Battery exchange requirements

[ayeying]

I can't seem to find a clear answer to this so...

I have a current generation MacBook Air, 2.13GHz/128GB SSD model. Now, the battery, according to Apple's website states this battery is rated for 750 cycles, compared to the 1000 cycles on the MacBook Pro's.

Now, Apple has a policy where if the battery reaches under 80% before hitting the cycle mark (within the first year?), then Apple would change the battery for free?

I guess my question is, what would qualify for this type of exchange? Cycle/Health within a certain time frame? or something else?

I'm asking because I'm at 192 battery cycles already, 93% health now... and I only owned this system less than 3 months.. (I'm at 2.5 months really lol). At this rate, I'll hit 750 cycles within a few months.

 

[JediMeister]

The eligibility for a complimentary battery replacement aside, how have you discharged the computer's battery from full to < 10% and then recharged it to full again 2+ times/day? All I can say is that you're going through the battery at an extremely rapid pace, possibly much quicker than the recommended operational behavior.
Eligibility for battery replacement is qualified by whether AppleCare or the repair center determines the battery is consumed or defective. Consumed would be considered greater than or equal to the maximum cycles and < 80% within 3 years under AppleCare. Defective would be the opposite, less than max cycles, < 80%. Where did you get the 750 cycles amount from by the way? For a MacBook Air, since replacing the battery requires disassembling the unit, the battery exchange/replacement would more than likely have to be sent in as a mail-in repair, as I doubt the Apple Store will be able to facilitate a MacBook Air battery replacement on-site.

 

[ayeying]

Quoted from Apple's Batteries for Notebooks page:

The built-in battery of the MacBook Air is designed to retain up to 80% of its original capacity at up to 750 full charge and discharge cycles.

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

To answer your question though, yes I am doing a "full" dischange 90% of the time. Thats from 95-100% -> 10-15%, sometimes I forget and the system shuts down/hibernates.

I personally don't think this is an unreasonable amount of charge/discharge because I'm using the system as a laptop, not a desktop. The battery life is outstanding, I was able to squeeze 6 hours out of it in class with 1/4 brightness and wifi on, along with a vista virtual machine for visual c++ 2008.

Apple has done battery replacements on site, there has been a few posts about it IIRC.

If the health drops like this though, I would be under 80% health but only ~500-600 cycles within the first year. Would this be considered as a defect since its rated for 750 Cycles and still have at least 80% health?

 

[miles01110]

If the health drops like this though, I would be under 80% health but only ~500-600 cycles within the first year. Would this be considered as a defect since its rated for 750 Cycles and still have at least 80% health?

IF it does you'd most likely be eligible for a replacement, but until then it's just speculation on what the health of your battery will look like at the end of the year. Battery decay usually isn't linear.