Finally using Aldente

[Apple_Robert]

AlDente Pro is (lifetime license) on sale right now for $21.82.

I highly recommend getting this app. It works a lot better than Apple's battery optimization feature and AlDente Pro also has a lot more features.

Pricing - AppHouseKitchen

Compare our plans side-by-side and choose the one that fits your workflow. Whether you’re a casual user or a pro, AlDente has you covered.

apphousekitchen.com

 

[icanhazmac]

AlDente Pro is (lifetime license) on sale right now for $21.82.

I highly recommend getting this app. It works a lot better than Apple's battery optimization feature and AlDente Pro also has a lot more features.

Pricing - AppHouseKitchen

Compare our plans side-by-side and choose the one that fits your workflow. Whether you’re a casual user or a pro, AlDente has you covered.

apphousekitchen.com

Just got it, thanks for the info!

 

[OSXphoto]

I wrote this reply in a different topic, but I think here is a better fit:

is there any benefit to using aldenta as opposed to just, not going below 20% or above 80%?

Yes it's a feature called sailing mode. Just read the blog on apphousekitchen and then let it sink in. You might grasp (took me some time) the concept after the third read.
What it does is stop charging the battery once the charge limit (e.g. 80%) is reached. You might think "Well I do the same thing, I just unplug the charger manually at 80%". But it's not the same thing really. Sailing mode stops the energy flow from charger to battery but it maintains the energy flow from charger to the macbook. So the battery is effectively disengaged and the macbook is running on AC power as long as it's connected.
If you would simply unplug the charger at 80% manually, the battery will start discharging. After a day of desk work your battery will drain and will need to be recharged, resulting in another cycle and one tiny step closer to death. My Late 2013 battery lasted around 1000-1100 cycles and the replacement battery is now at 924. This is after 10 years of usage.
I have been using aldente (free version) on my 16" M1 Max for a year now and the battery health is 100% according to Apple (Ventura battery settings), but 98% according to Coconutbattery Plus. I have 71 cycles in 12 months.
I started using AlDente Pro two weeks ago and I have only had one cycle since.

 

[OSXphoto]

Also, I would recommend grabbing a lower power charger for a heavy duty macbook pro like the M1 Max I have, if you have one lying around. The 140W charger that comes with the M1 Max turbo charges your battery in a very short time, which is harmful to the battery. I am now using a 30W MacBook Air 2020 M1 charger which may take over two hours to get from 20% to 80%, but the slower pace doesn't scare the heck out of your battery cells.

Additionally, if you use AlDente Pro sailing mode:
After the battery has been charged to 80% (or whatever limit you desire), unplug the 30W charger and plug in the 140W charger. Why? The sailing mode cuts the energy flow to the battery, so at first glance it won't make much of a difference what charger you use. But: once your Macbook starts working hard, it may draw more than 30W power from the charger, so when you use the 30W charger, the battery must jump back in and charger and battery work in tandem to provide adequate energy to the macbook. This will discharge the battery a little. With the 140W charger, this will not happen and your battery charge will remain 80% for the entire day or even two.

Just my €0,02

 

[ArkSingularity]

Also, I would recommend grabbing a lower power charger for a heavy duty macbook pro like the M1 Max I have, if you have one lying around. The 140W charger that comes with the M1 Max turbo charges your battery in a very short time, which is harmful to the battery. I am now using a 30W MacBook Air 2020 M1 charger which may take over two hours to get from 20% to 80%, but the slower pace doesn't scare the heck out of your battery cells.

Additionally, if you use AlDente Pro sailing mode:
After the battery has been charged to 80% (or whatever limit you desire), unplug the 30W charger and plug in the 140W charger. Why? The sailing mode cuts the energy flow to the battery, so at first glance it won't make much of a difference what charger you use. But: once your Macbook starts working hard, it may draw more than 30W power from the charger, so when you use the 30W charger, the battery must jump back in and charger and battery work in tandem to provide adequate energy to the macbook. This will discharge the battery a little. With the 140W charger, this will not happen and your battery charge will remain 80% for the entire day or even two.

Just my €0,02

I like to use slower chargers too, but one thing that's probably worth considering with these 30W chargers is that if they can't handle all of the normal current spikes that the CPU is going to draw, the laptop is just going to draw from the battery to handle those intermittent spikes (which would end up putting more cycles onto the battery over time).

Whether this would actually negate the benefits of charging more slowly is an entirely different question. I'm not sure that it would personally, but then again, cycling in the 20-80% range does much less wear and tear on the battery anyway (most lithium ion cells can easily withstand several thousand charging cycles in the 20-80% range. It's charging to very high states of charge that does the majority of the wear, and this is what's tested in the factory to arrive at the 1000 cycle lifetime figures).

 

[OSXphoto]

Hi Ark,
I am a perfectionist 😉. You are right if I use the 30W charger to charge while I'm using heavy loads or too many apps simultaneously, there may be continuous charge - micro discharge - charge - micro discharge cycles. Therefore I only recommend to use the 30W charger to go from low battery to 80% while the machine is idle OR when I know for sure there will be no spikes. AlDente can show a graph that indicates what happens. In this example, the 30W charger is powerful enough to both charge the battery and fuel the computer:

But here it's the other way around: the macbook draws 50W and the 30W charger can't keep up so the battery kicks in:

So I can monitor this graph and get a feel for it. When I'm just using email or writing a document, the 30W charger always stays on top of things.

 

[njklusk]

This is a really great response and I appreciate your input. The sailing mode seems really useful, especially considering the fact that I would be able to use my MacBook while its sailing in order to retain a certain charge level and then just unplug it when I am ready to leave. I didn't know about this feature so I am thankful that you told me.

 

[OSXphoto]

I have found a new use for the sailing mode: set the upper charge limit to 80% and then set a 50% sailing range. Why?
well since we know that charging - discharging - charging - and so on - deteriorates the battery, even a 10% sailing range will eventually lead to charging - 80% - discharging - 70% - charging - 80% - and so on. i must state that this is already a massive improvement over not using sailing mode at all, because the battery hardly discharges in sailing mode while the charger is connected. If you hardly unplug the charger throughout the day, it can easily take two days before the unit drops back to 70% because the battery is essentially disconnected so for the battery it feels as if the unit has been powered down.

however, if you’re like me you unplug the unit now and then to take it to another desk, sit on the couch for a while, or bring it with you on the train. So in between there will be some discharge and one may reach a given 10% sailing mode range within a couple of hours, which will activate charging back to 80% Next time the charger is plugged in.

so in comes the 50% sailing mode range. i can plug in and unplug the charger anytime I want and still the unit won’t start a charging cycle until the battery is down to 30%. This way, I am massively reducing the number of charging cycles, much more than when using a 10% sailing mode range. With these settings, sometimes I get four days out of one 80% charge.

to take things even one step further, switch off WiFi before you go to sleep. wifi on enables the unit to keep syncing throughout the night and you may find your battery drops 5-15% during one night. With WiFi off, it can be a only 1-3%.
better yet, power down your MacBook for the night.

thats all for today 😀

 

[jlc1978]

For some reason ADP never works with my M1 or now M3 MBP. Despite setting an 80% limit it always goes to 100%.

 

[OSXphoto]

For some reason ADP never works with my M1 or now M3 MBP. Despite setting an 80% limit it always goes to 100%.

That is quite peculiar. It’s working well on my M1 MBP 16” and reasonably well on my late 2013 MBP 15”. Both units stop charging at 80%.
If you feel it’s worth your time you might try to contact the AD team. I did and I found they’re friendly and willing to help.

 

[jlc1978]

That is quite peculiar. It’s working well on my M1 MBP 16” and reasonably well on my late 2013 MBP 15”. Both units stop charging at 80%.
If you feel it’s worth your time you might try to contact the AD team. I did and I found they’re friendly and willing to help.

Thanks. I tried a reinstall and it appears to be working. Weird

 

[rocketbuc]

Do you guys have recommended settings for Al Dente Pro with my use case?

Have a MacBook Air M2 that I am using in clamshell mode at my desk with external monitor, keyboard and mouse. Most of my work is done at the desk, but occasionally take the MacBook around the house for work on battery. When I am visiting clients or travel I use the Mac mostly on battery.

 

[dstyp]

Do you guys have recommended settings for Al Dente Pro with my use case?

Have a MacBook Air M2 that I am using in clamshell mode at my desk with external monitor, keyboard and mouse. Most of my work is done at the desk, but occasionally take the MacBook around the house for work on battery. When I am visiting clients or travel I use the Mac mostly on battery.

Similar user case for me. I keep it at 80% max all the time. Only exception is longer travel or if I know I might need juice and don't know about the power situation.

Doing the al dente calibration every now and then.

 

[MrGunny94]

Do you guys have recommended settings for Al Dente Pro with my use case?

Have a MacBook Air M2 that I am using in clamshell mode at my desk with external monitor, keyboard and mouse. Most of my work is done at the desk, but occasionally take the MacBook around the house for work on battery. When I am visiting clients or travel I use the Mac mostly on battery.

Using 80% when at home and 100% when travelling basically

 

[XboxEvolved]

So I'm just curious, I am using the free version right now, is there a way to keep it going in the background like in the menu bar, or do you have to buy the Pro version for that?

 

[OSXphoto]

Basically what I wrote here

 

[rubbermac]

I have found a new use for the sailing mode: set the upper charge limit to 80% and then set a 50% sailing range

What about the bit on the product page that says,
“Contrary to popular belief, cycling a battery within a ‘safe’ range, like 30% to 70%, is actually more detrimental to its lifespan than maintaining it at a stable, optimal level, such as 80%. The cycling process accumulates charge cycles more rapidly, accelerating the wear and tear on the battery compared to leaving the MacBook connected at a stable and healthy charge”.

 

[ignatius345]

What about the bit on the product page that says,
“Contrary to popular belief, cycling a battery within a ‘safe’ range, like 30% to 70%, is actually more detrimental to its lifespan than maintaining it at a stable, optimal level, such as 80%. The cycling process accumulates charge cycles more rapidly, accelerating the wear and tear on the battery compared to leaving the MacBook connected at a stable and healthy charge”.

I remoted in to my grandmother's M2 Air the other day to help her with something. She never takes it off the charger because she's afraid she's going to mess something up or plug it back in wrong . Tried many times over the years to get her to unplug every week or two, but she just prefers not to.

Anyway, I noticed this from Apple's built-in power management system, which is pretty cool. This pretty much jibes with my own outlook on batteries, which is just to let the Mac handle it instead of micromanaging.

 

[Alpha Centauri]

Modern Mac batteries no longer need to be calibrated and discharging to 0% does more damage to the battery.

AlDente is a good app. I use it on my M1 MBA (12/24/20) and my battery is still 100% battery health with 33 cycles. I will also use it on my M2 (part 2) when it arrives in a few days.

That's great to hear. I bought my 2023 M2 13 months ago and did see some linear degredation with optimised 80% charging in that time. right from purchase I bought AlDente Pro but reading horror stories, mere fact of intrusive system smc control, I chickened out due to the MBP being so brand new.

Due to water damage and all components+battery replaced, perhaps I should really actually reinstall it to give it a shot. The Apple person during pick up did advise I should try stay between 20 to 80% for longevity. That the way you have yours set? Or rather 30-80%? A partial concern with using Al Dente in AC+ is that they fault/blame potentially use of a 3rd party utility to deny AC+

 

[OSXphoto]

I use 30-80%. My M1 Max is still at 99%. See also here.

 

[Apple_Robert]

That's great to hear. I bought my 2023 M2 13 months ago and did see some linear degredation with optimised 80% charging in that time. right from purchase I bought AlDente Pro but reading horror stories, mere fact of intrusive system smc control, I chickened out due to the MBP being so brand new.

Due to water damage and all components+battery replaced, perhaps I should really actually reinstall it to give it a shot. The Apple person during pick up did advise I should try stay between 20 to 80% for longevity. That the way you have yours set? Or rather 30-80%? A partial concern with using Al Dente in AC+ is that they fault/blame potentially use of a 3rd party utility to deny AC+

You should give AlDente a go. It is very smooth on Mac Silicon.

 

[Alpha Centauri]

You should give AlDente a go. It is very smooth on Mac Silicon.

Hi. Hadn't forgotten to reply, rather have just installed the Pro version this minute on the M2.

Bit lost on the setting tbh. I've set the limit to 80% if that's recommended but what about Sail Mode? If there's any settings you'd be happy to share, this would be much appreciated. Currently the MBP will be almost always tethered to power, except for occasional rare outings.

 

[yeahtyeaht]

Big fan of BatFi. Bought my Mac in January 2023 and I'm still at 97% battery health.

 

[Alpha Centauri]

I wrote this reply in a different topic, but I think here is a better fit:


Yes it's a feature called sailing mode. Just read the blog on apphousekitchen and then let it sink in. You might grasp (took me some time) the concept after the third read.
What it does is stop charging the battery once the charge limit (e.g. 80%) is reached. You might think "Well I do the same thing, I just unplug the charger manually at 80%". But it's not the same thing really. Sailing mode stops the energy flow from charger to battery but it maintains the energy flow from charger to the macbook. So the battery is effectively disengaged and the macbook is running on AC power as long as it's connected.
If you would simply unplug the charger at 80% manually, the battery will start discharging. After a day of desk work your battery will drain and will need to be recharged, resulting in another cycle and one tiny step closer to death. My Late 2013 battery lasted around 1000-1100 cycles and the replacement battery is now at 924. This is after 10 years of usage.
I have been using aldente (free version) on my 16" M1 Max for a year now and the battery health is 100% according to Apple (Ventura battery settings), but 98% according to Coconutbattery Plus. I have 71 cycles in 12 months.
I started using AlDente Pro two weeks ago and I have only had one cycle since.

I think I'll need to read it a few more times than you did.

 

[OSXphoto]

I think I'll need to read it a few more times than you did.

Well whatever it takes…. Really the single most relevant takeaway is that in sailing mode, the battery is actually disengaged from the charger (as if the machine had powered down), so the charger is powering only the current active processes and the display.