Apple Store Battery Replacement?

[SRLMJ23]

If I take my MacBook Air into my (not so)-local Apple Store will they replace the battery on my MBA right there or will they tell me it needs to be sent out to Apple and take 5-7 days to get back?

Also a quick charging/battery question: When I charge my MBA and it's fully charged after being used without the charger, is it okay to leave it on the charger for a few days? Sometimes I do not take my MBA off my office desk for days and I usually just leave it plugged in, is that bad for the battery or okay to do? I know you have to calibrate the battery sometimes, and I do, do that. System Report says that my Cycle Count is at 499. I know its high but is it bad? I mean I can still get 3 hours out of my battery, more if I do not do YouTube or any high end stuff (obviously.) Under System Report it also says my Battery Condition is "Normal" so should I even replace the battery now or wait a little longer?

Your answers and guidance are greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance!

PS: Can you buy aftermarket batteries that have longer battery life than normal Apple batteries or all of them they same. Also, just so you know, this is for my Late-2010 11" MacBook Air.

 

[motrek]

If I take my MacBook Air into my (not so)-local Apple Store will they replace the battery on my MBA right there or will they tell me it needs to be sent out to Apple and take 5-7 days to get back?

Also a quick charging/battery question: When I charge my MBA and it's fully charged after being used without the charger, is it okay to leave it on the charger for a few days? Sometimes I do not take my MBA off my office desk for days and I usually just leave it plugged in, is that bad for the battery or okay to do? I know you have to calibrate the battery sometimes, and I do, do that. System Report says that my Cycle Count is at 499. I know its high but is it bad? I mean I can still get 3 hours out of my battery, more if I do not do YouTube or any high end stuff (obviously.) Under System Report it also says my Battery Condition is "Normal" so should I even replace the battery now or wait a little longer?

Your answers and guidance are greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance!

PS: Can you buy aftermarket batteries that have longer battery life than normal Apple batteries or all of them they same. Also, just so you know, this is for my Late-2010 11" MacBook Air.

I would call ahead to the Apple Store and see what the wait would be for battery replacement. They should be able to answer that, I would imagine.

Keeping your laptop plugged in is completely fine. It will only charge once the battery gets down to ~97%, which probably takes a few days, so for the vast majority of the time it won't be charging the battery anyway, so it doesn't matter if it's plugged in or not.

I don't know if anybody makes aftermarket batteries for MBAs but I wouldn't trust them if they did.

 

[SRLMJ23]

I would call ahead to the Apple Store and see what the wait would be for battery replacement. They should be able to answer that, I would imagine.

Keeping your laptop plugged in is completely fine. It will only charge once the battery gets down to ~97%, which probably takes a few days, so for the vast majority of the time it won't be charging the battery anyway, so it doesn't matter if it's plugged in or not.

I don't know if anybody makes aftermarket batteries for MBAs but I wouldn't trust them if they did.

Thanks for your input, yeah I wouldn't really trust an aftermarket battery because Apple's batteries are pretty damn good anyway. Just wondering, do you think I should get mine replaced or wait? I am currently doing a little test to see how much battery life I get from 100% down to probably 5% with my screen at about half the brightness, browsing and maybe doing a little iTunes listening. So I will see how much battery life I get.

One thing I can tell you is that Apple's batteries are BILLIONS of times better than Dell's. On three of my older Dell laptops, the batteries only lasted a year...period! Then I would get a replacement and then at one year, BAM....barely would hold a charge. I have been on a Mac since 2010, and the build quality vs. even the higher end Dell laptops I bought isn't even close to comparable of Apple's build quality and parts quality! Also, another thankful thing...OS X instead of Windows.

 

[motrek]

Thanks for your input, yeah I wouldn't really trust an aftermarket battery because Apple's batteries are pretty damn good anyway. Just wondering, do you think I should get mine replaced or wait? I am currently doing a little test to see how much battery life I get from 100% down to probably 5% with my screen at about half the brightness, browsing and maybe doing a little iTunes listening. So I will see how much battery life I get.
...

You can also download an app called Battery Health that will tell you some stats about your battery.

Apple's guideline is that you should have 80% of the original design capacity left after 1000 charge cycles. This seems like an optimistic target though since a lot of people don't his these numbers. Or maybe they're just the ones who complain in the forum and nobody complains when their batteries are functioning as intended.

Oh BTW -- no need to do any battery calibration or anything. The last "battery care" procedure Apple recommended was to put it through an entire charge cycle per month, but they even stopped recommending this years ago. Basically just use the battery however you want, but keep it plugged in if it's convenient, since charge cycles put wear on the battery.