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Coconut Battery
- Thread starter Dat1Si912
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I'm not familiar with this app, but I seem to recall the professor on Gilligan's Island making batteries out of coconuts.
hi I am a new user for macbook air mid 2013 13" and I just got this laptop 2 1/2 weeks ago. I have been told that coconut battery app is great. Is this healthy for the battery?
Yes
You want to watch the capacity, that show how well the batter can charge. My old 2010 MBP battery retained 86% after around 340 cycles (you have 11 there).
These builtin batteries by apple are supposed to be very very good and can handle something like 1000 cycles before the battery goes bad, which I believe their definition is when it no longer hold 70% of the charges in the course of normal wear.
hi I am a new user for macbook air mid 2013 13" and I just got this laptop 2 1/2 weeks ago. I have been told that coconut battery app is great. Is this healthy for the battery?
Is WHAT healthy for the battery? That app?
nope
That app shows that the current capacity is _above_ the design capacity. (!)
That leads me to think that the app may not be too accurate about that, or is simply not quite compatible with your new MBAir.
But, it just reports information about your hardware, so IMHO you don't have any reason to suspect there is any danger to the health of the battery.
Something that throws me off a little bit is when its not on charging with the adapter. Let me see if i can give you an example:
Right now I am watching a movie on Netflix, iMessaging and web browsing on Safari with 2 more tabs:
My computer would say 100% but the app would say 98%...that's kind of throwing me off a bit. Should I just delete this app?
Right now I am watching a movie on Netflix, iMessaging and web browsing on Safari with 2 more tabs:
My computer would say 100% but the app would say 98%...that's kind of throwing me off a bit. Should I just delete this app?
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Why not use the laptop and not worry about battery cycles
Its a neat app that shows you the cycles but it has really no impact. Just use the computer, enjoy it, don't sweat the small stuff and when its time to replace the battery, replace it.
As I read this, I deleted the app. You're right, I should just enjoy the laptop
Thank you.Just to comment on this, sometimes the app or the battery drop down menu tend to get messed up. The battery menu can be fixed by turning percent off and then turning it back on, sometimes it get stuck when charging or discharging
There is nothing wrong with that app and it won't hurt your computer. The app is correct and Mavericks is fudging the percent readout.
Code:
ioreg -w0 -l | grep CapacityRun this command in Terminal and you will see the output (straight from the OS) matches exactly what is shown in Coconut battery. If you do the math on the output for current vs max (7292/7395 = .986 ~99% in my case) you will see it matches Coconut battery also. I have done this before at lower charge levels of around 80% and it still holds true. Coconut matches the Terminal output and is accurate.
I like it just to take a look at battery cycles and such once in a while. It is up to you. Like others mentioned, just don't obsess over battery life too much.
I like it just to take a look at battery cycles and such once in a while. It is up to you. Like others mentioned, just don't obsess over battery life too much.
I ran the terminal with the code you provided and it showed that. LOL.
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I have no idea why Mavs is fudging that % reading. Maybe they don't want people getting concerned when the reading floats up and down between 96-100 all the time.
Meh, I won't fret over it anymore. LOL. I'm gonna use that app for battery cycles only then.
Thank you for your help, Mr Weasel.
It's not Mavericks. I've had other laptops do this in previous version of the OS, including my MBA 2013 running on Mountain Lion, and even my old 2010 MBP when it ran Snow Leopard.
My theory is that new batteries just fluctuate like that for a while before settling down. Sometimes they will report a capacity that exceeds the specs for a while, and might actually perform at that level too. At the end of the day, it's a bunch of chemical goo storing electrical energy, and as we've seen with the countless batteries that have swollen (and worse) over the years, it's still not a perfect, exact science.
If you're that concerned about it, don't worry... eventually, the battery will drop below the rated capacity, and then you'll fret over that even more.
Even though that, too, is normal (if not desirable by people who want their batteries to last forever).
I am familiar with the battery behavior of "floating" around 93-100% or so, and I too have always seen that before. But in the past if Coconut Battery or the ioreg command showed say 98%, the menu bar would also show 98%. This issue with the menu bar not matching Coconut or ioreg is the part I believe is new. I never saw this on prior OS X versions.
If you go to "about this mac/power", you will see that your battery is still charging, you don't have to run terminal commands for that info.
After that green light, it takes around extra 40-50 minutes on my Macbook Air 13 2012 for full charge.
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It's not Mavericks. I've had other laptops do this in previous version of the OS, including my MBA 2013 running on Mountain Lion, and even my old 2010 MBP when it ran Snow Leopard.
My theory is that new batteries just fluctuate like that for a while before settling down. Sometimes they will report a capacity that exceeds the specs for a while, and might actually perform at that level too. At the end of the day, it's a bunch of chemical goo storing electrical energy, and as we've seen with the countless batteries that have swollen (and worse) over the years, it's still not a perfect, exact science.
If you're that concerned about it, don't worry... eventually, the battery will drop below the rated capacity, and then you'll fret over that even more.
+1. I had it on ML too.
I also read some iPhone review where they state similar behavior (even if phone shows 100 % it is still charging a little), so i leave my iPhone 5 charging for extra 30 minutes at least.
Correction.
My bad, i misread your post, sorry.
I was saying that when it reaches 100 % it's still charging, so different case.
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I noticed that in coconut battery, like right now:
Before I place the charger in, I was skyping with my sister with video chat for a good 30-40 minute, it dropped from 100% to 84% then now I'm charging it. It turned green about 10 minutes ago. So with that said, seeing that it takes an extra 30-45 minutes for the to fully charge. I see that happening in the app, after almost an hour, both design and current capacity are the same numbers.
And when I go downstairs for 2 hours max without the charge adapter connected/plugged into the laptop, it goes from 14 hours to 12 hours, but the %'s kinda throws me off, saying 93% or 90% with 7 hours to 9 hours. Now that's something I don't get lol.
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Removing Coconut Battery from MBA 2013 Mavericks
How can I remove this app as I cannot fine it under apps - please advise
How can I remove this app as I cannot fine it under apps - please advise
Open Finder and type coconut in the search bar at the top then click "This Mac" in the search bar and you should see it. Just drag it to the trash. It sounds like maybe you installed it to a non-standard location.
The most effective method for complete app removal is manual deletion:
Is WHAT healthy for the battery? That app?
nope
That app shows that the current capacity is _above_ the design capacity. (!)
That leads me to think that the app may not be too accurate about that, or is simply not quite compatible with your new MBAir.
But, it just reports information about your hardware, so IMHO you don't have any reason to suspect there is any danger to the health of the battery.
What coconut battery is reporting is the nominal otherwise known as 'design capacity' of the battery. Battery manufacturers make a target for their battery in which that is the approximate minimum rating of a new battery. Due to design tolerance many batteries will happily exceed that which is good. OP, the app isn't lying to you and is in fact showing you have a 'strong or better than average battery'
I apologize in advance if I'm repeating others.
But to make it simple: Your MBA battery is working just fine, great in fact.
I have used coconut battery since 2009. It hasn't been updated for a LONG time but it still works for battery capacity and charge cycles.
The reason that your battery percentage in the menubar and coconut battery do not agree is by design (aka Apple did this on purpose). Apple sets the scale that most users see so that above 95% (actual battery capacity) is displayed as 100% battery capacity.
Why do this? Because when you plug in a charger it will only start charging if your battery drops below 95% and I'm guessing that apple doesn't want you confused if you plug in your laptop and it is at 96% and doesn't go up. This is to preserve the health of your battery but could be confusing to the average consumer who thinks: Why isn't my battery charging?!
If you look in system information (no fancy 3rd party apps) it will tell you the exact same thing coconut battery tells you. Because that is the actual battery percentage.
But to make it simple: Your MBA battery is working just fine, great in fact.
I have used coconut battery since 2009. It hasn't been updated for a LONG time but it still works for battery capacity and charge cycles.
The reason that your battery percentage in the menubar and coconut battery do not agree is by design (aka Apple did this on purpose). Apple sets the scale that most users see so that above 95% (actual battery capacity) is displayed as 100% battery capacity.
Why do this? Because when you plug in a charger it will only start charging if your battery drops below 95% and I'm guessing that apple doesn't want you confused if you plug in your laptop and it is at 96% and doesn't go up. This is to preserve the health of your battery but could be confusing to the average consumer who thinks: Why isn't my battery charging?!
If you look in system information (no fancy 3rd party apps) it will tell you the exact same thing coconut battery tells you. Because that is the actual battery percentage.
Thank you for the reassurance and no you're not repeating. If anything you're all very nice to give me such detail of the device I'm using.
Thank you.