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plugged in during sleep

H

halisray

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 7, 2009
203
0
MTL
Hey guys,

Just wondering, whenever I use my macbook unibody at home, I have it plugged in most of the time. When I take it to school, I don't bring my plug. When I go to sleep, I generally unplug it and put the macbook to sleep.

Should I keep it plugged in even though I closed the lid whilst I sleep during the night? Or should I keep unplugged it every night when I close the lid?

Also, I do calibrate my battery once a month. its at 93% after 43 cycles.

Thanks for the help!
 
only plug your macbook in when it is low/dead or if you need the battery life. you should try to get the most time as possible off one charge and only plug in when needed. i usually use my macbook down to 1-2% then i fully charge it and use it until 1-2% again.

also once every month or so you should fully charge the battery, then run it until the laptop dies, once it dies, let it rest for 5+ hours, then fully recharge. that is how to calibrate and get the most from your battery.

apple and many other sources recommend you dont keep your laptop plugged in unless it needs to be charged.
 
Naw, just use it. The Mac disconnects the battery from the charger when it is full. The battery then "floats" and does not charge any more. So there is no practical advantage to be gained by physically unplugging the charger.

Just because the green light is on, does not mean that there is any juice going into the battery.
 
lyons238 said:
only plug your macbook in when it is low/dead or if you need the battery life. you should try to get the most time as possible off one charge and only plug in when needed. i usually use my macbook down to 1-2% then i fully charge it and use it until 1-2% again.

also once every month or so you should fully charge the battery, then run it until the laptop dies, once it dies, let it rest for 5+ hours, then fully recharge. that is how to calibrate and get the most from your battery.

apple and many other sources recommend you dont keep your laptop plugged in unless it needs to be charged.
Click to expand...

pretty sure I read that you need to keep your macbook plugged in if you can.. if you keep running your battery down every time you use it, your battery life will suck.. you'd be going through so many cycles its insane.. but obviously I calibrate my battery once a month, I wrote that already..


for the other poster: so its cool if I leave it plugged in at night then? thx
 
lyons238 said:
only plug your macbook in when it is low/dead or if you need the battery life. you should try to get the most time as possible off one charge and only plug in when needed. i usually use my macbook down to 1-2% then i fully charge it and use it until 1-2% again.
Click to expand...
That is absolutely unnecessary. It's fine to leave your MB plugged in.... just not 24/7 for months at a time.
Pax said:
Naw, just use it. ... there is no practical advantage to be gained by physically unplugging the charger.
Just because the green light is on, does not mean that there is any juice going into the battery.
Click to expand...
Absolutely true!
halisray said:
so its cool if I leave it plugged in at night then
Click to expand...
Yes, it's cool.
 
can anyone second that letting it fully discharge then charging hurts the battery. i was told this is the best way to do it..
 
GGJstudios said:
No one said it hurts the battery. It just unnecessarily puts more cycles on the battery, shortening its life. Plug it in when you can, use it on battery when you need to.

Calibrating a portable computer battery
About Apple Notebook batteries
Click to expand...

i thought it still puts a cycle on the battery when you fully charge it? someone told me it was better for the battery to fully discharge it lol wtf. i have like 100 charge cycles on my macbook i probably could have 50 if i would have known that...
 
lyons238 said:
i thought it still puts a cycle on the battery when you fully charge it? someone told me it was better for the battery to fully discharge it lol wtf. i have like 100 charge cycles on my macbook i probably could have 50 if i would have known that...
Click to expand...

A cycle is one full discharge and recharge, or 2 50% discharges/recharges or 4 25% discharges/recharges, etc. It accumulates any discharge/recharge until it totals a full cycle.
 
lyons238 said:
i thought it still puts a cycle on the battery when you fully charge it? someone told me it was better for the battery to fully discharge it lol wtf. i have like 100 charge cycles on my macbook i probably could have 50 if i would have known that...
Click to expand...

rofl.. and when did u buy ur unibody? i bought mine in november and I have 43 cycles. and u have 100... OUCH
 
well then fully discharging it wouldnt add more cycles then because it just adds half cycles etc...so say you charge yours when it gets down to 50%, your charging it twice as much as i am, but the cycle count would still equal out the same..

and i got mine in dec, i use it a lot though. and for some reason since i got it my health has always been 88% even during the first week.

should i take it to apple and see if i can get another battery?
 
lyons238 said:
well then fully discharging it wouldnt add more cycles then because it just adds half cycles etc...so say you charge yours when it gets down to 50%, your charging it twice as much as i am, but the cycle count would still equal out the same..

and i got mine in dec, i use it a lot though. and for some reason since i got it my health has always been 88% even during the first week.

should i take it to apple and see if i can get another battery?
Click to expand...

no. when you can use a plug, keep it plugged in. if not, then just use it until you can plug it in again. ONCE a month you run down the battery all the way, leave it for a few hours, then charge it back up again. the reason why ur battery is 88% is because every time u used ur laptop, you ran it down to 1% or 2% and then you charge it back up again - so pointless.. thus you use more cycles... and no Apple will not give you a new battery rofl, they aren't a charity bro

ps: what u wrote made no sense.. its not hard to understand this lol.. look at apple support on batteries, a guy posted the link
 
halisray said:
no. when you can use a plug, keep it plugged in. if not, then just use it until you can plug it in again. ONCE a month you run down the battery all the way, leave it for a few hours, then charge it back up again. the reason why ur battery is 88% is because every time u used ur laptop, you ran it down to 1% or 2% and then you charge it back up again - so pointless.. thus you use more cycles... and no Apple will not give you a new battery rofl, they aren't a charity bro

ps: what u wrote made no sense.. its not hard to understand this lol.. look at apple support on batteries, a guy posted the link
Click to expand...

no my battery has been 88% from when i first got it, i didnt start fully discharging it after a few weeks, when someone told me to...

im going to give it a shot anyway...

how much would it be to get a new battery anyway?
 
Read those links that guy wrote down for you, you'll get your answer there.


and there really is not point in purchasing a new battery.. they probably go for ~$100 (the older macbook models have replaceable batteries at ~$100) but you'd probably have to pay for them to replace it for you seeing as how it is a unibody model.
 
exactly, because there is no price.. you would have to send it into Apple, i gave you the replaceable battery price because it would probably cost around the same thing.. anyways your battery is perfectly fine, just use your macbook properly and it'll be all good
 
lyons238 said:
i thought it still puts a cycle on the battery when you fully charge it? someone told me it was better for the battery to fully discharge it lol wtf. i have like 100 charge cycles on my macbook i probably could have 50 if i would have known that...
Click to expand...

I have a unibody too but it's aluminum that I've had since '08. I have 70 load cycles, 100% health, and have it plugged in most of the time. Whoever told you about draining then charging didn't know what they were talking about. You should really plug it in when available.
 
ya i wish i would have known that earlier :/

also anyone have an idea why my battery has always been around 88% right from the beginning?

also i have a 7200rpm hd and i usually get 5 hours of battery time (normal use, half brightness) i can squeez about 6 and change out if im just browsing/music and low brightness.
 
halisray said:
Hey guys,

Just wondering, whenever I use my macbook unibody at home, I have it plugged in most of the time. When I take it to school, I don't bring my plug. When I go to sleep, I generally unplug it and put the macbook to sleep.

Should I keep it plugged in even though I closed the lid whilst I sleep during the night? Or should I keep unplugged it every night when I close the lid?

Also, I do calibrate my battery once a month. its at 93% after 43 cycles.

Thanks for the help!
Click to expand...


When it's sleeping, unplug it. When you wake up in the morning (feeling like p diddy) plug it in for about an hour before you take it to school.

Even if you do leave the plug in, nothing much is going to happen... apple's battery tech is really advanced and prevents idle charging so all's good
 
you guys are right..iv been plugging in my macbook more often, taking it out when necessary or if its been plugged in for a bit. then plug it in again when it gets back down to 35-50%. it went from 88% health to 96% health in 2 days and is now steady..

atleast i learned this while it was still early
 
Don't believe the health numbers, they are not particularly accurate. They depend on how you last used your Mac, the battery temperature, all kinds of other factors as well as battery age. If you calibrated your battery twice on consecutive days I expect you would get significantly different answers.
 
yeah those numbers aren't very accurate.. my battery health sways between 91% and 94% lol.. so I mean.. just keep using your laptop normally, calibrate once a month and don't get too held up on these numbers.
 
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