External battery for Mac air? Safe to use?

[nariza7]

I was wondering if anyone had any experience with external batteries for the Mac air. Since I only get like 4-6 hours of use on my 11 inch Mac air, I was looking at possibly getting a backup external battery. I am worried that there are negative effects to using an external battery such as battery cycle issues, quick overheating issues, etc. I am looking at this battery too http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B45EOYS/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_8?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I you guys have any thoughts or hands n experience, I would love to hear them

 

[Bear]

I was wondering if anyone had any experience with external batteries for the Mac air. Since I only get like 4-6 hours of use on my 11 inch Mac air, I was looking at possibly getting a backup external battery. I am worried that there are negative effects to using an external battery such as battery cycle issues, quick overheating issues, etc. I am looking at this battery too http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B45EOYS/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_8?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I you guys have any thoughts or hands n experience, I would love to hear them

That battery you linked doesn't have the right adapter to power any type of MacBook.

An external battery like that should be no problem except for the extra weight you'd need to carry around. And of course it would need to have the right adapter for your MacBook Air.

 

[antjefferson]

I was wondering if anyone had any experience with external batteries for the Mac air. Since I only get like 4-6 hours of use on my 11 inch Mac air, I was looking at possibly getting a backup external battery. I am worried that there are negative effects to using an external battery such as battery cycle issues, quick overheating issues, etc. I am looking at this battery too http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B45EOYS/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_8?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I you guys have any thoughts or hands n experience, I would love to hear them

I own that exact battery - and it's awesome. While it doesnt come with the lightning adapter, you could simply get a 30 pin to lightning adapter (as it DOES come with a 30 pin connector). I haven't used it with a MBA yet (I haven't received mine yet), but I have used it extensively with my PC laptops and havent had any ill battery effects or heat issues...just lots and lots of extra battery when I need it!

 

[johnjey]

Lol what...are we talking about external battery for a 2013 11'inch MAC already ? Hope you aren't using it for gaming...otherwise it should last 7 hours at least but then it depends if you play netflix or flash or word processing or windows softwares or video encoding or lol....i think just having a Notepad only gives it a 8 hour battery...this haswell so far has NOT been that impressive to me...too much exaggeration on the awesome battery...with actual work and real world usage, it sobs around at 5.5 to 6 hours that too if we are lucky i guess...

 

[nariza7]

Yeah my mac air (11/i7/8) so far gave me like a 5:11 hr battery estimate for having the mac app store opened and 1 chrome tab opened with wifi on / bluetooth off / screen brightness 6 clicks away from max / keyboard light at 3 clicks. I haven't been impressed by the battery life, and I was hoping I'd get as much battery life as I can from using lightroom. I am used to searching for ac plugs in coffee shops and at the school library, but it'd be nice to not have to worry about not having an ac plug nearby. I really wonder what conditions they tested to get the 7-9 hours, and also how others on this forum managed to get 8+ hours. This guy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrc1uIIeppk mentioned that the mac air can provide about 4 hours of lightroom work unplugged. If my estimate is at 5 hours with what little tasks I am doing, I don't see how I can last 4 hours on lightroom. My 5:11 estimate was also started at 100% after I had turned it on and had it sleep for 12 hours (surprisingly stayed at 100% for 12 hours). I dont think any other tasks were running because of this. Then again, my estimates keep jumping so I cant say for sure how long it can last. I just wanted to see what others thought about in regards to an external battery.

 

[JAT]

Maybe you should actually use it thru a few battery cycles to find out before blowing cash. Battery estimates are always crap, as you've found out.

 

[skinny*k]

Apple will not license the use of the MagSafe connector to 3rd parties, so external battery manufacturers cannot provide adapters for Apple laptops.
Some venders make adapters from Apple chargers, but the price includes the price of the Apple charger, making this a pricy option; for example, see http://www.mikegyver.com/

If you have basic electrical knowledge, and some skill with a soldering iron, you can make an adapter from your MBA's charger cable, and still be able to use your charger; see http://pangea.stanford.edu/~schmitt/magsafe/

Its a fairly simple hack that will only add the cost of a couple of cable connectors (less than $5) to the price of your external battery.

 

[destrecht]

There are at least three

The most powerful, newest, and most versatile batteries at Quickertek will both run and charge your macbook air. And contrary to the naysayers, it uses a cable made from a genuine oem apple magsafe (1 or 2) that comes with it. They are truly awesome.

http://www.quickertek.com/batteries.html

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Apple will not license the use of the MagSafe connector to 3rd parties, so external battery manufacturers cannot provide adapters for Apple laptops.

Quickertek does. Apple won't allow other companies to make their own MagSafes, like a certain company that's really big from China tried to do.