Battery Cycle Count Question

[ryan101]

Hi All,

What percentage does a battery need to go down before it counts as 1 Cycle Count? I read that the new MBP have about 1,000 Cycle Count life. So what I am basically asking is, if it goes below 75% or 50% does it count as one Cycle Count?

I was monitoring my battery cycle count. And my battery didn't even reach 50% and it had increased cycle count by 1. So I just wanted to know.

Thank you.

 

[drambuie]

I don't know the exact criteria to trigger a cycle count, but partial discharges are cumulative toward a cycle count. For example, if a drop to 25% was considered as a cycle count, then three drops to 75% would be counted as a cycle. On my MPB I only let the battery go below 20% one time, and now never let it get below 80%, and use it on AC power a lot, but I have accumulated about a cycle per month. As a matter of interest, this MBP is going on 4 years old, but the battery health is still at 99%.

 

[GGJstudios]

What percentage does a battery need to go down before it counts as 1 Cycle Count? I read that the new MBP have about 1,000 Cycle Count life. So what I am basically asking is, if it goes below 75% or 50% does it count as one Cycle Count?

Read the WHAT IS A CYCLE? section of the FAQ below. Run on battery whenever you need to and plug it in whenever you can. You can plug or unplug any time you need to, regardless of the charged percentage, and you never need to completely drain your battery.

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The link below should answer most, if not all, of your battery/charging questions, including tips for maximizing battery performance. If you haven’t already done so, I highly recommend you take the time to read it.

Apple Notebook Battery FAQ​

 

[simonsi]

Hi All,

What percentage does a battery need to go down before it counts as 1 Cycle Count? I read that the new MBP have about 1,000 Cycle Count life. So what I am basically asking is, if it goes below 75% or 50% does it count as one Cycle Count?

I was monitoring my battery cycle count. And my battery didn't even reach 50% and it had increased cycle count by 1. So I just wanted to know.

Thank you.

Works on a percentage basis, so if you go 100-75 (and charge) for two days then 100-50 (and recharge), that will count as 1 cycle as a total of 100%x1 has been used, wouldn't expect real-time accurate to <1 cycle as a cycle count must be rounded, so if your 50% went from 55.25 to 55.75 cycles for example, you may still see the count increment by 1.

 

[priitv8]

You really should not worry too much about the load cycles, because they aren't the only ingredients of calculating the remaining battery life.
As I understand it, battery life will also decrease based on it's age (current date - manufacturing date), so it will eventually demand replacing itself.
If it wasn't so, then all those battery resetting services on offer wouldn't make much sense
AFAIK OS X will report "Service battery" as soon as it's remaining capacity hits 80% mark.

 

[chopstik]

Great information, as a new MBP owner.

 

[ryan101]

Thanks guys. Very useful.