Battery Problem?

[jstar88]

Here is my situation:
I just bought my macbook pro (mid 2009) model this january and the specific details for the battery are as follows using coconutBattery:
Battery-Loadcycles:18
Age of your Mac: 8 Months
Current Battery Capacity: 5032 mAh (92%)
Original Battery Capacity: 5450 mAh

My problem is that everything was all fine from January to May with a battery health of 97% and then I recalibrated my mbp last month and the health all of a suddenly dropped to 92%.
I would consider it a relatively new laptop and when I unplug the charger, I only get about 4 hrs of battery life with 50% brightness and nothing but airport on.
I was wondering if I should just go to the apple genius people in my situation. Is this a problem with the battery or does that happen to everybody?

 

[M-B-P]

DId you try to calibrate?

do you mostly run it off the power adaptor? i mean you have only had 18 cycles in about 6 months. Does anyone know if it is bad to have it running mostly on power?

 

[ECUpirate44]

From what ive gathered, the best way to keep a battery healthy is to use it.

 

[celticpride678]

Check Activity Monitor. If anything is taking up more than 10% CPU, post it here.

Apple will replace your battery for free if the capacity is under 100% and it is under 300 cycles.

 

[jstar88]

Yes, I calibrated it once and because my battery health dropped so much after that one time, I haven't done it again.
I always keep my computer plugged in too besides probably one hour a day taking it to class.

Nothing is taking more than 10% CPU.

So is this a problem with my battery then? I'm really picky about having a good battery because my old laptop could only stay unplugged for a bout 45 minutes. Should i take it to apple genius?

 

[jstar88]

bump bump...

 

[macgirl89]

I have to agree that using the battery does keep its health in good shape. I have been using my battery quite a lot (265 cycles in 10 months) and my battery health is still at 100%. So, my advice is to use it off battery a lot more and see if the health improves.

 

[Ramphex]

recalibrate it again, the reading might've got thrown off... once you recalibrate again, come back and post results to see if it's the battery or something just wasn't completely right in your calibration process