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Do you use your macbook/pro on battery

kissymac7

kissymac7

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 24, 2015
28
8
The world
Hi, I recently got a new macbook pro 2015 15 inch and I am obsessing over the battery cycle. I really want to maximize my power cycles and I am afraid of it hitting any high numbers, because now the retina battery replacements are more costly than the original ones.

Now I am on my laptop maybe 8 to 9 hours a day and most of those hours I use it on charge. Mainly because I am doing highly intensive things like photoshop and final cut pro.

But I also know you have to use it on battery from time to time.

So do you use your macbook/pro on battery most of the times? Or do you use it on a charger? If you take your macbook out doors with you, do you bring your charger or leave it at home?

I know this is a laptop and it is designed to be mobile not glued to a brick charger, but I can't help myself.
 
kissymac7 said:
I am obsessing over the battery cycle.
Click to expand...

Don't.

So do you use your macbook/pro on battery most of the times? Or do you use it on a charger? If you take your macbook out doors with you, do you bring your charger or leave it at home?
Click to expand...

Plug it in when you can and run it off the battery when you need to. I even have the percentage indicator turned off. It's not accurate and it's unnecessary.
 
In my area, we get electricity load shedding for around 3 hours/day. So during my office hours, I keep my rMBP 15" 2014 plugged in all the time. At home, I keep my rMBP plugged in all the time. But during the 1-2 hours of load shedding, my Macbook runs on battery. I keep on using my laptop, doesn't matter if external power is available or not because that's the purpose of having a battery computer. Also sometimes I use my laptop on my couch without it being plugged in. With this type of usage, my battery consumes a load cycle every ~5 days. It's been 9 months since I bought this laptop and I have consumed 74 load cycles. But that doesn't bother me because battery is a deplete-able component and eventually you'll be needing it to replace it after 3-4 years even if you don't use much of the load cycles. So stop losing your sleep over it.
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Know you will need the charger...bring the charger.

Don't, well...don't.

I do stuff with video its on the charger (and on the t-bolt display tbh). can expect some heavy usage for a while. My case its the exporting to pro res from game capture device, import to FCP and whatever voodoo magic in there.

Now at lunch I eat at the desk at work and run the MBP with no charger. has enough battery to run minecraft a good hour and change over my lunch break no issues. Wanna say I get to 50-60ish % like this. don't see the need or have desire to carry the power brick so I don't.

Just see how she runs without a charger basically when you have the chance and not end of world if she runs dry.


The complete drain battery cycle while a nice to do does not have to be a major event. It can be as simple as picking a day a month or couple of months you can pick a time to let her run out completely. Pick a game you don't care much about or play for genuine fun (since not sure how the sudden power loss may affect a save best to not care about the sudden dump from game), let her rip and at some point she goes dark. Games I find speed up the draining while being entertaining in the process. Watched pot never boils applies here otherwise I found.

I make this a end of night thing so the few hour sit no power happens when I sleep. Wake up, plug her in and there is the power cycle no muss no fuss really.
 
hiddenmarkov said:
Know you will need the charger...bring the charger.

Don't, well...don't.

I do stuff with video its on the charger (and on the t-bolt display tbh). can expect some heavy usage for a while. My case its the exporting to pro res from game capture device, import to FCP and whatever voodoo magic in there.

Now at lunch I eat at the desk at work and run the MBP with no charger. has enough battery to run minecraft a good hour and change over my lunch break no issues. Wanna say I get to 50-60ish % like this. don't see the need or have desire to carry the power brick so I don't.

Just see how she runs without a charger basically when you have the chance and not end of world if she runs dry.


The complete drain battery cycle while a nice to do does not have to be a major event. It can be as simple as picking a day a month or couple of months you can pick a time to let her run out completely. Pick a game you don't care much about or play for genuine fun (since not sure how the sudden power loss may affect a save best to not care about the sudden dump from game), let her rip and at some point she goes dark. Games I find speed up the draining while being entertaining in the process. Watched pot never boils applies here otherwise I found.

I make this a end of night thing so the few hour sit no power happens when I sleep. Wake up, plug her in and there is the power cycle no muss no fuss really.
Click to expand...

That is all completely unnecessary.

Just run the Mac off of the battery occasionally. Partial discharge/charge cycles are good enough. There is no reason to run it down to 0%, it doesn't help anything.
 
kissymac7 said:
Hi, I recently got a new macbook pro 2015 15 inch and I am obsessing
Click to expand...
There's your problem right there. Don't.

The battery is just like a car's warranty. It has a finite life, whether it be cycles or a certain amount of time.

It'll crap out, on its own, no matter how much you obsess over it. Expect 3 to 5 years of usable life before it needs replacing and that's that. There is NOTHING, I repeat, NOTHING, you can do to change that.
 
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At home I constantly leave my MacBook Pro on charger. But I know I'm going to use it mostly on just the battery, although I will bring the charger with me. At least, my training requires me to use virtual machines and all that powerful stuff, so I will definitely need that charger at some days (the longest ones).

Anyway, like others are saying I wouldn't worry about it. Never did this, with any notebook I've had. Let out with a MacBook, because its battery lifetime is way better compared to the one in most other laptops. Just use it how you want.
 
I use it for a couple hours each weekend on the battery. Coffee shops, etc. But most of the time I am plugged in at my desk.
 
I rarely use my 2015 MBP and 2012 MBP on battery. Though I have a Mac Mini as a desktop, I use the MBPs and prefer them over any desktop. I like the built in battery for the few times a year we lose power and I can then tether from my phone and get online and I'll have up to ten hours of usage between the two computers.

My 2015 has 9 cycles on it and I bought it back in May. My 2012 has 8 and I bought it in July.
 
I use Logic Pro on battery occasionally to mix some audio stuff I work on. When at home I plug it in at my studio. When at work I just use it on battery. Hardly any difference in performance. I don't bring my charger with me because I get 8-10 hours of battery unless I'm in Logic a lot. I don't have 8-10 hours to use my laptop while at work so I just don't bring the charger and I don't stress about it. I think twice in 6 months I ran the battery flat at work. My cycle count is 55 and I've had the laptop since August. Don't obsess about your battery cycles. Just use the laptop.

If the battery dies in a few years you just buy a new one for $129 if you wanted to keep the laptop. $2000 investment plus $129 after 3-5 years should not be a deal breaker, assuming you even have to replace the battery. Usually by 5 years technology has evolved enough that you want to upgrade anyways. So you sell the laptop on eBay for $800 and buy a new one. Or you don't. Either way, don't worry about battery cycles. As someone else pointed out, you can't do anything about it anyways.
 
Don't worry about the battery too much, I plug mine in at home, run on battery in school or in bed, I don't worry and I'm happy. Those things are durable.
 
kissymac7 said:
Hi, I recently got a new macbook pro 2015 15 inch and I am obsessing over the battery cycle. I really want to maximize my power cycles and I am afraid of it hitting any high numbers, because now the retina battery replacements are more costly than the original ones.

Now I am on my laptop maybe 8 to 9 hours a day and most of those hours I use it on charge. Mainly because I am doing highly intensive things like photoshop and final cut pro.

But I also know you have to use it on battery from time to time.

So do you use your macbook/pro on battery most of the times? Or do you use it on a charger? If you take your macbook out doors with you, do you bring your charger or leave it at home?

I know this is a laptop and it is designed to be mobile not glued to a brick charger, but I can't help myself.
Click to expand...
[doublepost=1455492474][/doublepost]mine is a older 2007 and 99% is with charger hooked up.
 
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