Drain mbp battery or keep charging?

[KSaebin]

Hi,
I'm wondering, what is better for prolonging your macbook pro's battery life, is it

1. drain the battery, recharge it fully, plug out the source, drain it, and recharge it again

or

2. keep charging it whenever you have a power source and never drain it?

I've always been doing #2 because I use the laptop a lot and home and it would just be a hassle to keep switching the power source on and off.
But then I heard that it's bad if you overcharge your battery, so once in awhile I try to do #1. Last night, though, my friend told me it's bad for your battery if you drain it all the time.

So which is, in fact, good or bad for your mbp?

Thanks in advance!

 

[uncletoby]

Hi,
I'm wondering, what is better for prolonging your macbook pro's battery life, is it

1. drain the battery, recharge it fully, plug out the source, drain it, and recharge it again

or

2. keep charging it whenever you have a power source and never drain it?

I've always been doing #2 because I use the laptop a lot and home and it would just be a hassle to keep switching the power source on and off.
But then I heard that it's bad if you overcharge your battery, so once in awhile I try to do #1. Last night, though, my friend told me it's bad for your battery if you drain it all the time.

So which is, in fact, good or bad for your mbp?

Thanks in advance!

Conventional wisdom says, drain a battery as far as you can, charge it as far as you can, that keeps it healthy.

I can't find the link, but Gizmodo did a long piece recently explaining the science of batteries, and basically, the conventional wisdom isn't quite right. Overcharging a battery, and especially draining it too far to the end, put it through chemical strains that permanently lessen its electrical capacity. The un-conventional, but scientifically correct, ideal, is to keep a battery "middle-charged" as much as possible. It will not lose capacity just because you fail to exercise its extremes.

I know Apple's battery management keeps a reserve and shuts a device down so it doesn't go below a true 10% charge, and I suspect the charging system shuts down when your MBP / iPhone / etc is near 100% to keep it from overcharging. So I think you are safe just using your MBP as you please. Worst case, you pay $150 and replace the battery after a couple of years. To me, that kind of fee is worth not obsessing over it.

 

[Perdification]

Hi,
I'm wondering, what is better for prolonging your macbook pro's battery life, is it

1. drain the battery, recharge it fully, plug out the source, drain it, and recharge it again

or

2. keep charging it whenever you have a power source and never drain it?

I've always been doing #2 because I use the laptop a lot and home and it would just be a hassle to keep switching the power source on and off.
But then I heard that it's bad if you overcharge your battery, so once in awhile I try to do #1. Last night, though, my friend told me it's bad for your battery if you drain it all the time.

So which is, in fact, good or bad for your mbp?

Thanks in advance!

Believe Apple : http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html

Don't leave it plugged in all the time though, it kills the battery way faster than anything. Lithium based batteries can withstand half charges, that means you don't have to drain it fully before you charge. Just use it normally without worrying too much about it, but don't leave it plugged in always.

 

[toxic]

discharging it every time is pointless. just don't leave it plugged in for months at a time.

 

[GGJstudios]

This should answer most, if not all, of your battery questions: Apple Notebook Battery FAQ

 

[KSaebin]

Thank you for all the answers!

 

[Stingray454]

discharging it every time is pointless. just don't leave it plugged in for months at a time.

I honestly think this isn't a problem either. There are controllers for the charging that manages how to charge the battery when plugged in. It won't overcharge your battery. I used my MBP while plugged in for months at the time, and when running on battery I still got the specified battery time. Now I get slightly less, but the computer is 2 years old, so I guess this is perfectly normal.

 

[GGJstudios]

I honestly think this isn't a problem either. There are controllers for the charging that manages how to charge the battery when plugged in. It won't overcharge your battery. I used my MBP while plugged in for months at the time, and when running on battery I still got the specified battery time.

Read the link I posted. Leaving your MBP plugged in for months at a time will shorten its life. It's not an overcharging issue. It's a lack of electrons moving.

Now I get slightly less, but the computer is 2 years old, so I guess this is perfectly normal.

Have you calibrated, to make sure your readings are accurate? The calibration steps are also in the link I posted.

 

[Jack06]

I usually, keep it plugged in (but sleeping) then when I want to use it, either on my desk or elsewhere I unplug it, usually the 2-3 hours of charge is more then enough for me to accomplish what I wanted to do. Then I just plug it in again.
I usually leave it unplugged overnight as even after 10 hours sleeping it rarely falls below 96%