Do not leave your new MBook Pro on the charger for a month

[jmeaux6]

Bought a 17" Macbook Pro in November 09. Good stuff, I used it a lot but it wasn't fast enough for my needs so in January or Feb of 2010 I picked up a 27" quadcore iMac, amazing, I highly recommend them. I used the new iMac so much I almost forgot about the MBPro leaving it on the charger all of the time. I had heard that this was ok to do and wouldn't stress out the battery because the new chargers were "smart".

Big Mistake.

I used it maybe three times since January and now instead of getting the 8 hours I used to on battery saver mode I'm getting about 3.5 hours (battery says it's at 95% health which doesn't make a whole lot of sense.)

Would it be better to let the battery completely drain down and leave it off of the charger until I need it?

Just wanted to make everyone aware of this.

 

[spinnerlys]

Standard Maintenance

For proper maintenance of a lithium-based battery, it’s important to keep the electrons in it moving occasionally. Apple does not recommend leaving your portable plugged in all the time. An ideal use would be a commuter who uses her MacBook Pro on the train, then plugs it in at the office to charge. This keeps the battery juices flowing. If on the other hand, you use a desktop computer at work, and save a notebook for infrequent travel, Apple recommends charging and discharging its battery at least once per month.

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

 

[martynjd]

Boom

 

[Darwin]

Long term storage of a battery would be that you keep it at around 50% full with the system shut down without being plugged into the charger. To keep it full or flat in storage will reduce the capacity of the drive quicker than normal

As for the health new batteries start at 100% where their full capacity can be achieved. This drops over time, basically the moment you start using a drive it will slowly begin to degrade.

Heres Apples guide to dealing with these batteries.

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

 

[Stetrain]

Calibrate your battery?

 

[spinnerlys]

never mind

 

[iSax1234]

duh?

 

[rmbrown09]

would Apple care cover a battery that has lost most of it's charge?

 

[omgitscro]

would Apple care cover a battery that has lost most of it's charge?

60% health within one year is typically when certain Apple Retail locations may decide (at their own discretion) to replace your battery.

 

[jmeaux6]

Just pulled it off the charger and now it says I have 5.75 hrs left instead of 3.5 like it did yesterday. It's still not the 8 hours I got when it was brand new but it's definitely better than 3.5.

I used this thing for 6hrs a day for about a solid month and maybe 4 times after that since Jan and istat nano says the battery has gone through 168 cycles. Does this seem right? I have no idea what a cycle is. Would it "cycle" even if it's just sitting on a charger at 100% ?

Thanks for the 50% tip and the apple link

 

[BrianMR]

I've had two batteries replaced under AppleCare. They do a health check test on it, depends on how many cycles and whether it will take a charge.