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How Many Cycles Does a MacBook Battery Last

And once again Apple's wonderful quality control smacks me between the eyes with a rolled-up newspaper...

April 29th 2009 I had the battery from my mid-2007 MBP replaced when it swelled up to the point the trackpad button wouldn't work anymore. Took a hell of a lot of arguing to get the replacement for what was clearly a faulty battery but got there in the end (after hauling the laptop in to an Apple store, the phone support was terrible).

Today I took the laptop off mains power to listen to a podcast over breakfast. 10 minutes later instant sleep, no warning no nothing. Odd, thinks I. Check battery.... 8% left! 8 explitive deleted percent. After being used in and around the home for just over 6 months without a single processor intensive task the replacement is well and trully dead.

Off to the Apple store again on Saturday, this makes the third visit in two and a bit years (40 mile round trip) for a serious fault (broken keyboard, two battery issues) and if I include the initial attempts to buy a 15" MBP (the first LED backlit ones... yeah, learnt my lesson about buying the first of anything Apple puts out) then it's seven trips in the same time frame. See what they say, if they won't replace the battery free then this becomes a desktop replacement acting as a media centre and I sod off to the Windows side again. Sorry but when I pay almost £2,000 for a laptop I expect it to not have these sorts of build quality issues and I know I'm far from alone in experiencing these problems...
 
cameronfield said:
After reading through this thread 3 times I've come to the following conclusion:

The absolute best way to keep your macbook battery healthy is to charge it up, let it die, charge it up, let it die.

This goes against what battery university and apple both say, but there are multiple people in this thread with lots (100+, 500+, etc.) of cycles who specifically state that they would use the battery until it died and then charge it fully.

I'm down to 86% right now on my 13" MBP - I'm gonna try this new method and see how it works.

3 days ago I was at 90%, and then my MBP died in my backpack while it was asleep and it sat for 12hrs and then I charged it and it was down to 86% :/.

After a few weeks of trying this method I'll post back with my results.

Oh yeah...

Cycles: 64
Health: 86% (4724mAh)
Click to expand...

Hey cameronfield,

I'm super interested to know what your results are, please do post them. I felt exactly what you felt after reading this thread.
 
Thought I'd share my battery info with you guys. I do absolutely nothing special to maintain the battery or have replaced it, I just charge it when it needs it and if it doesn't well I'm sure you get the picture. Crazy to see though that in a bit over a year I have that many cycles and it's still has a 90%+ left.

Maybe some of you are leaving you battery charged too much? Considering I saw some even older laptops with such few cycles on there batteries. I mean they are laptops right so use them as is and not as portable desktop computers. :)

Screenshot2009-12-04at40650PM-1.png
 
I mainly keep mine plugged in and when it reaches 97% (usually in a week) I unplug it in and use the battery till it around 18% then I charge it up again and do the same again. And probably every 5-6 weeks I let it die completely and using Insominax to disable the Hibernate feature so it doesn't shut down until the battery is totally dead wait a few hours and charge it up.

I brought my mac in May 09 and so far its has 44 cycles and battery status shows

Current = 4674 mAh (that's after a calibration I did 2 days ago but its usually around 4650-60 after a normal charge)
Original = 4600 mAh
 
halisray said:
is it normal for my battery at 98% after 9 cycles...?
Click to expand...

I'd like to know this, too. I'm at 15 cycles, and my battery health has suddenly dropped from 100% to 97%. I thought I was taking good care of the battery; using it to below 20% when running on battery, calibrating it once a month or so as outlined on Apple's webpage, &c &c... and yet all of a sudden the battery health is down to 97% after just 15 cycles.
 
Everyone else seems to be doing a lot better with their batteries than me sadly...:(

just over 200 cycles and the health fluctuates around 30%. Sometimes a little higher sometimes a little lower. (Data taken from iStat Pro).

I am getting less than an hour out of it now.

My MBP is about 18 months old.
 
Sounds like you either leave it plugged in all the time or you don't use your laptop very much. I have 6 months on my new battery and have 202 cycles on it. You can probably recover some or a lot of your battery capacity you just need to exercise it a lot (full charge full discharge) and reset your PMU (maybe several times while performing the full battery cycles).
 
I have it plugged in most of the time, but make sure to drain it fully once or twice a month. I will also attach the power cord if the battery drops below 40% and I am near an outlet.
 

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MacBandit said:
Sounds like you either leave it plugged in all the time or you don't use your laptop very much. I have 6 months on my new battery and have 202 cycles on it. You can probably recover some or a lot of your battery capacity you just need to exercise it a lot (full charge full discharge) and reset your PMU (maybe several times while performing the full battery cycles).
Click to expand...

I use my computer frequently, at least 4 hours a day, sometimes much more. I do however, generally leave it plugged in all the time, as you suggest.

When I have used the battery I will admit that I haven't always used a full discharge, and plug the power back in whenever it is convenient. This can be at 70% capacity, 30%, 15% whenever.

What exactly is my "PMU" and how would that help with the battery condition?

Thanks for your advice. :)
 
i have a mbp it's 3 months old has 14 battery-loadcycles the battery capacity is 95% is this normal? of not how can i manage it to go back up?
 
my battery is on 395 cycles and the health is at 55%.

when i do a calibration its goes up to 76% but it doesnt last long.

so should i need to replace the battery anytime soon or is there anything else i can do to get more out of the battery??

thanks
 
I've been monitoring my battery usage lately, currently i'm at 93% health having my mbp for 4 months and it has 60 cycles on it currently.

I'm just curious, should I ever need to replace the battery (being a umbp) where could I get one? And what would they run me?
 
Thought I'd share my good news, 14 months old, 382 cycles in and at 98%, dont do any calibrating or special tomfoolery just run it off the battery most of the time, charge over night.
 
not sure my exact percentages, i have 641 cycles, still gives me a good 4 hour life when fully charged. for the most part, i usually use it all day with or without the charger then fully charge over night, (rinse, repeat) but no extra effort (ie calibrating) to increase life
 
Mine isnt doing bad, though it seems I use my mbp more than most here going off the charge cycles

7 Months old, its at 98% with 246 Loadcycles.

I normally use it till around 8% then plug the charger in till it says charged.
 
Just an Update

I have posted before, but I just downloaded Coconut Battery and got new results. =]

Capacity Original: 5020mah
Capacity Current: 5180mah
Cycles: 371
Age: 31 months
 
Mid-2009 13" MBP purchased Mid September 2009.

Cycles: 73
Health: 91%

:). I'm not worried. It fluctuates between 91% and 95% health :).
 
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