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2020 MBP 13" Battery Health Down 7% in two months

At what point do you guys start charging your laptop? Do you do it as soon as 50% juice is left, or do you let it go down to about 10-20% before plugging in the charger? And do you disconnect as soon as it gets to 100%?

I guess what I am asking is, what is the most efficient and ideal charging habit.
 
urbanlegend179 said:
At what point do you guys start charging your laptop? Do you do it as soon as 50% juice is left, or do you let it go down to about 10-20% before plugging in the charger? And do you disconnect as soon as it gets to 100%?

I guess what I am asking is, what is the most efficient and ideal charging habit.
Click to expand...
If I am near an outlet, I plug in
 
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urbanlegend179 said:
At what point do you guys start charging your laptop? Do you do it as soon as 50% juice is left, or do you let it go down to about 10-20% before plugging in the charger? And do you disconnect as soon as it gets to 100%?

I guess what I am asking is, what is the most efficient and ideal charging habit.
Click to expand...

forums.macrumors.com

What should I limit my battery charge level to?

So I want to limit my battery charge on my MacBook Pro. Anyway, what should I limit it to? 80%? 70%? Or 50 or 40%? Apple suggests to store their battery at 50%, so maybe at that? I'm going to be running off of AC power, by the way. Thanks! ___ DISCLAIMER: Before some smartass decides to tell...
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com

You can read about this in the thread I linked above. There are some intricacies but generally, you could use a charge limiter and only do larger cycles every once in a while. Otherwise, make sure to use the battery health feature of catalina and avoid keeping the laptop at 100% all the time. Letting it drain fully is also not advised, but you can do that occasionally to maintain the calibration of the battery.
 
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Ya. I used to worry about this stuff. Now I just use the computer and plug it on or use a PD portable 30,000mah battery if I need a charge.

The large capacity PD portables changed my OCD about battery health. I have AC+ so if the time comes during that coverage period that I get below 80% capacity, I’ll get the battery replaced.

Otherwise I’m just going to enjoy the beast.
 
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I understand the "I used to worry but now I just use it" mentality, yet I think it shouldn't be pushed onto people who do care about details and want to make the best out of their devices or belongings. It's fine to let it go and not worry about it, just as it is perfectly fine to be interested in knowing how to prolong usage. These machines are very expensive and battery replacement is not an easy process to do by yourself. In your location there might be Apple stores that will do it quickly, but in other locations there are only inadequate "authorized" services AND there is no AC+ coverage. In such cases it is actually quite an unfortunate event if your battery dies faster than expected and you have to rely on incompetent services, or yourself to change it.

I encourage anyone in a similar situation to do their best to understand what the best practices are and how to get the most out of their laptops.
 
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Broko Fankone said:
forums.macrumors.com

What should I limit my battery charge level to?

So I want to limit my battery charge on my MacBook Pro. Anyway, what should I limit it to? 80%? 70%? Or 50 or 40%? Apple suggests to store their battery at 50%, so maybe at that? I'm going to be running off of AC power, by the way. Thanks! ___ DISCLAIMER: Before some smartass decides to tell...
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com

You can read about this in the thread I linked above. There are some intricacies but generally, you could use a charge limiter and only do larger cycles every once in a while. Otherwise, make sure to use the battery health feature of catalina and avoid keeping the laptop at 100% all the time. Letting it drain fully is also not advised, but you can do that occasionally to maintain the calibration of the battery.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this.

I read through that thread and most of it just flew over my head to be honest, the 2020 MBP 13 inch is my first Mac so I don't understand all the technicalities.

I have no idea what a charge limiter is or what the battery health feature on catalina does, so I am just going to use my laptop normally and charge it back up to 100% every time it gets to about 20%. Once every couple of weeks I'll let it drain fully and charge it back up to 100%. I hope this keeps things healthy.
 
urbanlegend179 said:
Thanks for this.

I read through that thread and most of it just flew over my head to be honest, the 2020 MBP 13 inch is my first Mac so I don't understand all the technicalities.

I have no idea what a charge limiter is or what the battery health feature on catalina does, so I am just going to use my laptop normally and charge it back up to 100% every time it gets to about 20%. Once every couple of weeks I'll let it drain fully and charge it back up to 100%. I hope this keeps things healthy.
Click to expand...

You should be OK if you use battery health and try to avoid keeping the mac plugged in at 100% ALL of the time. What kills a battery the fastest is heat and keeping it fully charged or close to fully depleted. That doesn't mean you should never keep it plugged on 100%, but technically it will help if you can avoid doing it all the time. Charge limiters help in that way, letting you keep the battery at 50-60% (or whatever you choose), so you can keep the laptop plugged for hours and hours and avoid the stress of being at 100% capacity. They are not necessary but I'm glad they are available.
 
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Broko Fankone said:
I understand the "I used to worry but now I just use it" mentality, yet I think it shouldn't be pushed onto people who do care about details and want to make the best out of their devices or belongings. It's fine to let it go and not worry about it, just as it is perfectly fine to be interested in knowing how to prolong usage. These machines are very expensive and battery replacement is not an easy process to do by yourself. In your location there might be Apple stores that will do it quickly, but in other locations there are only inadequate "authorized" services AND there is no AC+ coverage. In such cases it is actually quite an unfortunate event if your battery dies faster than expected and you have to rely on incompetent services, or yourself to change it.

I encourage anyone in a similar situation to do their best to understand what the best practices are and how to get the most out of their laptops.
Click to expand...

Not sure who is "pushing" methodology on anyone, but I hope you didn't think I was since I mentioned the reference.

Merely offering my experience and letting people know even an OCD battery guy like myself can get over the need to preserve a made to be disposed of piece of equipment.

Hell, I even don't worry about my iPhone being above 98% charge all day whereas I used to freak if the battery level went below that. Felt I needed to plug it in and keep it charged in case I went on a bender session of cell phone usage somewhere without a power source.
 
I’d like to not keep mine plugged in at 100% so often but I use an LG Ultrafine external monitor a lot which automatically charges it when connected. I haven’t seen the Catalina battery health feature kick in and let it drop while plugged in even though it’s enabled.

In this case should I be limiting the charging to 70/80% myself or is there a way I can connect it to the LG monitor without it charging the MacBook?
 
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popjunkie said:
I’d like to not keep mine plugged in at 100% so often but I use an LG Ultrafine external monitor a lot which automatically charges it when connected. I haven’t seen the Catalina battery health feature kick in and let it drop while plugged in even though it’s enabled.

In this case should I be limiting the charging to 70/80% myself or is there a way I can connect it to the LG monitor without it charging the MacBook?
Click to expand...

The only way a MBP will charge an external monitor is when the lid is opened. Clamshell requires power to keep an external monitor powered. You can use Charge Limiter to keep your charge at 70-80% - that's what I do. I use my 2017 MBP with an eGPU to my 32' 4k Samsung monitor ($300 sale at Costco) - so it is always in clamshell mode and always on power. https://github.com/godly-devotion/charge-limiter --- make sure to drag to your app folder and give it a run. You type in your desired power charge level, type in admin pw, and good to go even when off.
 
Steve686 said:
Not sure who is "pushing" methodology on anyone, but I hope you didn't think I was since I mentioned the reference.

Merely offering my experience and letting people know even an OCD battery guy like myself can get over the need to preserve a made to be disposed of piece of equipment.

Hell, I even don't worry about my iPhone being above 98% charge all day whereas I used to freak if the battery level went below that. Felt I needed to plug it in and keep it charged in case I went on a bender session of cell phone usage somewhere without a power source.
Click to expand...

I definitely have a battery obsession. I used to be one of those people who would take their phone off the charger, at 99% I was sweating and looking for a charging cable. Having the battery % in the status bar gave me so much stress that I couldn't enjoy my device. When Apple gave us the ability to take the % out of the status bar - I was actually able to start enjoying my devices. (Yes, I know 100% charge is not healthy, but at the time I didn't know that, I do now).

I've put so much time and effort into batteries over the last 10 years that I now claim it is a hobby, but it is an obsession. I've got 5 Anker external batteries (cough) and I record my coconutBattery stats for my MacBook, iPhone, and iPad (including my wife's devices) in excel.

Now that I'm a bit older and a bit smarter (hopefully) - I don't pay attention as much to the battery, and I realize that keeping the battery between 40-80 is the best.

And for the price, (at least in the iPhone) - $79 is not a lot when it comes to a $1300+ device. lol. I just wish Apple would replace them whenever we want.
 
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BigMcGuire said:
The only way a MBP will charge an external monitor is when the lid is opened. Clamshell requires power to keep an external monitor powered. You can use Charge Limiter to keep your charge at 70-80% - that's what I do. I use my 2017 MBP with an eGPU to my 32' 4k Samsung monitor ($300 sale at Costco) - so it is always in clamshell mode and always on power. https://github.com/godly-devotion/charge-limiter --- make sure to drag to your app folder and give it a run. You type in your desired power charge level, type in admin pw, and good to go even when off.
Click to expand...
Thanks I've downloaded this because my battery health is down to 92% now.

And it wasn't that my MacBook was powering the monitor, the monitor powers my MacBook so it keeps it at 100% while I'm using the monitor whether I want it charging or not.
 
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so should you let it run down to 1% a couple times and then back to 100% or not? I've got 296 cycles and am at 89%.
430 days old according to Coconut
 
Jmgilliam18 said:
So how should you do it?
Click to expand...

Try to keep usage between 40-80% if you can. Some of us use Charge Limiter to keep our devices at 50-80%. Not going below 40% and not going above 80% if you can is optimal usage. Also keeping device cool and not hot (in direct sunlight for example) helps a lot too.

Avoid running down to 1% if you can help it.
 
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BigMcGuire said:
Try to keep usage between 40-80% if you can. Some of us use Charge Limiter to keep our devices at 50-80%. Not going below 40% and not going above 80% if you can is optimal usage. Also keeping device cool and not hot (in direct sunlight for example) helps a lot too.

Avoid running down to 1% if you can help it.
Click to expand...

where do you get charge limiter. ?
 
BigMcGuire said:
Try to keep usage between 40-80% if you can. Some of us use Charge Limiter to keep our devices at 50-80%. Not going below 40% and not going above 80% if you can is optimal usage. Also keeping device cool and not hot (in direct sunlight for example) helps a lot too.

Avoid running down to 1% if you can help it.
Click to expand...

completely agree.
 
BigMcGuire said:
I definitely have a battery obsession. I used to be one of those people who would take their phone off the charger, at 99% I was sweating and looking for a charging cable. Having the battery % in the status bar gave me so much stress that I couldn't enjoy my device. When Apple gave us the ability to take the % out of the status bar - I was actually able to start enjoying my devices. (Yes, I know 100% charge is not healthy, but at the time I didn't know that, I do now).

I've put so much time and effort into batteries over the last 10 years that I now claim it is a hobby, but it is an obsession. I've got 5 Anker external batteries (cough) and I record my coconutBattery stats for my MacBook, iPhone, and iPad (including my wife's devices) in excel.

Now that I'm a bit older and a bit smarter (hopefully) - I don't pay attention as much to the battery, and I realize that keeping the battery between 40-80 is the best.

And for the price, (at least in the iPhone) - $79 is not a lot when it comes to a $1300+ device. lol. I just wish Apple would replace them whenever we want.
Click to expand...

Warning. Do not buy an EV. They will drive you nuts if you are battery obsessed.
 
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jerryk said:
Warning. Do not buy an EV. They will drive you nuts if you are battery obsessed.
Click to expand...
This is sad but oh so true. Lol. I see people I know with the Tesla app and their charging status and I ask to watch it while we eat. Lol.
 
Thanks all. I just know mine gets HOT even when watching a loom or youtube video. If I'm on zoom it's going crazy hot and battery draining bad. Went from 90 to 50 on an hour zoom call. Maybe that's normal. IDK.

For instance. Right now, the piece of metal across the top above the touchbar is so hot to the touch. And not doing anything intensive. No video, nothing.
 
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95% to 38% in 2 hours. No video. No zoom. No uploads. Just browser work. Really terrible.
 
I installed the Charge Limiter - do I need to turn off the Battery Health Management in system prefs?
 
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