MBP 16",2021 deactivate fast charging?

[JimboSam]

Hello, I'm new here and have a question.

I own an MBP 16", M1, 2021.

I don't need the fast charging function?

I also think fast charging is not good for battery health.

Is there a way to disable fast charging?

I would like to use Magsafe.

Maybee if I use a smaller power supply, 67W, 70W or 96W?

Thanks for the info.

 

[pshufd]

Hello, I'm new here and have a question.

I own an MBP 16", M1, 2021.

I don't need the fast charging function?

I also think fast charging is not good for battery health.

Is there a way to disable fast charging?

I would like to use Magsafe.

Maybee if I use a smaller power supply, 67W, 70W or 96W?

Thanks for the info.

I usually charge my MacBook Pro off a power strip which has an 18 Watt USB-C charging port. I also have 20, 30 and 65 watt chargers. The 30 and 65 watt chargers are from the Anker Nano line and they are a lot smaller and lighter than the 140 watt Apple brick. If I need a faster charge, then I will take the 65 watt charging block. I normally bring the 30 watt brick with me if I don't need a faster charge. I could theoretically get by with the 20 watt charger by charging overnight but it's older and bigger than the 30 watt charger.

I bought a second MagSafe cable which I leave in my backpack so that I don't have to disconnect the primary at home. I just put the appropriate block charger in my bag when I go someplace. If it's just a short daytrip, then I don't bring a charger at all.

 

[JimboSam]

I usually charge my MacBook Pro off a power strip which has an 18 Watt USB-C charging port. I also have 20, 30 and 65 watt chargers. The 30 and 65 watt chargers are from the Anker Nano line and they are a lot smaller and lighter than the 140 ......

Thanks for the quick reply.

Do you mean MBP 16", 2021, external display and a 67/70W power supply is okay?
Enough power?

 

[pshufd]

Thanks for the quick reply.

Do you mean MBP 16", 2021, external display and a 67/70W power supply is okay?
Enough power?

Yes, 2021 MacBook Pro 16.

If you are running an external display off the USB-C from the MacBook Pro, then you'd want more power or you'd want a separate power supply. I think that a lot of external displays come with their own power supply though they are often USB-C. One way to go would be to get a small block charger with 2 USB-C ports so that you could power both separately.

I find that my MacBook Pro uses between 10-25 watts of power depending on the screen brightness and what I'm running at the time. So the rest of the capacity of the charger would dictate how fast the battery charges.

 

[JimboSam]

👍

 

[maerz001]

Well i don’t support the paranoia about fast charging but i use a 40W Anker charger (cos it has 2 outputs to plug in my iphone as well) for a 2018 15“MBP. Takes a while but so u would avoid the higher power

 

[BigMcGuire]

I have my 16' MBP M1 Max hooked up to my Studio Display which reports itself as a 94w charger.

I use AlDente to keep my charge state between 60-80% and this has had a significant impact on my battery health. It spends most of its time as a desktop. The laptop is over a year old with 43 cycles and still 100% health.

I've used iPad chargers to charge this MBP as in its resting state (with lots of apps opened) it uses around 7-11w (usually 9w). Iv'e also hooked it up to an Anker Powerhouse just for fun and most of the time it's around 11w usage in clamshell mode. This corresponds with my iPad charger usage - it was able to keep my MBP charged as long as I wasn't doing any gaming or any heavy work (pre-Apple Studio Display days).

When doing heavy gaming/work, I can see the wattage go up to 35+w.

I use my 140w brick all the time (and the 94w Studio Display power supply) and haven't seen any detriment to using this to charge. IMO a lower state of charge if used in clamshell mode for long periods like mine is far more of a battery life extender vs slower charging.

But yeah, I've used this thing successfully with 20w iPad chargers, 30w MBA chargers, with no problem whatsoever. (All kept my laptop charged up).

 

[JPack]

Fast charging isn’t an issue for notebooks because the aluminum chassis is big enough to spread the heat. This is unlike iPhone where the battery is next to the processor and the whole thing is sandwiched between glass.

 

[pshufd]

Well i don’t support the paranoia about fast charging but i use a 40W Anker charger (cos it has 2 outputs to plug in my iphone as well) for a 2018 15“MBP. Takes a while but so u would avoid the higher power

I have that charger but it only delivers 20 watts per port. The newer ones are more flexible in power delivery.

During the summer, charging with the 140 watt brick gets the bottom of the case quite warm. It's a lot more comfortable to use as a laptop with a slower charger.

 

[pshufd]

Fast charging isn’t an issue for notebooks because the aluminum chassis is big enough to spread the heat. This is unlike iPhone where the battery is next to the processor and the whole thing is sandwiched between glass.

Do you have data on this?

It would be interesting to see the bottom case temperature on the 140 watt charger vs a 30 watt charger.

 

[JPack]

Do you have data on this?

It would be interesting to see the bottom case temperature on the 140 watt charger vs a 30 watt charger.

Should be possible to use Coconut to monitor battery pack temps while charging.

 

[TechnoMonk]

Do you have data on this?

It would be interesting to see the bottom case temperature on the 140 watt charger vs a 30 watt charger.

I dont measure temperatures, but I use a 30 W Car charger when I have to use my MBP 16 M1 Max on long drives. Its in my lap, dont feel any different than using 140 or 95 W charger connected to an outlet. A 30 W doesnt neccesarily mean lower temperature, its what you do with MBP.

 

[BigMcGuire]

I usually have AlDente keeping the charge state at 60-80% and I'll use my MBP 16 connected to power sometimes so it almost never gets warm regardless of what adapter I use. When charging, I can't really tell the difference of case heat (but I use it clamshell most of the time anyway).

Only thing I'll say about the 20w iPad charger was that the iPad charger got really hot when I used it lol. I don't think I'd be comfortable using anything less than a 30w Apple USB C charger with this laptop. It's definitely doable especially to maintain a charge level.

 

[pshufd]

Should be possible to use Coconut to monitor battery pack temps while charging.

I know. But does anyone already have data on this. I could just use my thermal scanner but I'd have to discharge my Mac twice to do the testing.

 

[ArkSingularity]

One thing to keep in mind with slower chargers is that the system will simply pull from the battery to deal with current spikes that go above the amount of current that the power supply can provide. If you're keeping the computer plugged in at all times, it will constantly be slightly charging and discharging the battery as a result, which would likely increase wear more than the brief higher temperatures from a faster charger will.

Using something like Aldente Pro can solve this (to an extent) by using "sailing mode", which allows the battery to discharge to a slightly lower threshold before engaging in charging behavior again. It can give you more control over this sort of behavior and allow you to set more reasonable thresholds (e.g. 60-80%) which will do less wear and tear on the battery than allowing it to constantly charge and discharge by slight amounts at 80% or 100%.

 

[JimboSam]

My MBP 2021/22 has 88.8% battery capacity after one year.

My MBP 2011 has 89.2% battery capacity after 12 years.

Why does 2022 have such a bad value.

Poor battery quality, fast charging harmful.....

A lot of people have the same problem with the MBP 16" 2021.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

IMO much ado about nothing, because Apple's batteries and battery management work really well. I have charged my MBPs (2011 17", 2016 15", 2023 16" M2 Max, all fully loaded and worked hard) using darn near every type of charging device and they all just worked. The 2011 battery wore out circa 2016 but the box still worked powered by mains and low-wattage chargers; 2017 I retired that still-working box.

Especially with the M-series MBPs IMO trying to dissect battery specifics is a futile waste of time A) because Apple's battery management works so well and B) because individual usage is so variable. [Edits: C) because M-series batteries rock and D) because measuring individual batteries/usage N=1 is largely immaterial.]

Just use it and fuggedaboutit; that is why we pay extra to buy the best laptops made.

Just my $0.02.

 

[pshufd]

My MBP 2021/22 has 88.8% battery capacity after one year.

My MBP 2011 has 89.2% battery capacity after 12 years.

Why does 2022 have such a bad value.

Poor battery quality, fast charging harmful.....

A lot of people have the same problem with the MBP 16" 2021.

I suspect that the much better battery life has users running it on battery much more than the older models.

 

[ArkSingularity]

My MBP 2021/22 has 88.8% battery capacity after one year.

My MBP 2011 has 89.2% battery capacity after 12 years.

Why does 2022 have such a bad value.

Poor battery quality, fast charging harmful.....

A lot of people have the same problem with the MBP 16" 2021.

There are multiple different variations of lithium ion chemistry, some of which have much better longevity than others. I don't know exactly which variations they have been using across their products today, but they apparently have switched them up since the 2012-era Unibody Macs.

The batteries they are using today don't seem to be able to take quite the same level of abuse.

 

[JimboSam]

There are multiple different variations of lithium ion chemistry, some of which have much better longevity than others. I don't know exactly which variations they have been using across their products today, but they apparently have switched them up since the 2012-era Unibody Macs.

The batteries they are using today don't seem to be able to take quite the same level of abuse.

Maybe that's the reason.
Maybe that's what Apple calculate and after 2-3 years Apple wants to sell a new battery. Good business.

 

[ArkSingularity]

Maybe that's the reason.
Maybe that's what Apple calculate and after 2-3 years Apple wants to sell a new battery. Good business.

IIRC, it coincided with the switch to Retina models, which required much smaller batteries. Apple probably didn't want to sacrifice battery life, so they switched chemistry variations around that time.

Others may be much more knowledgeable than I am on this, I haven't had a chance to figure out exactly what variation of lithium ion chemistry they are using today (Apple is generally pretty tight lipped on these sorts of things, but I'm sure that the answer is out there somewhere).

 

[pshufd]

IIRC, it coincided with the switch to Retina models, which required much smaller batteries. Apple probably didn't want to sacrifice battery life, so they switched chemistry variations around that time.

Others may be much more knowledgeable than I am on this, I haven't had a chance to figure out exactly what variation of lithium ion chemistry they are using today (Apple is generally pretty tight lipped on these sorts of things, but I'm sure that the answer is out there somewhere).

I had my 2014 and 2015 MacBook Pro 15 batteries in 2021 so 7 and 6 years respectively. I do not know how long they will last on my 2021 MacBook Pro 16 but I'll just have it done when they need it. And I'll get a new keyboard, trackpad and topcase with it. And it will feel like a new machine. No different from getting the battery replaced on my car every 5 years or changing the oil or doing home maintenance.

 

[JimboSam]

I had my 2014 and 2015 MacBook Pro 15 batteries in 2021 so 7 and 6 years respectively. I do not know how long they will last on my 2021 MacBook Pro 16 but I'll just have it done when they need it. And I'll get a new keyboard, trackpad and topcase with it. And it will feel like a new machine. No different from getting the battery replaced on my car every 5 years or changing the oil or doing home maintenance.

If I have to replace a battery after 4-5 years, no problem, no one says anything.
But if I lose around 10% capacity after 1 year, then you can calculate when a change of the battery will be necessary.
That's not funny then!

 

[pshufd]

If I have to replace a battery after 4-5 years, no problem, no one says anything.
But if I lose around 10% capacity after 1 year, then you can calculate when a change of the battery will be necessary.
That's not funny then!

My 2014 and 2015 MacBook Pro 15s were used plugged in the vast majority of the time.

My 2021 MacBook Pro 16 is used far more on battery because the battery life is so good. I've been using my 2021 MacBook Pro for 1 year and 9 months and the battery is at 94% or about 3.4%/year which is fine with me. But even if it did drop 10% a year, it would mean that the battery life would be comparable to a new battery in the 2015 MacBook Pro.

I just read about an M3 Max MacBook Pro reportedly being testing with 16 CPU cores. Assuming 12/4, it would make for one sick little puppy. I don't need the CPU horsepower on the M1 Pro as it is. CPU usages is typically 8-30%. But it might even mean another 2-3 hours of battery life which would mean that the batteries should degrade slower at the same use.

 

[shadyman]

IMO much ado about nothing, because Apple's batteries and battery management work really well. I have charged my MBPs (2011 17", 2016 15", 2023 16" M2 Max, all fully loaded and worked hard) using darn near every type of charging device and they all just worked. The 2011 battery wore out circa 2016 but the box still worked powered by mains and low-wattage chargers; 2017 I retired that still-working box.

Especially with the M-series MBPs IMO trying to dissect battery specifics is a futile waste of time A) because Apple's battery management works so well and B) because individual usage is so variable. [Edits: C) because M-series batteries rock and D) because measuring individual batteries/usage N=1 is largely immaterial.]

Just use it and fuggedaboutit; that is why we pay extra to buy the best laptops made.

Just my $0.02.

They definitely do not! My 16“ dropped to 93% with only 52 charges. That’s pretty weak