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Brand new macbook battery, 15 cycles already?

S

shaynes

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 4, 2008
45
0
My macbook battery broke 500 cycles, and the battery life was at about half what it used to be so I ordered what was described as a brand new battery from Westronics, through Amazon. I put the new battery in the machine and checked System Profiler, and it is telling me that the battery has 15 cycles on it already. iStat Nano says the same thing.

Is this normal for a new battery to have cycles on it already? Or did I not get a new battery? I just want to make sure I got what I paid for.
 
Thanks for the replies, it seemed odd to me, although I don't know much about batteries, first one I've ever replaced. The testing reply makes no sense to me though, I see no way Apple can put all of its batteries through 15 cycles of tests, much less why that would be useful.

I have contacted the seller. 15 cycles isn't a whole lot in the grand scheme of things, and I did get a good price, but the product was described as 'new' and I'm just interested as to what it has been through.
 
Actually my new macbook came with a battery that had 2 cycles on it. Both of the ones I got did.
 
fibrizo said:
Actually my new macbook came with a battery that had 2 cycles on it. Both of the ones I got did.
Click to expand...

Ive had 2 different batteries for the new MacBook, both came with 0 cycles.
(first battery was defective and replaced through Apple)
 
just to add more data points to this survey:

My new macbook came with 0 battery cycles. The replacement I got also had 0 battery cycles.
 
nemacman said:
Maybe your first battery should have been tested.
Click to expand...

I really wonder if they do test every single battery. Im sure they test that it provides power and what not but I really dont think they run every single battery through some series of tests.
 
Sampling?

shady825 said:
I really wonder if they do test every single battery. Im sure they test that it provides power and what not but I really dont think they run every single battery through some series of tests.
Click to expand...

Typically test batteries are pulled from the production system, tested and recycled.
 
You guys above seem to miss one point in his post.

shaynes said:
I ordered what was described as a brand new battery from Westronics, through Amazon.
Click to expand...

Which leads me to conclude that it's not an Apple battery :rolleyes: So I'm willing to bet that third party batteries have to be tested a couple times.
And also, if I remember correctly my MBP battery had 1 cycle. I'm guessing that Apple tests one randomly when it comes out of production.
 
It was definitely an apple battery, had a big apple logo on the back. I would not have bought a 3rd party battery. Seller said when I contacted to get return information that it was probably a case of someone returning it to them after having used it for a couple days (or weeks it seems).

They agreed to cover return shipping costs or give me a $10 refund (about what 2-way shipping will end up costing). I chose to ship back to them, battery is in transit now.
 
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