2020 MBA: did I get a bad battery?

[ignatius345]

I've had my MBA for a couple months now and am seeing a precipitous drop in my battery health. This is what CoconutBattery gives me when I use the "compare" feature. The upshot is, I've got 46 cycles on it and it's already down to 91% capacity. At this rate it'll be pretty much junk in six months. Curious to see if anyone else is getting battery wear like this.

 

[CheesePuff]

If its not a software reporting issue, then the good news is that within a few months you'll be at 80% and Apple will replace it for free for you

 

[Apple_Robert]

Battery health is not any more 100% accurate in Coconut Battery as it is in the Apple Battery status. Next week it could show 95%.

It is an ongoing chemical reaction. As such, there is going to be changes and fluctuations.

 

[ignatius345]

Battery health is not any more 100% accurate in Coconut Battery as it is in the Apple Battery status. Next week it could show 95%.

It is an ongoing chemical reaction. As such, there is going to be changes and fluctuations.

Right, I know it's not an exact science but at this point I have enough data points moving in the same direction that I rather doubt it's going to shoot up in charge capacity. I've run CoconutBattery on other MacBooks and gotten consistent results -- and never with as precipitous a drop in reported charge capacity as I'm seeing here.

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If its not a software reporting issue, then the good news is that within a few months you'll be at 80% and Apple will replace it for free for you

Ah, is 80% the threshold for replacement?

 

[CheesePuff]

Ah, is 80% the threshold for replacement?

Correct: https://www.apple.com/batteries/service-and-recycling/

 

[Tenkaykev]

I'm wondering if there is something amiss with the battery reporting in Coconut Battery and the MacBook Air 2020.
I replaced the battery in my wife's 2012 Air last year. Coconut battery seemed pretty consistent over the months with charge cycle reporting and battery state. The Replacement was a good quality after market battery which showed a design capacity greater than that of the original.
I swapped out the battery on my spare iPhone 6s last year and Cocnut Battery is showing that to still have 100% capacity.
The reported capacity on my new 2020 Air is 90.6% which I feel must be an anomaly as it is usually plugged in to the power adaptor.

 

[CheesePuff]

I'm wondering if there is something amiss with the battery reporting in Coconut Battery and the MacBook Air 2020.
I replaced the battery in my wife's 2012 Air last year. Coconut battery seemed pretty consistent over the months with charge cycle reporting and battery state. The Replacement was a good quality after market battery which showed a design capacity greater than that of the original.
I swapped out the battery on my spare iPhone 6s last year and Cocnut Battery is showing that to still have 100% capacity.
The reported capacity on my new 2020 Air is 90.6% which I feel must be an anomaly as it is usually plugged in to the power adaptor.

View attachment 934367View attachment 934366

There seems to be an issue with CoconutBattery at least on the 2019 16" MBP and the 2020 MBA in that it shows lower full charge capacity then there is

 

[Tenkaykev]

There seems to be an issue with CoconutBattery at least on the 2019 16" MBP and the 2020 MBA in that it shows lower full charge capacity then there is

Thank You, I rather suspected that might be the case.

 

[Wesseldeg]

my mac shows that the designed capacity is 4271 mAH and that the remaining capacity is 4245 mAH. doing some quick maths its around a 0,6% loss off capacity since may. seems normal to me tbh

 

[Tenkaykev]

Coming back to this I checked " System Report - Power " Catalina 10.15.6.
It's showing a cycle count of 12 with a Full Charge capacity of 3972 mAh.

Coconut Battery is showing the design capacity to be 4381mAh with a full charge capacity of 3973mAh 90.7%.
The MacBook Air is 13 weeks old i5/8/256. I've emailed the people at Coconut Battery and asked if they are aware of any issues with misreporting of Battery statistics with the above combination.

Out of curiosity I went on to the iFixit website and saw the following advert for replacement batteries:

"Replace a worn out, dead, or malfunctioning lithium polymer battery compatible with late 2018 to early 2020 model 13" MacBook Air laptops.

Our used OEM batteries are tested to confirm the capacity is at least 3942 mAh (90% of the design capacity) with fewer than 20 load cycles"

That's curiously close to the reported capacity of my 2020 Air.

I'll report back when I get a reply from the people at Coconut Battery.

 

[IngerMan]

Coconut Battery is showing the design capacity to be 4381mAh with a full charge capacity of 3973mAh 90.7%.
The MacBook Air is 13 weeks old i5/8/256. I've emailed the people at Coconut Battery and asked if they are aware of any issues with misreporting of Battery statistics with the above combination.

My "iStat" battery also shows design 4381mAh



I wonder if having battery health enabled has something to do with your unusual low percent reporting. I have battery health on and for being 6 to 7 weeks old with 11 cycles even 97% seems low from what I am used to in my previous Apple laptops.

Maybe try turning off battery health for a few days and see if the reporting changes?

 

[Tenkaykev]

My "iStat" battery also shows design 4381mAh

View attachment 935374

I wonder if having battery health enabled has something to do with your unusual low percent reporting. I have battery health on and for being 6 to 7 weeks old with 11 cycles even 97% seems low from what I am used to in my previous Apple laptops.

Maybe try turning off battery health for a few days and see if the reporting changes?

Thanks for that, I just dug into System Prefs Power, and followed the link from the Battery Health page to the Apple explanatory page which said this:

When battery health management is turned on, your battery's maximum charging capacity might be limited. Although the feature is designed to improve your battery's lifespan, the limited maximum capacity might update your battery status menu to indicate a need for service.

It seems that it is on by default, anyone else with a similar setup (i5/8/256) care to check their systems and report back?

 

[kinchee87]

Here are my stats after 52 charge cycles. My battery was made in the middle of Jan this year:

 

[Tenkaykev]

A final update.
With thanks to @IngerMan and others, I switched of the "Battery Health" option in System Prefs and shut down the Air before heading off to bed.
Switched the Air on this morning and went to Coconut Battery and iStat which are now reporting a Full Capacity Charge of 4251mAh, and a Design Capacity Charge of 4381mAh 97%
So this seems to be the issue, I'm not sure why, with Battery Saver being a default that others aren't seeing the same reported reduced capacity.

 

[Rashy]

However, there is an interesting discussion going on in the parallel MBP 16" thread.
People reporting dramatic battery health decrease over just a few months, while my 2015 MBP (with replaced battery 11/2019) still has >99% with 50 cycles today. Doesn't sound like good / bad luck in rare cases, but flaw by design:

I'm pretty disappointed with the MBP 16" battery health situation.

So many people -myself included- report that their 16" battery health is less than 100% out of the box. Now that'd be okay if it was 99 or even 98. But for most, it's 95% or even less. Now that's all fine and dandy, discharge and charge and let it calibrate, it'll be fine and report correct...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[Loog]

I've seen some dramatic changes since the update to Catalina with my battery which I posed on another channel, 7% lost in 2 months which is not ideal.

Catalina Battery Health

I've noticed a huge reduction in my battery health since updating and enabling this function. First was a loss of 3% within 3 charge cycles and now some 2 months later I've lost 7%. I started off with 100% which has progressively eroded, while my usage hasn't changed that much. I'm on power...

forums.macrumors.com