8 hours charging time

[ant043]

Well guys

This is my first post on macrumors so hello everybody. I bought a macbook air just over a month ago and am loving it. Last week i let the battery run until the computer shut down and since then it is taking me 8 plus hours to recharge the battery. Before that it was not taking any longer than 4 hours. I'm worried that battery may be permanently damaged. Is emptying the battery completely of charge bad ?

Thanks for the help.

 

[Sesshi]

No. It's not your machine.

Or - well, to put it another way mine does exactly the same thing. Because of the short battery life for an 'ultra'portable, I run it down every time I take it out.

According to Apple, this is 'normal', although none of the staff nor Applecare were able to point me to any documentation in this regard. That doesn't surprise me given Apple's complete inability to engineer solid products for anyone other than the sort of people who sit in Starbucks twittering or blogging - but you'll notice that the charging time is shorter if you keep the machine powered up (i.e. not slept).

 

[maestrokev]

You're supposed to completely drain your battery once a month to maintain it. After it fully recharges I don't let my laptop drain to sleep until next month so I don't have the 8hr charge times.

 

[miniConvert]

My 1.8/SSD charges fine, certainly doesn't take 8 hours a pop. I've run it flat several times. I get great battery life.

Some people have had issues - if you're not happy, contact Apple.

 

[ant043]

thanks for the replies guys. we don't even have an apple store in ireland and i don't want to lose the machine for a few days. I think i'll leave it a week before deciding to contact apple.

 

[mhnajjar]

thanks for the replies guys. we don't even have an apple store in ireland and i don't want to lose the machine for a few days. I think i'll leave it a week before deciding to contact apple.

Get a PC since many of them are assembled in Ireland

 

[ant043]

no way ! I'm never going back to windows again. I am definitely a convert. Is it better to charge the air while it is awake, asleep or just powered off ?

Thanks

 

[iHerzeleid]

My fully powered MBA loses 13% battery life overnight just sleeping. Takes one hour to recharge all that =\

 

[mhnajjar]

So why is it so slow?

 

[spacecadet610]

yep my MBA takes forever to charge. annoying. couldn't get a straight answer about why either. Some people have the problem. some don't.

 

[n0de]

Mine did this before I reset the PRAM. Now it takes about 1 hour to get to 80% and another 1.5 hours to 100% (if on and plugged in). For some reason it seems to charge to 100% faster if it is asleep instead of shutdown.

 

[eXan]

My fully powered MBA loses 13% battery life overnight just sleeping. Takes one hour to recharge all that =\

And why do you leave it unplugged overnight?

 

[iHerzeleid]

And why do you leave it unplugged overnight?

I did this just to test how much it loses.

 

[eXan]

I did this just to test how much it loses.

aa ok

 

[ant043]

how do you reset the pram ? complete noobie here

 

[mhnajjar]

how do you reset the pram ? complete noobie here

Hold Command + Option + R (I think ) upon starting the machine and release them when the machine restarts (you will hear a noise).

 

[Alkiera]

The reason it takes so long is due to the MBA trickle charging the las 20-25%, and the first 20% or so. If you get it down very low, it takes forever to charge.

You can watch this using a tool like MiniBatteryLogger, which shows the charge amperage; normally it's 1.6a, but when the battery is very low, or nearly full, it only uses 0.52 amps; or about 1/3 full power. Lithium Ion batteries are fairly sensitive to such things, it wouldn't surprise me if that extended battery life.

 

[NC MacGuy]

Mine will take an inordinate amount of time to charge the first time after a total draining. After that it'll be about 4 hrs. Two to 80% and two to get to 100%. I think it's the Apple battery/power recalibration process that happens like when new repeats when battery goes into deep sleep or total depletion mode. My experience anyway...

 

[ant043]

also my battery health according to istat pro is 94 percent after 30 cycles. Should i be worried or is this normal ??

Thanks

 

[ant043]

make that 93 percent, its gone down again. coconut battery also has it at 93. My macbook is through 100 cycles and still at 100 percent.

 

[magid]

Hold Command + Option + R + P (I think ) upon starting the machine and release them when you hear the startup chime three times.

Fixed

 

[PLin]

For those of you who are experiencing long charge times for the MacBook Air, do you eventually reach 100% though?

I used my MBA to about 7% and plugged in the charger the other night, and after 12 hours, it still didn't reach 100%. The LED was still orange, and the MBA was stuck in the Finishing Charge stage at 99%.

 

[magid]

For those of you who are experiencing long charge times for the MacBook Air, do you eventually reach 100% though?

I used my MBA to about 7% and plugged in the charger the other night, and after 12 hours, it still didn't reach 100%. The LED was still orange, and the MBA was stuck in the Finishing Charge stage at 99%.

Yeah, there are def some funky battery issues with the mba.

 

[n0de]

For those not getting to 100%; use your MBA on battery only until it gets to 75%, then plug it in. Now it will get to 100%.

I have noticed that if I use mine plugged in all the time, eventually it will start to drop from 100 down to about 95 and will only charge back up to 99 - unless I run it down a bit without AC.

I am guessing it is some sort of poorly implemented charging/heat management gone awry.

 

[ntrigue]

I logged-in to understand why the light is still amber after 9+ hours. Am I going to make the calibration null and void to turn it on now? I've got work to do...