Pleased with this battery

[Droid13]

Dear All,

One of the reasons I had gone off the idea of upgrading my Apple hardware was the fact that all the batteries are now internal - I had doubts over how long they would actually be good for, despite one of the first unibody systems claiming it would do 1,000 cycles.

I have had my MacBook since May '07. It and I have done a lot of work together and until very recently most of this was done on the go. The battery has lasted 1,000 cycles and counting despite being rated as good for a mere 300. I still get between 2-3 hours out of it too.

Whoever designed that battery, well done. You may have tempted me to stick with Apple for my next upgrade.

Droid13

 

[Blondie :)]

Impressive I wish my battery did that haha. I only have 34 cycles on mine, and my health hovers in between 94-95%

 

[CrizzoDesigns]

What program are you using in the screenshot of you battery usage?

Thanks

 

[andalusia]

It's the iStat Nano widget.

That's pretty awesome. My battery is doing quite well too, with over 300 cycles and 99%. However, that's nowhere near as good as yours. Nice one.

 

[alex.purple.mac]

Looks like mine isnt doing too well, I'm on my second battery now, the first one failed, and the stats for this one aint too good. This is odd though, because i look after my battery, and if i am using my laptop at a desk i normally take the battery out to extend its health.

 

[andalusia]

This is odd though, because i look after my battery, and if i am using my laptop at a desk i normally take the battery out to extend its health.

This would be a good idea, however Apple underclocks/halves the processing power when the battery is out. May as well just keep it in.

 

[wordoflife]

What is your secret?.........to how you use your battery?

 

[Droid13]

My Secret?

I am not sure what has kept this battery going for so long - chances are I am just lucky with this one, the next one will be extra bad to even things out lol

My first laptop - a Compaq R3000 - had such awful battery performance and a battery that essentially died a month into ownership, so I thought I would read Apple's page on batteries ( http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html ). There, I got the idea that perhaps keeping the battery constantly charging and discharging was the way to go, like the example of the commuter they use on that page.

My MacBook hasn't actually been shut down for longer than about 5 minutes since purchase - it is either asleep or on. I avoid leaving it plugged in too long when fully charged and get through a charge/discharge cycle every day or two. I also do the full charge/discharge every month mentioned on that site.

I have no way of knowing whether what I do - essentially have continuous current flowing through my battery - is beneficial or not. Still, we're now at 1,008 cycles, so I'll keep it up.

EDIT: The battery does show signs of ageing though eg longer time taken to fully charge, but discharge time is still quite good.

 

[iSpoody 1243]

wowowow!!!
i want your battery!
i think the key is always having the battery charging or discharging.

 

[Droid13]

It's still alive!

Having done over four times it's rated cycle count, this battery is still going strong.

I'm planning an upgrade to a 15" MacBook Pro shortly after the next refresh, which will hopefully include Sandy Bridge. Hopefully, it will also include an awesome battery...

 

[gorjan]

Having done over four times it's rated cycle count, this battery is still going strong.

I'm planning an upgrade to a 15" MacBook Pro shortly after the next refresh, which will hopefully include Sandy Bridge. Hopefully, it will also include an awesome battery...

Wow!

 

[GGJstudios]

My MacBook hasn't actually been shut down for longer than about 5 minutes since purchase - it is either asleep or on. I avoid leaving it plugged in too long when fully charged and get through a charge/discharge cycle every day or two. I also do the full charge/discharge every month mentioned on that site.

That's exactly the right way to treat a battery, and the results prove it!

This should answer most, if not all, of your battery questions: Apple Notebook Battery FAQ

 

[ivoruest]

Big load of BS...

Great Photoshop works there pal.... That is just impossible. Sorry, maybe another day.

 

[GGJstudios]

Great Photoshop works there pal.... That is just impossible. Sorry, maybe another day.

No, it's absolutely not impossible, and it's not PhotoShop. Just because you may not have had the same experience doesn't mean others haven't.

 

[ivoruest]

No way Jose!

Aknowledge that its cycle count per month is around 27.

This battery was designed to last around 300 cycles with health at least 80%. There is no way that battery could last 4 times what it was designed for and still have 100%. If he´d said like 90% or something more realistic probably we wouldn´t be arguing about this right now. But this is just not credible, not even true.

Did you see the mAh decreasing? How come the battery has 5161mAh and that be 50% capacity shown in the graph. And then it says 5040mAh and be on 98% capacity shown in the graph??? The numbers just don´t match and don´t make any sense! Either iStat is false reading or this is an altered image. And for your reference, that battery was designed to hold around 5800mAh when full and at 100% health.

That pictures are not true! Any other questions?

 

[GGJstudios]

Aknowledge that its cycle count per month is around 27.

You have no facts on which to base that assumption.

This battery was designed to last around 300 cycles with health at least 80%. There is no way that battery could last 4 times what it was designed for and still have 100%.

Apple states that "a properly maintained battery is designed to retain up to 80% of its original capacity at 300 full charge and discharge cycles". That means AT LEAST 80%. It can be higher, but Apple will replace it if it's lower (and still covered by Warranty or AppleCare).

It IS entirely possible for a battery to retain 100% of its health after that many cycles, and there are posts in this forum of properly calibrated batteries that have retained 95+% after 700, 800, 900 cycles (I'm referring to removable batteries, like the OP has). It's not commonplace, but far from impossible.

Did you see the mAh decreasing? How come the battery has 5161mAh and that be 50% capacity shown in the graph. And then it says 5040mAh and be on 98% capacity shown in the graph???

The 50% and 98% are not indicators of his battery health or capacity, but indicators of the level of charge remaining.

Either iStat is false reading or this is an altered image.

It's entirely possible that his readings are inaccurate due to not properly calibrating the battery. (That means PhotoShop isn't required to make such readings appear.)

 

[Droid13]

I assure you these images are not edited

Great Photoshop works there pal.... That is just impossible. Sorry, maybe another day.

It's the same battery, and an unedited screenshot from the dashboard iStat app. The numbers vary because they're not all taken under the same workloads or at exactly the same time of every month (between the recalibration charge/discharge) I guess.

Bottom line: this battery has done a much higher number of cycles than it was rated to do (meant to hold 80% charge after 300 cycles or for one year) and still gives me 2-3 hours of battery life at full screen brightness and wi-fi on, and somewhere around 4 or so with the screen dimmed a bit.

I think that's pretty neat.

Here's how the battery is reporting itself to me today.

 

[Droid13]

It's entirely possible that his readings are inaccurate due to not properly calibrating the battery. (That means PhotoShop isn't required to make such readings appear.)

I think that's why iStat doesn't always give the same mAh capacity each time I check it, but I do recalibrate once a month as per the guidance on the Apple notebook battery site referenced in one of my earlier posts.

Nevertheless, getting useful battery life from a battery that has been in continuous use since May 2007 is pretty neat, especially compared to my old R3000...

 

[GGJstudios]

I think that's why iStat doesn't always give the same mAh capacity each time I check it, but I do recalibrate once a month as per the guidance on the Apple notebook battery site referenced in one of my earlier posts.

Then either something is wrong with your battery or something is wrong with your calibration procedure. As stated in the Battery FAQ:

Your battery health is referred to either as a percentage or in mAh and represents your current full charge capacity (mAh) as compared with the ideal full charge capacity (100%).

The same battery can't have 100% health at 5161mAh and also be at 100% at 5040mAh and also be at 100% at 5091mAh.

If the first one was accurate, the 3 readings would be as follows:

5161mAh = 100%
5040mAh = 98%
5091mAh = 99%​

Three different mAh readings cannot all be 100%.

 

[ivoruest]

Maybe no Photoshop, but numbers still not good...

Then either something is wrong with your battery or something is wrong with your calibration procedure. As stated in the Battery FAQ:

The same battery can't have 100% health at 5161mAh and also be at 100% at 5040mAh and also be at 100% at 5091mAh.

If the first one was accurate, the 3 readings would be as follows:

5161mAh = 100%
5040mAh = 98%
5091mAh = 99%​

Three different mAh readings cannot all be 100%.

That´s what I´ve been trying to say. I apologize for not being explicit and/or sarcastic. What you(GGJstudios) are stating here is correct, but also note that the ideal capacity of these batteries is 5800mAh. If the battery can retain up to that amount, then it iStat should show Health: 100% and Charge 100% but the numbers Droid13 posted have not matched very well and have been sort of strange.

 

[GGJstudios]

That´s what I´ve been trying to say. I apologize for not being explicit and/or sarcastic. What you(GGJstudios) are stating here is correct, but also note that the ideal capacity of these batteries is 5800mAh. If the battery can retain up to that amount, then it iStat should show Health: 100% and Charge 100% but the numbers Droid13 posted have not matched very well and have been sort of strange.

I'm looking at a MBP right now with a removable battery. Their health is reported at 85%, with a full charge capacity (mAh): 4653. That would indicate that the original full charge capacity for this battery was 5474, not 5800.
(5474 * 85% = 4653).

 

[Droid13]

I have done a little reading and looking, trying to work out the original charge capacity of an A1185 battery from the May 2007 Macbook. Between product adverts and forums, I have seen it being rated at 5020, 5400 and 5600 mAh - not sure where to find an authoritative source for this information.

As for iStat, doing the sums it is a bit weird how the health is consistently being reported as 100% even though the mAh value changes as shown in my next screenshot.

The last recalibration was a week ago and the procedure I have always used is to fully charge the battery and keep it on the mains for a bit, then discharge it until the laptop sleeps, then leave it sleeping until the blinking light stops, then leave it some more, and then fully charge it again.

Not sure what is happening. Real world performance aside (I get plenty of useful time from my battery) - what is iStat reporting exactly? And how is the charge calculated by iStat (and by Mac OS X, which displays the same figure under Power in System Profiler).

Does the charge it can hold decrease and this becomes the new 100%?

Could it be that my battery is now at 90% (5600) or 93% (5400) of its original charge capacity and the 100% is a spurious reading (or unrelated to charge?)

There have been times when the health has dropped to 98%, these have always gone after recalibration. Maybe recalibration just shifts the goalposts...

Any ideas?

Current screenshot:

 

[GGJstudios]

The last recalibration was a week ago and the procedure I have always used is to fully charge the battery and keep it on the mains for a bit, then discharge it until the laptop sleeps, then leave it sleeping until the blinking light stops, then leave it some more, and then fully charge it again.

The correct steps are listed clearly in the Battery FAQ I posted earlier. Follow them exactly to properly calibrate your battery.

Not sure what is happening. Real world performance aside (I get plenty of useful time from my battery) - what is iStat reporting exactly? And how is the charge calculated by iStat (and by Mac OS X, which displays the same figure under Power in System Profiler).

iStat takes your current charge capacity, as shown in System Profiler > Power and divides it by the original full charge capacity of your battery. The result is displayed as a percentage. If this is not happening correctly (as in your case), then the battery should be properly calibrated, so the readings are accurate. It's somewhat likely that you might need to reinstall iStat to make sure it's functioning correctly.

Does the charge it can hold decrease and this becomes the new 100%?

No. As the capacity decreases, it is represented by a smaller percentage of the original capacity.

Could it be that my battery is now at 90% (5600) or 93% (5400) of its original charge capacity and the 100% is a spurious reading (or unrelated to charge?)

Yes, it appears to be erroneous, as stated above.

There have been times when the health has dropped to 98%, these have always gone after recalibration. Maybe recalibration just shifts the goalposts...

If you have a battery that shows 98% health, for example. If, after proper calibration, it shows 92%, that means that it was already at 92%, but was being reported incorrectly as 98%. Calibration made the reading more accurate.

 

[Droid13]

The correct steps are listed clearly in the Battery FAQ I posted earlier. Follow them exactly to properly calibrate your battery.

The instructions there are pretty much what I do, so that leaves me with the option or reinstalling iStat to see what it is playing at. While I am at it I will recalibrate again first, no harm in that plus my battery is currently discharging from full.

If you have a battery that shows 98% health, for example. If, after proper calibration, it shows 92%, that means that it was already at 92%, but was being reported incorrectly as 98%. Calibration made the reading more accurate.

I have had a few readings of 98% that became 100% after proper recalibration. Once I have a fresh install of iStat and have re-re-calibrated, I will post another screenshot.

 

[GGJstudios]

The instructions there are pretty much what I do, so that leaves me with the option or reinstalling iStat to see what it is playing at. While I am at it I will recalibrate again first, no harm in that plus my battery is currently discharging from full.

"Pretty much" isn't the same as "exactly".
"keep it on the mains for a bit" isn't the same as 2 hours.
"then leave it some more" isn't the same as 5+hours.
It only works when you do it correctly.