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Battery Healthy: 85%

sunsetblow

sunsetblow

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 6, 2013
171
25
The Battery Health app is now showing my MacBook as having 85% battery health. Seems pretty ****** for having it for a year or so.

Anyone had luck bringing it back to the store and complaining about it?
 
Is it noticeably bad? Mine had to be replaced after 3 years, though I never paid much attention to it in the first place, it was never noticeably bad. If it's not too far out of warranty they might help.
 
85% seems oddly off for being a year old, my macbook pro battery is sitting at 99.1% health at 377 days.

The warranty claim window is 80% or less within the 1 year or extended apple care period, 85% isn't far off.
 
Hmm I can see them definitely rejecting me if the window is 80%. Damn that's annoying.
 
My MBP after 4 years is still at 74%. Which isn't too bad. I would ring up Apple and appeal to their kind nature.
 
Just wanted to update folks:

I went to the Genius Bar and luckily I had a chill guy to work with, which always bodes well for the rest of the service interaction.

He did the Apple diagnostics (not the power on + D, but the more extensive one that only they can run) and the battery came back as "Fine". I feared the worst but the Genius said that its status at 89.09% health (their reading, my Battery Health app said 85%) after 1 year and 163 cycle count is below expected performance. Since it's still within the year warranty (by a few weeks), they'll swap it out for me free of charge.

A happy ending!

He also said this is probably due to me keeping my laptop plugged in all the time even though it's fully charged. I was always under the impression that at 100% and plugged in, it would bypass the battery and work solely from the outlet but he said that's not true and that I have to "use the battery as a battery". Any thoughts?
 
sunsetblow said:
Just wanted to update folks:
[...]
He also said this is probably due to me keeping my laptop plugged in all the time even though it's fully charged. I was always under the impression that at 100% and plugged in, it would bypass the battery and work solely from the outlet but he said that's not true and that I have to "use the battery as a battery". Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

His sayings do not match my observation with several other recent Apple laptops. I consider it very strange.

Just as an example, I am posting this on a one year old Macbook Air 11" (383 days according to Coconut Battery), with 74 cycles on the battery, and that is plugged most of the time. The same tool currently shows the battery health level is at 101.7% of the spec. Not too bad.
 
My battery is 447 days old and after 139 load cycles it is down to 86% capacity according to the Coconut Battery program. I use my MB 1.2 almost every day since I purchased it last year.


So your 85% is probably not unusual.

But after reading the above post I might go into apple and see if I can get it improved. Well checked my serial number and I'm out of warranty

It's still a great computer.
 
So Just to compare I have a 2 week old 2016 M5 / 512 ... 9 cycles and already 97% .... wow it replaced a 2014 rMBP after 18 18 months was still at 96% ... all i can say is Wow :(
 
But when you use that battery app, your mac should be at idle for at least 5 min.
The heat under load or especially under full load affect the battery real health
 
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For reference, there is some variability and I think it takes some time for new batteries to properly register. Coconut battery was showing the battery health on my brand new m7 at 97.6% the other day. Today it is registering 99.4%.
 
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well have Coconut and Battery Guard ..now showing after 10 cycles 96.8% was 96.9% wow 0.1 % per cycle and down again from last night after one more cycle !! so only 61% after a year ... is this real ? .... whats the best tool to measure and what are others experience on Wear

I don't leave it plugged n all the time ... i plug in over night to charge then its off all day being used don't even take charger with me ... just the way i use my iPad and iPhone .... I'm usually back with 20 to 30% after all day usage

Just adding apple care "just in case" ...
 
Is it not the moulded batteries due to the need to make it thin and light?

I have a relative with a Macbook Air with 360 cycles at 85%.
 
Battery health ratings fluctuate. Down and also upwards.

I find if you punish the machine on battery a lot (fast drain by working it hard on battery) the health takes a hit for a while.

Slower charge/discharge and it will recover a bit. Just what I've seen over 5 years with my 15" pro. Ymmv
 
throAU said:
Battery health ratings fluctuate. Down and also upwards.

I find if you punish the machine on battery a lot (fast drain by working it hard on battery) the health takes a hit for a while.

Slower charge/discharge and it will recover a bit. Just what I've seen over 5 years with my 15" pro. Ymmv
Click to expand...


Well in my case I'm using it for what is was designed for ... email Powerpoint and Excel ... business tool ... showing customers presentations etc ... so no "power user" usage ... only slow discharge ... and it does the recharge every night in clamshell mode on its own ...

My previous experience with MacBooks from 2002 to today has always been great with little to no wear on the battery after hundreds of cycles each ... seems something strange here either with the macbook or the software I'm using to measure it with ... lets see
 
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