About macbook pro battery

[beautyflower]

Hey guys ..
I am new here and I need your help please ..
I bought my first macbook Pro 13 inch in April this year so I have it for 5-6 months max. and I am worried about the battery life and health and cycles
my battery health is 83% and my load cycles are 323 .
can anyone please explain for me what a cycle is .. is it a compete period of time from charging a laptop when its totally out of charge until its full?
I use my laptop alot and i try as i much as i can to not leave my laptop connected to charge when its full and i do calibrate it once a week i guess .

Can anyone tell me is that normal? or is there anything I can do to make my battery health better??
I dont want to be disappointed for buying mac and switching from windows..

Thank you in advance

 

[GGJstudios]

This should answer most, if not all, of your battery questions: Apple Notebook Battery FAQ

 

[dusk007]

Looks to me like you treat you notebook completely the wrong way because you try too hard.

323 cycles in 6 months is a lot. One cycle or C is one full load or two half loads or 4 quater loads.

Maybe you should read on batteryuniversity a little about Lithium batteries. This typ of batteries don't care if you load them really often only 10%. There is no need to fully empty them. In fact that is actually bad for them. The only reason to do it anyway is to calibrate which only helps keep the "charge level guess" somewhat accurate. Doing it too often is unhealthy but other than a wrong showing a wrong charge level it doesn't hurt to calibrate very infrequently. A full discharge actually kills capacity if it goes too low and with too many calibrations that might be possible, it hurts capacity by a few percent irreversibly.
If the battery is fully loaded you can use it plugged in. Draining it and charging it again kills it in the long run. Having it plugged in at 100% charge doesn't hurt at all. It is smart enough to know when to stop charging.

What you are doing wrong is too use the battery too much. Just use it on battery when you need to and charge it when you are home. Forget about anything else and maybe calibrate it once a month or every three months, not once a week.
With your useage it will last another year till it dies. According to Apple 80% shouldn't be reached before 1000 cycles. I believe it is the way you treat it but anyway you can still demand a new battery if it does below 80%. They will give it to you and the new one you should stop trying to kill.

 

[iLog.Genius]

I don't know too much about notebook batteries and I know you provided a link to back your claim but I'm going to go with Apple. Leaving your notebook plugged in most of time and rarely using it off battery is just as bad or even worse than continuously using it off battery and it will kill your battery.

(read: http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html)

I've had my MacBook Pro for about a year and a half and with only 85 cycles and my battery is now floating around 80 percent or less (various readings which is normal, but know the capacity is near what it's reading) and it's because I get lazy and sometimes forget that I'm connected to power.

Even if the OP is using the battery, it should still last for 1000 cycles. The only way to know is take it to Apple and see what they say.

(How do you get that many cycles in such a short period of time! That's an average of discharging/charging 53 times a day!)

 

[surfologist87]

(How do you get that many cycles in such a short period of time! That's an average of discharging/charging 53 times a day!)

I was thinking the same thing...??? how in the heck did you get that many?
Ive had my mbp one month and have 5 cycles...???

 

[beautyflower]

I dont know guys!
I guess I thought it was better for the battery if I used it all like leave 0 battery and then charge it again until its fully charged so i do it twice a day i think.
from what i understand is that not to charge it if its empty?and its ok to leave it connected to the charger If i am at home? for a long time??
so what's the correct way??
n btw there's no Apple store in Middle east and the places we can buy macbook's from doesn't really treat customers well!
I bought my mac with a dot in the middle of the screen that doesn't go If I took it to them they'll leave it there with them for 3 months!! and I really need a laptop
and thank you guys but I am still confused ..

 

[GGJstudios]

so what's the correct way??.

Did you follow the link I posted? It will answer your questions if you read it.

 

[dusk007]

Batteries die, they all do and it doesn't only depend on cycles.
The way your battery lives the longest is if you discharge it to about 50-60% and put somewhere cold and dry.

Batteryuniverstiy is a site that targets afaik people who work in battery development or implementation. There are certain things that simply are typical for Lithium batteries and it is actually really simple to act on them.

What is typical?

Unlike nickel and lead-based batteries, a new lithium-ion pack does not need cycling through charging and discharging. Priming will make little difference because the maximum capacity of lithium-ion is available right from the beginning. Neither does a full discharge improve the capacity of a faded pack. However, a full discharge/charge will reset the digital circuit of a 'smart' battery to improve the state-of-charge estimation

Other things that are intersting to know.
High charge is bad and I guess one thing Apple does to get the 1000 cycles is they don't operate them at maximum capacity but rather stop a few percent sooner.
Operating temp is -30 to 60 °C and it is very bad if it is discharged near the high threshold thus it lives longer if you do on battery not too heavy work that heats everything up, but rather stick to the usual mobile use of a little this and that but plug it in for encode sessions. Apple is actually pointing to this little fact by saying you should keep you mac near room temp.
It also last more cycles if it is discharged at a slow rate. Which also means using it on battery to encode movies or play games is not the best idea. But you generally cannot empty it that fast that it is really bad.

Everything that remains is the cycles you get. You might decrease your battery cycle capacity because of high operating temp by 5% (maybe more) and by high too quick discharges by 5% and 35% by using up all those cycles.
You simply leave it to it. Use it when you need it, leave it plugged in when you can, calibrate it when every month or half a year and you will probably loose 10% on cycles and 5% on high current and that is it.
Those numbers are guesses but still if you have read some stuff about Lithium batteries you would know that your way of treating it is as wrong as can be, and all Apple tips are worth is to keep annoying people from complaining that there capacity reading in coconut is a little of. All it really does, is keep the smart control sys. functional.

 

[GGJstudios]

Batteryuniverstiy is a site that targets afaik people who work in battery development or implementation. There are certain things that simply are typical for Lithium batteries and it is actually really simple to act on them.

BatteryUniversity is generic information. It doesn't always directly relate to the specific lithium-ion polymer batteries used in Apple notebooks. It's a great place for some basic information, but I would trust Apple more than that site when it comes to maintaining your battery. BatteryUniversity doesn't have to replace your battery if it's defective. Apple does.

High charge is bad and I guess one thing Apple does to get the 1000 cycles is they don't operate them at maximum capacity but rather stop a few percent sooner.

That's not true. Apple batteries will charge to 100%. Occasionally they stop somewhere between 93% and 100%, but not intentionally. Read the link I posted.

 

[beautyflower]

Did you follow the link I posted? It will answer your questions if you read it.

yes i did but i didnt find my answers .. am asking if its normal I understood that its not (from the replies) .. am asking about the cycles here and my mac is still new and if there's anything i can do to prevent any further damages and am I doing something wrong!

but anyway's thank you ..

 

[beautyflower]

Batteries die, they all do and it doesn't only depend on cycles.
The way your battery lives the longest is if you discharge it to about 50-60% and put somewhere cold and dry.

Batteryuniverstiy is a site that targets afaik people who work in battery development or implementation. There are certain things that simply are typical for Lithium batteries and it is actually really simple to act on them.

What is typical?

Other things that are intersting to know.
High charge is bad and I guess one thing Apple does to get the 1000 cycles is they don't operate them at maximum capacity but rather stop a few percent sooner.
Operating temp is -30 to 60 °C and it is very bad if it is discharged near the high threshold thus it lives longer if you do on battery not too heavy work that heats everything up, but rather stick to the usual mobile use of a little this and that but plug it in for encode sessions. Apple is actually pointing to this little fact by saying you should keep you mac near room temp.
It also last more cycles if it is discharged at a slow rate. Which also means using it on battery to encode movies or play games is not the best idea. But you generally cannot empty it that fast that it is really bad.

Everything that remains is the cycles you get. You might decrease your battery cycle capacity because of high operating temp by 5% (maybe more) and by high too quick discharges by 5% and 35% by using up all those cycles.
You simply leave it to it. Use it when you need it, leave it plugged in when you can, calibrate it when every month or half a year and you will probably loose 10% on cycles and 5% on high current and that is it.
Those numbers are guesses but still if you have read some stuff about Lithium batteries you would know that your way of treating it is as wrong as can be, and all Apple tips are worth is to keep annoying people from complaining that there capacity reading in coconut is a little of. All it really does, is keep the smart control sys. functional.

Thank you so much for your reply and your interest .. i read few thinks in the link you provided but i found it way too much .. but i guess i know what i was doing wrong I uses my battery so fast because i use skype a lot and then recharge from 0 charge so i think that's the problem here ..
i'll try to do what you are suggesting and i'll go to the store and ask them to check it ..
Thank you so much

 

[ThunderRoad]

Sorry for the thread hijack OP. I read all the links provided etc but just want some final clarification. Currently I charge my Macbook Pro as close to 100% as I can, then let it run all the way down until it runs out. Should I be doing this, or letting it run down to 1% and then recharging?

I know I'm going over well traveled ground here but I just want to be certain!

Thanks

 

[GGJstudios]

yes i did but i didnt find my answers ...

Then you didn't read it:

I dont know guys!
I guess I thought it was better for the battery if I used it all like leave 0 battery and then charge it again until its fully charged so i do it twice a day i think.
from what i understand is that not to charge it if its empty?

From a and its ok to leave it connected to the charger If i am at home? for a long time??[/QUOTE]

When it reaches a full charge, the light on your MagSafe adapter will turn green. This indicates that it has stopped charging your battery and you are now running on A/C power with a fully charged battery. It will not overcharge your battery. It's also perfectly safe to let your Mac notebook sleep with A/C plugged in.

Sorry for the thread hijack OP. I read all the links provided etc but just want some final clarification. Currently I charge my Macbook Pro as close to 100% as I can, then let it run all the way down until it runs out. Should I be doing this, or letting it run down to 1% and then recharging?

I know I'm going over well traveled ground here but I just want to be certain!

Thanks

Sorry for the thread hijack OP.

It's not a hijack if your question relates to the thread discussion, which it does.

Currently I charge my Macbook Pro as close to 100% as I can, then let it run all the way down until it runs out. Should I be doing this, or letting it run down to 1% and then recharging?

There's no need to intentionally drain the battery fully, unless you just need to run it on battery for that long. Use it on battery when you need to and plug it in when you can.

AppleCare support recommends that if you leave your Mac plugged in most of the time, unplug it every 2 or 3 days and run on battery down to somewhere around 50%, then plug it back in. That keeps the electrons moving.

As long as you're running it on battery at least every few days and calibrate every month or two, you'll be fine.

 

[ThunderRoad]

There's no need to intentionally drain the battery fully, unless you just need to run it on battery for that long. Use it on battery when you need to and plug it in when you can.

Thanks for the speedy reply. Yeah, at the moment I'm intentionally letting it run down all the way. Sounds stupid I know but I thought that was the best way. So are you saying letting it run down to say, 60% and then re charging fully does no more damage than running it down to 1% and re charging?

 

[GGJstudios]

Thanks for the speedy reply. Yeah, at the moment I'm intentionally letting it run down all the way. Sounds stupid I know but I thought that was the best way. So are you saying letting it run down to say, 60% and then re charging fully does no more damage than running it down to 1% and re charging?

You're putting unnecessary cycles on your battery, which will shorten its useful life. Just run it on battery when it's not handy to plug it in, and plug it in whenever you can. If you use your MBP primarily at a desk and plugged in most of the time, then simply remember to unplug every few days and run it on battery for a few hours, to keep the electrons moving. You don't have to intentionally drain your battery unless you're calibrating, which is only done once every month or two.

Lithium-ion batteries don't have the "memory effect" problem that nickel-based batteries do, as I mentioned in my earlier post.

 

[ThunderRoad]

Ok thanks, I read the calibrating info from your earlier post and will follow that when every month or so. There's so many different ideas floating around about battery maintenance that it had me worried, good to know that in reality, it's actually quite simple.

 

[GGJstudios]

Ok thanks, I read the calibrating info from your earlier post and will follow that when every month or so. There's so many different ideas floating around about battery maintenance that it had me worried, good to know that in reality, it's actually quite simple.

You're right, it's very simple. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people posting misinformation around the web. Some think that calibration is simply draining and recharging the battery, or that batteries should be drained every day, or many other ideas which aren't based in facts. None of what I post about batteries came from my opinion or my own ideas; it all comes directly from Apple. I've just collected the information and presented it in what I hope is a useful format.

 

[ThunderRoad]

Haha, you're definitely right about there being too much information. Thanks for clearing it all up though.

 

[Den Deze]

I just did a battery calibration yesterday (battery was empty at 7 pm) and i'm charging him the computer since this morning.
Battery went from 94% to 91%

 

[beautyflower]

Then you didn't read it:

From a [url="http://www.apple.com/batteries/]link[/url] in the FAQ I posted;





It's not a hijack if your question relates to the thread discussion, which it does.

There's no need to intentionally drain the battery fully, unless you just need to run it on battery for that long. Use it on battery when you need to and plug it in when you can.

I did read but I said I am confused the replies were different than what was written there .. !
Why are you so angry!! Am here for help not for anything else but your way in replying is just ..!!
Thank's anyways!

 

[GGJstudios]

I just did a battery calibration yesterday (battery was empty at 7 pm) and i'm charging him the computer since this morning.
Battery went from 94% to 91%

That would indicate that your battery was already at 91%, but was being incorrectly reported as 94%. Calibration makes your battery reporting more accurate. It does not reduce or increase your battery health.

I did read but I said I am confused the replies were different than what was written there .. !
Why are you so angry!! Am here for help not for anything else but your way in replying is just ..!!
Thank's anyways!

I'm not angry at all. You asked questions that were clearly answered in the linked post. You said you couldn't find your answers. I quoted the exact answers for you.

 

[stevefrog]

Thanks for the speedy reply. Yeah, at the moment I'm intentionally letting it run down all the way. Sounds stupid I know but I thought that was the best way. So are you saying letting it run down to say, 60% and then re charging fully does no more damage than running it down to 1% and re charging?

Lithium base batteries don't like to be deep discharged. You should avoid running the battery down, whenever possible charge it up. You cannot damage the battery by keeping the laptop connected to the charger. Running the battery down for the sake of running it down just shortens the battery life.