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AppleCare Won't Replace My 1yr old Battery Will They?

HappyDude20

HappyDude20

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jul 13, 2008
3,688
1,479
Los Angeles, Ca
I've had my mid 2009 model MBP for almost a year now running at 310 battery cycles...

...In no way does the battery last the 7 hours it originally stated. Of course I don't expect it to anywhere, considering my heavy use...but in reality the battery lasts about 2 hours if i'm surfing the web or watching a movie. Maybe 3 hours if the brightness is really low and doing some easy stuff like writing an essay in Pages.

....

I don't think they would now, would they?
 
It depends if the short run time is due to a bad battery or something in the way you use your Mac.

To check...

Open System Profiler, go to Power
look at the battery condition - it should be Normal or Good. If it says Check or Replace battery it's knackered.

Download CoconutBattery & run it. If it says your battery full capacity is <80% then Apple should replace it under warranty.

On the Apple site it says the battery should be good for 1000 cycles and 80%:-
http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html
 
The battery is a consumable part, and seeing as it is almost a year old, they may not replace it.

However if is faulty then they will replace it. The hard part is convincing them. :rolleyes:
 
I had a 2 year old battery replaced under AppleCare, so it does happen sometimes.

The battery had a distinct bulge and was interfering with the trackpad on the macbook.
 
elleana said:
Sorry, I wasn't clear. How can the average consumer gather this information from his macbook?
Click to expand...

Go to 'About this mac'>More Info>Battery. The info will be displayed there.

I had a good experience with my Mother's macbook. Battery lost it's charge and I bought a new one for her. This one only lasted 40 or so cycles and Apple gave her a new one.
 
elleana said:
Sorry, I wasn't clear. How can the average consumer gather this information from his macbook?
Click to expand...

To check...

Open System Profiler, go to Power
look at the battery condition - it should be Normal or Good. If it says Check or Replace battery it's knackered.

The info is not 100% reliable, in particular sometimes the Mac thinks the battery is OK but it has a problem.
 
I had a battery in an out-of-warranty MBP have something like 20% capacity after 100 cycles (clearly defective) and I got it replaced for free. YMMV.
 
I had a "swollen" battery in my out-of-warranty 3-yr old black MacBook - and the Apple Store replaced it for free, no questions asked! The battery itself was good - running normal with only 57 cycles. But it was definitely defective - as I said it was swollen.

So IMO it's a hit-or-miss with Apple giving a free replacement - but take it in! You never know!

I took that chance after reading about similar swollen battery issues on this forum.

And now I have a brand new battery!
 
i had the 2nd battery for my 2008 MBP replaced 5 months after the warranty went out. they said it wasn't under warranty, but only 30 cycles and 50% battery health.

I'm beginning to think all of the batteries for this model MBP suck. i have 16 cycles and it's at 90% health already. sucks ass.
 
bgd said:
I had a 2 year old battery replaced under AppleCare, so it does happen sometimes.

The battery had a distinct bulge and was interfering with the trackpad on the macbook.
Click to expand...

I went through a similar experience. AppleCare took care of it.
 
nyutnyut said:
i had the 2nd battery for my 2008 MBP replaced 5 months after the warranty went out. they said it wasn't under warranty, but only 30 cycles and 50% battery health.

I'm beginning to think all of the batteries for this model MBP suck. i have 16 cycles and it's at 90% health already. sucks ass.
Click to expand...

I'm beginning to think the same thing after my 3d battery for my 2,2 MBP from 2007. 46% health after just 160 load cycles, unexplained shutdowns when charged. The original battery was defective and did the same thing--in fact they issued a recall. Replacement worked fine. Now this third battery looks to be defective like the first, only unfortunately they are not recalling batteries any more.

I doubt Apple will replace it, it is about eight months out of warranty. I tried to baby this battery, too, so I could eke out as much life from it as possible when I needed to -- usually kept the laptop plugged in and only rarely took it places. It is quite the pisser.
 
It's always worth asking.

I did not have AppleCare on this laptop at all, but I took it in for a battery diagnostic to consider getting a new one. As I suspected, I had a bad cell. However, the Apple Store went on and gave me a new battery for free, no questions asked. So, YMMV?
 
MacTheSpoon said:
I'm beginning to think the same thing after my 3d battery for my 2,2 MBP from 2007. 46% health after just 160 load cycles, unexplained shutdowns when charged. The original battery was defective and did the same thing--in fact they issued a recall. Replacement worked fine. Now this third battery looks to be defective like the first, only unfortunately they are not recalling batteries any more.

I doubt Apple will replace it, it is about eight months out of warranty. I tried to baby this battery, too, so I could eke out as much life from it as possible when I needed to -- usually kept the laptop plugged in and only rarely took it places. It is quite the pisser.
Click to expand...

Keeping it plugged in all the time isn't good either. :( You should do a battery calibration once a month or once every two months.

http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html

AND

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1490

The second link has instructions on calibrating the battery.
 
Huh. My one-and-a-half-week old MBP is only on 7 cycles; I just calibrated the battery yesterday, yet coconut battery is showing that my battery is at 98% original capacity. Should I be worried?
 
elleana said:
Huh. My one-and-a-half-week old MBP is only on 7 cycles; I just calibrated the battery yesterday, yet coconut battery is showing that my battery is at 98% original capacity. Should I be worried?
Click to expand...

NO, and the number of the battery health is fluctuating up and down over time. Not to worry
 
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