Prolonging New Battery Life Tips

[zamboknee]

I'm about to replace (on my own ) my mid/late 2015 MacBook Pro Retina's battery. After going through all the prying, glue-deactivating, etc.I want the new battery to last so am looking for some tips.
Specifically, my laptop is essentially my desktop.
I'll plug it in downstairs and connect it to the peripherals and do my audio work (recording, editing, etc.) and a lot of times I'll leave it plugged in down there.
I understand that leaving it plugged in overnight is probably not the best practice so my question revolves around any items, apps that might mitigate the 'constant charge' of leaving it plugged in.
Should I get an outlet with a timer?
Is there an outlet specific to laptop battery charging that'll stop the charging process and then turn it back on before battery level dips towards 20%?
Is there an app for that?
Looked into the Belkin Conserve but that's just an outlet with a timer.
I have a couple WeMo outlets that aren't being used so I can set a specific time with these.

Just wanted to see what my options are.

Thanks

 

[christiann]

I'm about to replace (on my own ) my mid/late 2015 MacBook Pro Retina's battery. After going through all the prying, glue-deactivating, etc.I want the new battery to last so am looking for some tips.
Specifically, my laptop is essentially my desktop.
I'll plug it in downstairs and connect it to the peripherals and do my audio work (recording, editing, etc.) and a lot of times I'll leave it plugged in down there.
I understand that leaving it plugged in overnight is probably not the best practice so my question revolves around any items, apps that might mitigate the 'constant charge' of leaving it plugged in.
Should I get an outlet with a timer?
Is there an outlet specific to laptop battery charging that'll stop the charging process and then turn it back on before battery level dips towards 20%?
Is there an app for that?
Looked into the Belkin Conserve but that's just an outlet with a timer.
I have a couple WeMo outlets that aren't being used so I can set a specific time with these.

Just wanted to see what my options are.

Thanks

install cocunutbattery and add screenshots of the info.

 

[Broko Fankone]

Excellent question! There are multiple practices you can make use of in order to prolong your battery life as much as possible, as well as to reduce the chance of any kind of failure of the cells.

First and foremost, macbooks are ahead of their time in their ability to make use of charge limiters. For Catalina, the charge limiter is named AlDente, and for Mojave, I think it's just called "Charge Limiter". Let me know on which system you are, as the Mojave one is buried somewhere in the threads in this forum but I can find it. For Catalina: https://github.com/davidwernhart/AlDente

The way to use a charge limiter:

• Set your limiter anywhere between 50-70% - I set mine on 65% and found that to be ideal for my MBP 13" 2020
• While your laptop is plugged in this limit should be active. Remove the limit if you need to use the laptop for long without a charger and let it charge more
• Once a week, remove the charge limit and let the laptop charge up to 100%, then let it drain to 20%, or less. Then activate the limiter again and let it go back to 65% or whatever your normal limit is. This will maintain calibration of the battery and is very important to do. Otherwise capacity numbers will be wrong by a huge margin! Such as 20%, or even more!
• Once every 1-2 months you may drain it to 0% to achieve even better calibration, but if you are not experiencing issues such as your laptop shutting down on its own when it said it has some charge left, then you do not need to do this. A somewhat deep cycle (20-100%) should be fine and it seems to be working for me.
• Keep in mind that resetting your SMC for any reason will also reset your limit. You need to set it again manually after that.

Additional tips:

• Maintain a reasonable battery temperature. This is relatively easy without extra monitors, but can become harder when you do use more screens as the GPU will produce more heat. If possible, try to not go beyond 35C and definitely avoid going above 40C. I often reach 38C when plugged to the monitor and doing heavier tasks. I feel that's probably the biggest killer of my battery but trying to improve it will make a difference. The way I achieve this is with custom fan curves, using MacsFanControl. I wrote a whole thread about it here: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...and-random-fan-bursts-on-2020-13-mbp.2245447/ My fans start ramping up earlier (when they would normally be almost inactive) and thus overall temperature inside the mac is lower in general.
• Unplug the laptop when it is not being used for long. There is no need for trickle charging.
• Avoid keeping the laptop at 100% charge for long. Even small efforts towards this goal will reduce the stress your battery experiences while fully charged.
• Do not leave your macbook discharged, ever. If you plan to store it, charge it to 50-60% and then turn it off. Never let it sit idle with low capacity for a long time. Both a very low charge and full charge are stressful for a battery, but a low charge is much more dangerous. Do not overthink this, there are a ton of protections integrated in your laptop. But keep in mind, a lion battery is always stored at ~ half capacity - never empty or full.

 

[Fishrrman]

Replacement batteries almost never last anywhere as long as do the factory-originals. It just seems to be "a fact of computer battery life".

Having said that...
Do you have a "brick-n-mortar" Apple Store nearby?
If so, why not take it to them and let THEM do the job?

Yes, it costs a little more ($199 which should include parts AND labor).
But... in return... you get:
- an Apple OEM battery
- a short warranty on the battery and the labor
- saves you from doing it yourself (and not making any mistakes).

Sounds like a bargain to me...

 

[zamboknee]

install cocunutbattery and add screenshots of the info.

Here's screenshot.

 

[zamboknee]

Excellent question! There are multiple practices you can make use of in order to prolong your battery life as much as possible, as well as to reduce the chance of any kind of failure of the cells.

First and foremost, macbooks are ahead of their time in their ability to make use of charge limiters. For Catalina, the charge limiter is named AlDente, and for Mojave, I think it's just called "Charge Limiter". Let me know on which system you are, as the Mojave one is buried somewhere in the threads in this forum but I can find it. For Catalina: https://github.com/davidwernhart/AlDente

The way to use a charge limiter:

• Set your limiter anywhere between 50-70% - I set mine on 65% and found that to be ideal for my MBP 13" 2020
• While your laptop is plugged in this limit should be active. Remove the limit if you need to use the laptop for long without a charger and let it charge more
• Once a week, remove the charge limit and let the laptop charge up to 100%, then let it drain to 20%, or less. Then activate the limiter again and let it go back to 65% or whatever your normal limit is. This will maintain calibration of the battery and is very important to do. Otherwise capacity numbers will be wrong by a huge margin! Such as 20%, or even more!
• Once every 1-2 months you may drain it to 0% to achieve even better calibration, but if you are not experiencing issues such as your laptop shutting down on its own when it said it has some charge left, then you do not need to do this. A somewhat deep cycle (20-100%) should be fine and it seems to be working for me.
• Keep in mind that resetting your SMC for any reason will also reset your limit. You need to set it again manually after that.

Additional tips:

• Maintain a reasonable battery temperature. This is relatively easy without extra monitors, but can become harder when you do use more screens as the GPU will produce more heat. If possible, try to not go beyond 35C and definitely avoid going above 40C. I often reach 38C when plugged to the monitor and doing heavier tasks. I feel that's probably the biggest killer of my battery but trying to improve it will make a difference. The way I achieve this is with custom fan curves, using MacsFanControl. I wrote a whole thread about it here: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...and-random-fan-bursts-on-2020-13-mbp.2245447/ My fans start ramping up earlier (when they would normally be almost inactive) and thus overall temperature inside the mac is lower in general.
• Unplug the laptop when it is not being used for long. There is no need for trickle charging.
• Avoid keeping the laptop at 100% charge for long. Even small efforts towards this goal will reduce the stress your battery experiences while fully charged.
• Do not leave your macbook discharged, ever. If you plan to store it, charge it to 50-60% and then turn it off. Never let it sit idle with low capacity for a long time. Both a very low charge and full charge are stressful for a battery, but a low charge is much more dangerous. Do not overthink this, there are a ton of protections integrated in your laptop. But keep in mind, a lion battery is always stored at ~ half capacity - never empty or full.

Great tips here, thanks.

I'm on Mojave .

 

[zamboknee]

Replacement batteries almost never last anywhere as long as do the factory-originals. It just seems to be "a fact of computer battery life".

Having said that...
Do you have a "brick-n-mortar" Apple Store nearby?
If so, why not take it to them and let THEM do the job?

Yes, it costs a little more ($199 which should include parts AND labor).
But... in return... you get:
- an Apple OEM battery
- a short warranty on the battery and the labor
- saves you from doing it yourself (and not making any mistakes).

Sounds like a bargain to me...

Reasonable idea. Normally, I would do just that. However, after just losing my job and being tech-savvy, I have confidence I can get the job done *knocks on wood*

 

[Broko Fankone]

Great tips here, thanks.

I'm on Mojave .

GitHub - itsjoshpark/charge-limiter: macOS app to set battery charge limit for Intel MacBooks

macOS app to set battery charge limit for Intel MacBooks - itsjoshpark/charge-limiter

github.com

I would still go through 2-3 complete 0-100% cycles when you swap to a new battery, to get it going and do the initial calibration. During those cycles it's worth leaving the laptop sleeping and plugged overnight to make sure it has truly reached 100% at least once. Apple actually advise that if your laptop shuts down before reaching 0% charge.

 

[JMVB]

Thank you, I'll try Aldente