How to prolong macbook pro battery life?

[flyash]

I've been reading online on how to get the most out of my battery, because I would hate to diminish my battery's capacity very quickly. Though I've read a lot about this topic, I am not sure of its validity, so I am going to ask here.

Is this the best way to get the most out of my battery: When available keep the macbook charger plugged in to save on battery cycles, and at least once a week use battery to around 50%?

Some details on my model: rMBP 2015 Base model.

 

[Weaselboy]

Is this the best way to get the most out of my battery: When available keep the macbook charger plugged in to save on battery cycles, and at least once a week use battery to around 50%?

When you need to run on battery, just do so, otherwise leave it plugged in. Running it down intentionally does nothing but needlessly use up battery cycles.

These two links contain Apple's official battery information. As you mentioned, there is a lot of misinformation out there, so you are better off just sticking to what Apple says.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1446

http://www.apple.com/batteries/

 

[snaky69]

I've been reading online on how to get the most out of my battery, because I would hate to diminish my battery's capacity very quickly. Though I've read a lot about this topic, I am not sure of its validity, so I am going to ask here.

Is this the best way to get the most out of my battery: When available keep the macbook charger plugged in to save on battery cycles, and at least once a week use battery to around 50%?

Some details on my model: rMBP 2015 Base model.

Nothing.

No matter how much or how little you use it, or the way you use it, the battery will die from plain old age in about 3 to 5 years.

 

[flyash]

When you need to run on battery, just do so, otherwise leave it plugged in. Running it down intentionally does nothing but needlessly use up battery cycles.

These two links contain Apple's official battery information. As you mentioned, there is a lot of misinformation out there, so you are better off just sticking to what Apple says.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1446

http://www.apple.com/batteries/

Thanks, I will give it a read, but I have one more question for you. Would it be safe to keep charger plugged in, while using the MB, when it is charged 100%?

 

[Weaselboy]

Thanks, I will give it a read, but I have one more question for you. Would it be safe to keep charger plugged in, while using the MB, when it is charged 100%?

That is not a problem at all. The charger will stop charging once the battery is completely charged, so it will not overcharge.

 

[T5BRICK]

Thanks, I will give it a read, but I have one more question for you. Would it be safe to keep charger plugged in, while using the MB, when it is charged 100%?

As others have said, plug your computer in when you can, run it off of the battery when you need to.

If you leave it plugged in all the time, it won't hurt anything. At one point, Apple used to advise completing at least 1 charge cycle per month, but that note has since been removed from their website. I use my Mac on battery power pretty regularly, so hitting this 1 charge cycle per month goal is fairly easy.

 

[snaky69]

Thanks, I will give it a read, but I have one more question for you. Would it be safe to keep charger plugged in, while using the MB, when it is charged 100%?

Yes, it's fine to do. It has been fine to do so for the last 10 years in laptop batteries of decent quality. The whole "don't leave it plugged in" myth needs to die.

The power supply is just that, a supply. The computer is the one that decides when and how much to draw from it. If the battery's full, no electricty whatsoever will be going to it, thus it cannot overcharged and become damaged.

 

[Vudoo]

I had a 2008 MBP in which I kept plugged in all the time. The battery was dead after a year. The genius said that since it was after a year, it wasn't covered under warranty. He also said that most of the laptops in the store also have bad batteries because they were plugged in all the time. So when I got my 2010 MBP, I would only plug it in when the battery was low. After 5 years, the battery health is still at 85%.

 

[flyash]

I had a 2008 MBP in which I kept plugged in all the time. The battery was dead after a year. The genius said that since it was after a year, it wasn't covered under warranty. He also said that most of the laptops in the store also have bad batteries because they were plugged in all the time. So when I got my 2010 MBP, I would only plug it in when the battery was low. After 5 years, the battery health is still at 85%.

Did you even use it on battery? As far as a I understand you have to use the battery time to time to maintain battery health.

 

[Fredn3ck]

I've been reading online on how to get the most out of my battery, because I would hate to diminish my battery's capacity very quickly. Though I've read a lot about this topic, I am not sure of its validity, so I am going to ask here.

Is this the best way to get the most out of my battery: When available keep the macbook charger plugged in to save on battery cycles, and at least once a week use battery to around 50%?

Some details on my model: rMBP 2015 Base model.

Don't use Chrome while on battery. Chrome is a well known to be resource intensive, by using the native app Safari you will see considerable fewer charge cycles for the same given amount of web surfing time. By my estimation somewhere between 20-25%

 

[ThisOldMacHead]

No matter how much or how little you use it, or the way you use it, the battery will die from plain old age in about 3 to 5 years.

My own experience doesn't jive with that at all... My 2011 is rarely off the mains, it only has 88 full cycles, still has about 94% health, and still gives me 5-7 hours in mixed use.

Going back even further, my nine year old G4 and 15 year old Pismo still give me about 4.5 hours on their original batteries. Heck... My 17 year old Wallstreet and 18 year old 3400c will still give me a solid 2-3 hours in OS 9/8! And that's going against conventional wisdom with lithium batteries... I was long ago conditioned with the memory effect syndrome of old NiCad/NiMH batteries. So every couple months, I still drain those suckers down to nothing.

As with anything though, ymmv....

 

[mickeydean]

my late-2013 15" is barely doing 5 hours with all the advice followed and just reading PDF's, etc.

 

[snaky69]

My own experience doesn't jive with that at all... My 2011 is rarely off the mains, it only has 88 full cycles, still has about 94% health, and still gives me 5-7 hours in mixed use.

How does this not jive with what I said? You're still within normal lifespan of a LiPo battery, and just like I said, it's holding charge just fine even if you used it very little.

Going back even further, my nine year old G4 and 15 year old Pismo still give me about 4.5 hours on their original batteries. Heck... My 17 year old Wallstreet and 18 year old 3400c will still give me a solid 2-3 hours in OS 9/8! And that's going against conventional wisdom with lithium batteries... I was long ago conditioned with the memory effect syndrome of old NiCad/NiMH batteries. So every couple months, I still drain those suckers down to nothing.

As with anything though, ymmv....

I'd consider those computers as outliers if I was doing statistics on battery life.

Good that they're still kicking though!

 

[Samuelsan2001]

my late-2013 15" is barely doing 5 hours with all the advice followed and just reading PDF's, etc.

You probably have the screen brightness at 100% if you drop it down to 70%ish it'll give you a large boost in battery life.

Did you even use it on battery? As far as a I understand you have to use the battery time to time to maintain battery health.

As Snaky69 says there is little you can do to either prolong your battery life or stop it dying over time. They will last between 3 and 5 years and then need replacing, like any battery they are a consumable with a finite lifespan, you may get lucky and get a good 5 years you may get unlucky and get 3 1/2 years.

You paid a lot of money to have a portable computer that you can use on the battery, so use it on the battery when you want and plug it in when you can, doing anything else is impacting the reasons why you bought a laptop in the first place.

 

[mickeydean]

You probably have the screen brightness at 100%

Probably...reading, inferring, and estimating are all hard. Try 20-40% brightness genius

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Probably...reading, inferring, and estimating are all hard. Try 20-40% brightness genius

Ooooh handbags, get over yourself....