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Battery health

I

iLLucionist

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 6, 2008
102
39
The Netherlands
Hi,

I have concerns about the battery life of my MacBook Pro (15", Late 2010: 6,2; 2.8 i7 / 4 GB / SSD 256). I have about 116 cycles and all of a sudden this week the health drops from a steady 95-96% to 92%.

Is 92% for 116 cycles bad or good? I used my laptop as it is supposed to: days resting on my desk with the plug in, days traveling. On average, I recharge my mac 4 times a week. It's 11 months old.

Any suggestions or experiences, anybody?

Thanks!!
 
Are you using the iStat widget? I had a MacBook Air 2010 model (bought January 2011) and recently sold it. It had over 200 cycles and haven't noticed any changes in battery. I constantly kept on checking iStat and most of the time it was at 95%, I should remind you the health indicator is not reliable, it constantly changes for example a month ago it was 89% and after couple of weeks it increased back up to 92%.

Keeping in mind Apple states that your Mac's health would be at 80% when you reach 300 charge cycles. After this it is recommended to replace the battery (Apple offers this service for a fee of £99).

I should stress that as long as you don't see long term changes in the battery of your MBP it should all be fine as the heath indicator does not really give a clear indication thus quite unreliable.
 
I wouldn't worry. Battery health fluctuates; one day it might read a few percent higher or lower than the day before. Even at 92%, you still have a lot of battery capacity left.
 
Legion93 said:
Are you using the iStat widget? I had a MacBook Air 2010 model (bought January 2011) and recently sold it. It had over 200 cycles and haven't noticed any changes in battery. I constantly kept on checking iStat and most of the time it was at 95%, I should remind you the health indicator is not reliable, it constantly changes for example a month ago it was 89% and after couple of weeks it increased back up to 92%.

Keeping in mind Apple states that your Mac's health would be at 80% when you reach 300 charge cycles. After this it is recommended to replace the battery (Apple offers this service for a fee of £99).

I should stress that as long as you don't see long term changes in the battery of your MBP it should all be fine as the heath indicator does not really give a clear indication thus quite unreliable.
Click to expand...

I am confident it is 80% at 1000 cycles now...

The built-in battery of your MacBook, MacBook Pro or MacBook Air is designed to deliver up to 1000 full charge and discharge cycles before it reaches 80 percent of its original capacity.
Click to expand...
-Apple Notebook Batteries
 
Legion93 said:
Wow, how did they upgrade the battery I thought it used to be 300 cycles for 80% well that was the case last year I checked
Click to expand...
Read the Battery FAQ. It explains which batteries are expected to retain up to 80% for 300, 750 or 1000 cycles.
 
Legion93 said:
Wow, how did they upgrade the battery I thought it used to be 300 cycles for 80% well that was the case last year I checked but I doubt anyone would achieve 1000 counts in the course of the laptop, unless they're recharging 5 times a day... Which is strange :D
Click to expand...

1 cycle a day is 2.73 years to a thousand cycles... mine is at 111 cycles with 25 weeks, which means in about 4.3 years I will be at 1000 cycles. I expect my computer to last at least that long...
 
Thanks!

Hi all, thanks for all the comments. I think I'll be fine then :) I always find it a bit scary, because in the non-unibody days I often had batteries (I dealt with over 10 MacBook Pro's I had under administration) that were unpredictable.

Cheers!
 
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