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

H

HappyDude20

Cancelled
Original poster
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. 🙄
 
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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