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macbook air faster charging

M

mlody

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Does anyone know is Macbook Air would take the advantage of 60W or 85W chargers when charging? I believe the stock power brick is 45W so, would 85W cut the charging time in half (give or take)?
 
These chargers communicate to the computer, so the charger will only ever give the power the computer wants. This is also why people don't electrocute themselves on the exposed contacts, as the charger waits for a specific signal.

If there is a speed difference, it would only be a small one as the batteries cannot be charged quickly without overheating and causing damage. All batteries with fast charging are either kept in oil for cooling or come with custom chargers with higher voltages. Since the MacBook chargers already have high voltages for charging, there is not much improvement to be gained. The bigger MacBooks have bigger batteries, so the bigger charger is essentially spread out over a bigger area and therefore the batteries don't have problems from the extra power.

Only the 12 inch iPad has a big improvement from a new charger (12 watts to 29 watts), but it was designed to handle faster charging and the charger has a higher voltage. The regular charger cannot change this iPad while the iPad is in use, it will only keep the battery at the same level. Why they refuse to include the better charger and instead give you something barely adequate on something so expensive is a mystery.

The newer iPhones also has a small boost in charging if you use a iPad charger, mainly from the increased voltage.
 
cruisin said:
These chargers communicate to the computer, so the charger will only ever give the power the computer wants. This is also why people don't electrocute themselves on the exposed contacts, as the charger waits for a specific signal.

If there is a speed difference, it would only be a small one as the batteries cannot be charged quickly without overheating and causing damage. All batteries with fast charging are either kept in oil for cooling or come with custom chargers with higher voltages. Since the MacBook chargers already have high voltages for charging, there is not much improvement to be gained. The bigger MacBooks have bigger batteries, so the bigger charger is essentially spread out over a bigger area and therefore the batteries don't have problems from the extra power.

Only the 12 inch iPad has a big improvement from a new charger (12 watts to 29 watts), but it was designed to handle faster charging and the charger has a higher voltage. The regular charger cannot change this iPad while the iPad is in use, it will only keep the battery at the same level. Why they refuse to include the better charger and instead give you something barely adequate on something so expensive is a mystery.

The newer iPhones also has a small boost in charging if you use a iPad charger, mainly from the increased voltage.
Click to expand...

Thanks for taking time explaining this. I though that like iPhones, the Macbooks could take the advantage of bigger chargers, but I guess that they already operate at their limits.
 
I haven't done a thorough analysis, but in our family we have 15-in MBPs and 13-in MBAs. One daughter insisted that her MBA charged faster with the large power supply, such that when her smaller (OE) supply broke, she wanted the larger one, since they cost the same. In any event, using the larger charger didn't seem to have any ill effect on her battery. It was good for over 1000 cycles before she got the warning to replace the battery, about 5+ years. Her 2011 MBA is still going strong. Anecdotal, but that's been our experience.
 
cruisin said:
These chargers communicate to the computer, so the charger will only ever give the power the computer wants. This is also why people don't electrocute themselves on the exposed contacts, as the charger waits for a specific signal.

If there is a speed difference, it would only be a small one as the batteries cannot be charged quickly without overheating and causing damage. All batteries with fast charging are either kept in oil for cooling or come with custom chargers with higher voltages. Since the MacBook chargers already have high voltages for charging, there is not much improvement to be gained. The bigger MacBooks have bigger batteries, so the bigger charger is essentially spread out over a bigger area and therefore the batteries don't have problems from the extra power.

Only the 12 inch iPad has a big improvement from a new charger (12 watts to 29 watts), but it was designed to handle faster charging and the charger has a higher voltage. The regular charger cannot change this iPad while the iPad is in use, it will only keep the battery at the same level. Why they refuse to include the better charger and instead give you something barely adequate on something so expensive is a mystery.

The newer iPhones also has a small boost in charging if you use a iPad charger, mainly from the increased voltage.
Click to expand...

Well said, just to add; charging at higher wattage than factory will negatively(pun intended) effect battery longevity.

Best
 
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