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Macbook 1 yr old, still has 100% battery health

K

Khryz

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 7, 2007
940
1
Hello. I bought a Macbook 2.16 GHz 1GM Ram C2D exactly one year ago. Now, according to iStat Pro my battery is still at 100%.

Is this normal? I'm not complaining at all but I read a lot of threads on here of people who had their Macbook for 6 months and their batteries were at sub-80% health. My battery has gone through 151 cycles. Is that normal? I normally keep it plugged into the power adapter but I do run it off battery power until sub-20% charge occasionally.

Now my roommate bought a Macbook in April, and I think it's the same model and specs as what's available now, 2 GM Ram, 2.4 GHz, yet when I used his Macbook off battery power it loses it's charge MUCH slower than mine. I can go from 100% to 80% in 15-20 minutes yet he'd still be at 92-93%.

UPDATE: It is now (2) TWO years since I bought my Macbook .. and iStat Pro still shows that my battery has 100% battery health. I have gone through 236 cycles as per iStat and the Mac's System Profiler, and System Profiler says my battery condition is GOOD. Is this normal?

I thought the more GHZ and RAM the more it drains your battery. Maybe I had a lot more applications open or something..
 
Khryz said:
Hello. I bought a Macbook 2.16 GHz 1GM Ram C2D exactly one year ago. Now, according to iStat Pro my battery is still at 100%.

Is this normal?
Click to expand...

those app aren't precise. Only solid evidence is how long you can run your laptop off battery. Use default settings, wi-fi on, doing web and office, see how long it last, >3.5Hrs would be as good as new, <3 hrs means its not 100% anymore, if you are not lucky, like me, it will hold 30 minutes after 2 years.
 
I'm getting just as good life as I did 15 months ago and coconut battery says that I'm still over the Original Battery Capacity. I'm not sure how accurate it is but I use it as an actual laptop (on battery) about 50% of the time, the rest of the time I have it is desktop mode.
 

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you guys really believe you can get more by using it? current capacity larger than original?

Just do some real test yourself. If you really worry about it.
 
clevin said:
you guys really believe you can get more by using it? current capacity larger than original?.
Click to expand...

I know some types of batteries (NiMH, powertool batteries) are claimed to reach full capacity after a couple of full charge/discharge cycles.

But whether the same goes for notebook batteries after far over 100 cycles? That's doubtful imho
 
I got larger than my original full capacity Macbook battery after 1 year and 279 cycles. I use it mainly as a portable desktop, around my house, with the power adaptor a lot, if that helps.
 
I think they've upped the battery capacity in reality but not on in Coconut battery. My MacBook is at 5400 mAh when its supposed to be limited to 5020mAh.
 
^^ That one will probably be in line for replacement if you have Applecare (well when it drops below 80% anyhow).
 
techlover828 said:
maybe, when I go back to my family in new york I'll bring it in. Already had 3 repairs, oh well...
Click to expand...

According to apple: Batteries are disposable items, they don't last forever.

Apple will replace a battery if it is clearly defective only. Defective would be, from their example, 50% health after a few months, or failing to charge.
 
I'd like to see somebody beat this:

picture57oi3.jpg


I dunno how it's still that good after almost 400 cycles, but maybe it's because I let it run out several times a week just because I wanna use it somewhere other than my desk. Or maybe I just got lucky. :confused: :D
 
Fuchal said:
According to apple: Batteries are disposable items, they don't last forever.

Apple will replace a battery if it is clearly defective only. Defective would be, from their example, 50% health after a few months, or failing to charge.
Click to expand...

Nope, 80%/300 cycles is their official limit.
 
And you've all calibrated your batteries according to Apple's published guidelines?

If not, do that and then see what the readings are. And take the information from the System Profiler instead of a third party app
 
UPDATE: It is now (2) TWO years since I bought my Macbook .. and iStat Pro still shows that my battery has 100% battery health. I have gone through 236 cycles as per iStat and the Mac's System Profiler, and System Profiler says my battery condition is GOOD. Is this normal?
 
Is there a golden rule that a battery has to drop to ~80% health after a year or xxx many cycles? Just use the damned battery until its worn out then get another.
 
Yeah, there is nothing to worry about. If you are so worried, try a battery calibration and then see if it is still 100%. Just use the battery, while you still have it.
 
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