No need to baby your battery

[BeeJee]

I see a lot of talk about keeping the battery healthy on MacBook Pro's. Here is my 2011 refurb with 828 cycles, iStat shows 91% health. I'll take that any day of the week. I leave my computer in the freezing car, in the summer heat, charge and take it off whenever I want, leave it dead for days, pretty much don't go out of my way at all.

 

[rosario1990]

According to your say you're happy what you have. You not need to keep your computer along with you cause you're battery is going well. You can use this whenever you want. That's great!

 

[GGJstudios]

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.

​

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​

 

[Natzoo]

mine had 90% and it went up to 93% when i left it charging all night. I figured how to download Istat menu after the trail has been used. Delete the app, restart your laptop and then re-download it.

 

[GGJstudios]

mine had 90% and it went up to 93% when i left it charging all night

Charging it all night has zero effect on battery health. Battery health will fluctuate up or down, regardless of when or how you charge it. You can charge Macs all night most nights and the battery health will not change. The two events are coincidental and are unrelated.

 

[Skika]

I recently bought a new rMBP 15, what are the steps i should take for taking care my battery stays healthy? Or should i just not care at all like op suggests? I ask this because i will mostly use it on power in clamshell mode with an external display.

 

[GGJstudios]

I recently bought a new rMBP 15, what are the steps i should take for taking care my battery stays healthy? Or should i just not care at all like op suggests? I ask this because i will mostly use it on power in clamshell mode with an external display.

Read post #3.

 

[Skika]

Read post #3.

Im sorry but i have zero clue about what post number 3 is about.

Edit:i was looking at the post number 3 starting after op, sorry makes sense now.

 

[blooperz]

mine is at 92% after ~ 400 cycles...has been in the 90-95% range for quite some time without falling below that..I leave my laptop plugged in probably 85-90% of the time including overnight (every night)...I don't really worry about it. People that worry obsessively about maintaining battery health and charge cycles are wasting their time, it simply doesn't provide the benefit it once did.

 

[redheeler]

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.

​

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​

Coming "pre-calibrated" doesn't exactly reassure me, it would still be a good thing to calibrate it once every 1-2 months. That being said I haven't calibrated my rMBP in ages since I rarely if ever run it past 30%.

The myth that leaving a Macbook plugged in all the time will not apply cycles and keep the battery fresh needs to be debunked as well.

 

[GGJstudios]

Coming "pre-calibrated" doesn't exactly reassure me, it would still be a good thing to calibrate it once every 1-2 months.

It's not just that they are pre-calibrated. Apple also states that they don't require calibration like the older, removable batteries.

Current Apple portable computer batteries are pre-calibrated and do not require the calibration procedure outlined in this article.

The myth that leaving a Macbook plugged in all the time will not apply cycles and keep the battery fresh needs to be debunked as well.

The only way cycles will increase when the battery is plugged in is if there is sufficient power demand to draw on both the battery and AC power combined. Once a battery is fully charged, it stops charging and runs on AC power as long as it's plugged in.

 

[Richyrich1975]

2 things to avoid:

1, Not using the battery at all i.e. Keeping it plugged in constantly, try and use the battery at least once a month.

2, Don't totally drain the battery often.

This is all to do with the chemistry of Li-ion batteries.

 

[KUguardgrl13]

I see a lot of talk about keeping the battery healthy on MacBook Pro's. Here is my 2011 refurb with 828 cycles, iStat shows 91% health. I'll take that any day of the week. I leave my computer in the freezing car, in the summer heat, charge and take it off whenever I want, leave it dead for days, pretty much don't go out of my way at all.
View attachment 527698

That's impressive. The original battery from my 2009 MBP dropped to 70% health around 400 cycles. I didn't baby it, but I also suspect that the MagSafe cable didn't help it. I had one of the t-shaped ones from the recall that I replaced about a year and a half ago.