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Does keeping your macbook plugged in lose overall battery capacity?

H

hatcher146

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 26, 2007
419
0
north carolina
for the past month i think i've kept my macbook plugged into the wall. and the battery meter now says 95% but it says fully charged...and the green light is on? is keeping it plugged in hurting my overall charge?

thanks
 
No, as the charging circuit should bypass the battery when it's fully charged. Just condition the battery periodically and you'll be fine. In fact, it may even get better!

My max capacity in mAh has been increasing steadily!
 

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JohnNotBeatle said:
No, as the charging circuit should bypass the battery when it's fully charged. Just condition the battery periodically and you'll be fine. In fact, it may even get better!

My max capacity in mAh has been increasing steadily!
Click to expand...

You've owned the machine for 7 months, and have had only 5 cycles!?

I've owned mine for 5 months, and already have over 40 on it.
 
hatcher146 said:
for the past month i think i've kept my macbook plugged into the wall. and the battery meter now says 95% but it says fully charged...and the green light is on? is keeping it plugged in hurting my overall charge?

thanks
Click to expand...

What you're seeing is battery protection in action. Your battery will not charge if the charge was above 95% at the time you began a charge. As the battery gradually looses its charge over the course of a couple days, 100% become 99%, 98%, etc, after days and weeks. If your battery dips below 95%, it will charge back up to 100% again, and you'll see the red light come back on. :)
 
I finally got a MBP that doesn't have the yellow screen, but unfortunately it shipped with a batter that only has 96% life. Hasn't changed at all. I can still get over 5 hours life if i have everything turned down/off. So that's fine.
 
Sweet, i was wondering how to condition a battery as well... Ill have ot go through that when I go home. Even thoguh my MBP is less than a month old.
 
JohnNotBeatle said:
No, as the charging circuit should bypass the battery when it's fully charged. Just condition the battery periodically and you'll be fine. In fact, it may even get better!

My max capacity in mAh has been increasing steadily!
Click to expand...

When they say condition the battery, it just means to let the computer run on battery until the power shuts off and then recharge it right? How do you have 5 cycles when you regularly condition? :confused:
 
peapody said:
When they say condition the battery, it just means to let the computer run on battery until the power shuts off and then recharge it right? How do you have 5 cycles when you regularly condition? :confused:
Click to expand...

Intel models (macbook+macbook pro) require a 5 hour rest period in which the computer cannot be plugged in. This is 5 hours after the battery has "died." This is to ensure that the battery has really run out of power, as the macbook and macbook pro keep some reserve power.


As for his 5 to 7 discrepancy, he might have forgotten one or two. ;)
 
TheStu said:
14 months, 240+ cycles (Student, ergo unplugged A LOT!)
Click to expand...

3 months and 110 cycles, I think I got you beat. (time/cycles)

-with 100% battery health according to istat and I get slightly longer battery life then when I first bought my Macbook.

I am using my Macbook every day for at least 4-5 hours a day sometimes double that. Hell even right now I'm watching a movie in the livingroom with my dad and doing some work on it while on the couch.

I love notebooks. :D
 
I would say no. I use mine plugged in most of the time and it's still at 100%.
 
Since we are comparing cycles, I have heard that Apple voids the warranty on a battery after 300 cycles. Can anyone confirm that? I guess it is understandable considering 300 cycles, but I just want to be sure.
 
What everyone wrote is true. It's normal for a plugged battery to read at say 95%.

It's also far from the norm to keep a laptop plugged in 100% of the time.

You are doing nothing wrong.

With anything battery charged, it's good to run the battery down all the way and then charge it without use once in a while.

I can't brag on cycles because I feel the more cycles the harder to sell my laptop in the future. I don't want to buy a laptop with 1000 cycles. This means the laptop has been "around".

It just makes sense. I'm low on that point and plan on keeping it low based on school and work conditions.
 
Questions:

What is calibrating a battery, and how?
What is the best software for an intel C2D Leopard to test the battery etc?


My battery has never died on me. I have had it go on reserve battery power 3 times though before I charged it.
I get about 2 hours battery life with BT on, brightness on full, and running about 5 apps on average (itunes, msn, imail, safari, etc)
 
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