this forum.