MacBook Pro retina battery

[50L]

Here a glimpse of the stats from my fairly new MBPR (bought november)

89% after only 187 charging cycles? also my magsafe port gets super hot and doesn't charge sometimes, I have to retry a couple of times plugging in and out before he charges.

Is this a hardware issue or will apple send me home saying I have to buy a new charger (nothing wrong with my charger) and saying battery isn't warranty stuff

 

[cajer]

If you're discharging completely each cycle as you just did, your battery will have low cycle life. This is due to the fact that completely discharging encourages the development of film on your electrodes which inhibit the electrochemical reactions in your battery.

 

[CaffeinatedNoms]

If you're discharging completely each cycle as you just did, your battery will have low cycle life. This is due to the fact that completely discharging encourages the development of film on your electrodes which inhibit the electrochemical reactions in your battery.

Completely right. Current battery technology seems to be the complete opposite of early LiON laptop batteries; draining used to be a good thing to do on a regular basis but now it's pretty much lethal for the battery. Current advice to maintain the health of the battery is to keep it between the 20 and 80% marks when unplugged, and when plugged in allow it to trickle-charge as and when it needs to (ie, it's at 100% but every now and then you'll notice it go orange anyway).

 

[Barney63]

At 187 cycles that works out that you have pretty much cycled the battery every day since November.


Barney

 

[Mattjeff]

So best practice for the new models is to not drain it below 20 and use with power whenever possible? I'm about to get my rMBP tomorrow and I wan't to make this battery last as long as possible.

 

[SVTmaniac]

I'm still at 102% capacity with 46 load cycles. I take good care of my battery though.

 

[jkundi]

Completely right. Current battery technology seems to be the complete opposite of early LiON laptop batteries; draining used to be a good thing to do on a regular basis but now it's pretty much lethal for the battery. Current advice to maintain the health of the battery is to keep it between the 20 and 80% marks when unplugged, and when plugged in allow it to trickle-charge as and when it needs to (ie, it's at 100% but every now and then you'll notice it go orange anyway).

Awesome advise, thanks for sharing I'll be doing this from now on.

 

[1Sail0r2]

I'm still at 102% capacity with 46 load cycles. I take good care of my battery though.

Can you share exactly how you take good care of it? So I could follow

 

[SVTmaniac]

Can you share exactly how you take good care of it? So I could follow

Basically, if I'm at home then it's always on the charger. If it's going to be more than about a week or so then I unplug it and let it get down to 80% or so and then plug it back in. When I'm on the road I just use it as I want and run it on battery power all the time until I can get to a charger and charge it back up.

The most important thing with these batteries is to exercise them regularly. That means don't leave them plugged in for a a month and never use it on battery. Mine is from February and I have 46 load cycles on it so that means I'm averaging about 3-4 days per charge.

 

[inthzworld]

I'm using rMBP (2015) from mid-April, and after using for a month, the battery capacity already dropped to 95%... I'm not sure if this is a normal rate of deterioration? I have used my laptop with charger whenever I can and have only accumulated 22 load cycles. I never drained my battery below 25%.

 

[GGJstudios]

I'm using rMBP (2015) from mid-April, and after using for a month, the battery capacity already dropped to 95%... I'm not sure if this is a normal rate of deterioration? I have used my laptop with charger whenever I can and have only accumulated 22 load cycles. I never drained my battery below 25%.

Your battery is fine. It is perfectly normal if your battery health (maximum capacity) is more or less than 100%, even when brand new, or if it fluctuates up or down over time. The gradual decline is not in a straight line downward, and it may decline more rapidly at some times and slower at others. For further details, read the CHECKING STATUS AND HEALTH section of the following link.

Run on battery whenever you need to and plug it in whenever you can. You can plug or unplug any time you need to, regardless of the charged percentage, and you never need to completely drain your battery.

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The link below should answer most, if not all, of your battery/charging questions, including tips for maximizing battery performance. If you haven’t already done so, I highly recommend you take the time to read it.

Apple Notebook Battery FAQ​