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Are you sick of Apple batteries?

G

GoSUV

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 5, 2008
100
8
Hong Kong
Any other good replacement MBP batteries? I'm sick of Apple ones...

I have an old 15" MBP with the replaceable battery. I admit I have been using it plugged in most of the time, only occasionally running on battery power, but I have been careful to not let it overheat by raising the computer on legs and never putting it on a pillow, yet after just 2 years and less than 40 cycles, the battery rapidly went degrading and now the computer won't recognize its presence. It went from going 3 hours on a full charge to literally just minutes, then died in a span of 2 years. Yes I know how to calibrate it. My old PowerBook G4 had the same pattern. The original Apple battery never lasted more than 2 years then died. I replaced it with a Fastmac Trupower one and it was great. However the harddrive soon died after the battery replacement, and I could never test the true longevity of the Fastmac.

Has anyone tried other 3rd party replacement batteries and what is your experience? In my neck of the woods, only the Apple ones are available, or I'll have to mail order from the US to get the Fastmac...
 
GoSUV said:
..... yet after just 2 years and less than 40 cycles, the battery rapidly went degrading and now the computer won't recognize its presence. ...
Click to expand...

Thats your problem!
If you don't use your battery regularly you kill it!
My old MBP had 60% charge after 600 cycles.
Don't blame the batteries, 40 cycles in 2 years is the reason it died.
I do 40 cycles a month.

Unless you start using your battery properly you'll never get a battery to last more than two years..
 
WOW!!!
40 cycles in two years!
no wonder it went dead, all the ions must have gone stagnant.
Draining it twice a week really helps it from dying.
 
cluthz said:
Thats your problem!
If you don't use your battery regularly you kill it!
My old MBP had 60% charge after 600 cycles.
Don't blame the batteries, 40 cycles in 2 years is the reason it died.
I do 40 cycles a month.

Unless you start using your battery properly you'll never get a battery to last more than two years..
Click to expand...


is 40 cycles a month good for the new mbp's as well??
im planning on doing 20 cycles per month, but other peeps here keeps saying to plug it everytime except for once a month to calibrate.
 
mansanas said:
is 40 cycles a month good for the new mbp's as well??
im planning on doing 20 cycles per month, but other peeps here keeps saying to plug it everytime except for once a month to calibrate.
Click to expand...

what nutta told ya that?
only doing one cycle a month will break your battery.
2-3 cycles a week will keep your battery healthy.
the battery needs to have the ions in it moving to stay healthy.
 
iSpoody 1243 said:
what nutta told ya that?
only doing one cycle a month will break your battery.
2-3 cycles a week will keep your battery healthy.
the battery needs to have the ions in it moving to stay healthy.
Click to expand...

there was a couple of threads here where the OP was asking if its better to leave the MBP plugged in or use the battery, a lot of posters said to keep it plugged in and just recalibrate once a month.

i really wanna use my portable MBP with out plugging it in all the time, especially with awesome battery life on these babies.

so i guess i wont be following those poster's advise then, and im glad using the battery is actually good for it.
 
mansanas said:
is 40 cycles a month good for the new mbp's as well??
im planning on doing 20 cycles per month, but other peeps here keeps saying to plug it everytime except for once a month to calibrate.
Click to expand...

I do 40 cycles a month, because I have to, much of my work is done where I have the machine with me and I use it at battery power, and charge it when I can.

40 cycles a month will reduce battery life a bit over the years, but my point was that the old batteries could do over 600 cycles and still be 60%, new can probably take a lot more.

It's not a goal to do 40 cycles a month, but if you wanna keep your battery for years be sure you at least get 5-6 cycles a month
 
I know 40 cycles in 2 years is very few. But a counterpoint is, my work Dell PC's batteries still last 2+ hours on a charge after 3 years of everyday plugged in use. So are the IBM's/lenovo's. Still are Apple batteries more fragile?
 
GoSUV said:
I know 40 cycles in 2 years is very few. But a counterpoint is, my work Dell PC's batteries still last 2+ hours on a charge after 3 years of everyday plugged in use. So are the IBM's/lenovo's. Still are Apple batteries more fragile?
Click to expand...

no, apple buys batteries from the same companies as others, usually sony.
 
What i do with my MBP:

Dont think about the battery what so ever.

When i am near a power socket i will plug it in if i remember. When i am not i don't (dur!). If it runs out then i will charge it up when i am near a power socket, if it is partially drained then i might charge if i remember.

I have never had to calibrate it and i still get 4 hours out of it.

I think some people worry about their batteries too much, it's not good for them. Just use your laptop and forget about the battery.
 
Not as of now.

My first battery started failing after two years and 80 full cycles. Since Apple has a policy that the battery has to hold 90% charge or so till 200 cycles, my battery was promptly replaced and the new battery was awesome. I too had mine plugged in for the most part but those advocating running it through 2-3 discharge cycles a week are definitely wearing the battery down. I generally run it on battery power as needed and let it sleep without the charger plugged in (this seems to cause a few issues too.)

My advice, go to apple and if still under applecare just get a new battery. Calibrate the new one and use coconutBattery to keep track of your battery health. Excess full drainage cycles will negatively affect the battery health and life.
 
McMoronic said:
My first battery started failing after two years and 80 full cycles. Since Apple has a policy that the battery has to hold 90% charge or so till 200 cycles, my battery was promptly replaced and the new battery was awesome.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your input. I guess I'll just have to buy another apple battery and hope it lasts longer this time around. I just don't use the computer long enough to even require 2-3 full cycles per week, let alone 40 cycles a month. I use it maybe on average 30 min. everyday to check email, on internet and other social stuff, or the occasional iPhoto or iTunes projects.
 
I know I could remove the batt if I were only going to use it plugged in, but Apple recommends against it, since it will slow down the processor because it may not be able to draw the required current from the A/C power adaptor alone. There is an Apple technical note for it but I don't have it handy.

I can prove it is true as converting some video to H.264 format takes noticeably longer.
 
Charge it, take it off the mains, use it. After you've used it for your 30 minutes leave it unplugged and close the lid.

Repeat until battery dies

Recharge.

At 30 minutes a day plus leaving it in sleep, you'll get maybe 2 cycles a week in, which is 80 - 100 a year. Which will keep the whole thing rather healthy.
 
Hello,

I've just bought a new Macbook Pro (I've only had it for a few days) but the battery life seems a lot shorter than it should be (2-3 hours?). I don't think I've been doing anything to crazy with it at the moment only browsing the internet and a little bit of photoshop.

Is this normal or is there something wrong with it? :confused:
 
cluthz said:
Thats your problem!
If you don't use your battery regularly you kill it!
My old MBP had 60% charge after 600 cycles.
Don't blame the batteries, 40 cycles in 2 years is the reason it died.
I do 40 cycles a month.

Unless you start using your battery properly you'll never get a battery to last more than two years..
Click to expand...

Not always true. I always keep mine plugged in and my macbook is three years old and coconut battery says 93-100% capacity (which is what it is saying now for my brand new macbook pro that I did calibrate).

Granted I would use the battery maybe once a week (or less), but in general it was always plugged in. Though if I did start to use the battery, I tried to use it a lot rather than just use it like enough for it to start charging it again (7% i think) and charge it for that small amount.
 
Simplesimon101 said:
Hello,

I've just bought a new Macbook Pro (I've only had it for a few days) but the battery life seems a lot shorter than it should be (2-3 hours?). I don't think I've been doing anything to crazy with it at the moment only browsing the internet and a little bit of photoshop.

Is this normal or is there something wrong with it? :confused:
Click to expand...

its likely the way you're using it. the brightness is set up or bluetooth is on can drain your battery. the battery meter time isnt reliable because it constantly changes according to how you are using the computer at the moment. if you want to check if your battery is normal download coconutbattery its a free battery stats application that will tell you the condition of your battery.
 
damnyooneek said:
its likely the way you're using it. the brightness is set up or bluetooth is on can drain your battery. the battery meter time isnt reliable because it constantly changes according to how you are using the computer at the moment. if you want to check if your battery is normal download coconutbattery its a free battery stats application that will tell you the condition of your battery.
Click to expand...

It's gone from about 95% to 45% since i last posted (1 hour 10 mins ago). I've downloaded coconut battery and it says the same thing as the icon in the task bar. It's at about 3135mAh out of 6843mAh.

My screen is fairly bright but bluetooth is off... It just seems a bit odd to me. :confused:
 
GoSUV said:
I know 40 cycles in 2 years is very few. But a counterpoint is, my work Dell PC's batteries still last 2+ hours on a charge after 3 years of everyday plugged in use. So are the IBM's/lenovo's. Still are Apple batteries more fragile?
Click to expand...

They're not more fragile. Only 40 cycles in 2 years indicates you abused your battery. Apple is not to blame for that.

Apple Notebook Battery FAQ
 
GoSUV said:
I know 40 cycles in 2 years is very few. But a counterpoint is, my work Dell PC's batteries still last 2+ hours on a charge after 3 years of everyday plugged in use. So are the IBM's/lenovo's. Still are Apple batteries more fragile?
Click to expand...

I'm calling ********. I support Dells at work and they have the absolute worst batteries I have ever seen. Every single one of the D620 and 630 notebooks coming off warranty have flat batteries and most failed a year and a half into the three-year hardware cycle. Check the Dell website and you'll see the same thing from thousands of customer reviews. I have zero experience with Lenovo, but you're totally wrong about Dell.
 
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