What is the best care for the battery of a MBP?

[Alonzozo]

Hello all,

I'm in possession of a MacBook pro 13' retina late 2015. I've been loving it ever since. It's amazing and awesome! One of the things I keep on thinking about when using it is about how to care the best for the MacBook. I "heard" that it never should be loading to full battery life when you go asleep, but that it should be no problem to always have it on cable power when using it, even if it's 100% reached.

I think maybe once every 2 weeks I restart the MacBook, is this okay or should it happen more often?

Thank you kindly for your replies!

 

[leman]

It doesn't really matter. Just make sure to not to expose it to extreme temperature shocks and use it as you want.

 

[casperes1996]

Hello all,

I'm in possession of a MacBook pro 13' retina late 2015. I've been loving it ever since. It's amazing and awesome! One of the things I keep on thinking about when using it is about how to care the best for the MacBook. I "heard" that it never should be loading to full battery life when you go asleep, but that it should be no problem to always have it on cable power when using it, even if it's 100% reached.

I think maybe once every 2 weeks I restart the MacBook, is this okay or should it happen more often?

Thank you kindly for your replies!

Hey again! Me from your cleaning thread again.

Here's a quick overview:

In general, there's not much to bother about with lithium-ion batteries. Regarding keeping it in all the time - well, all batteries need to get exercised now and then, but keeping it plugged in for large amounts of time isn't bad, as long as we're not talking like several years.
There's protections so that the battery never goes completely empty even when it reaches 0% and turns off (there's still a little charge left as to not damage the battery), and with how wear levelling is done, your charging rhythm doesn't matter that much. It'll automatically distribute the charge in the optimal way for battery health (and the discharge for that matter).

Regarding when you should restart it, well, mine usually runs for around 24 days and I only restart to install a new beta of macOS. If you experience issues, reboot, otherwise, it doesn't really matter that much. In fact, if anything, fewer reboots is better, since it's harsher on hardware to go through a full power down-power up cycle than it is to go into and come out of sleep, but the impact is minimal regardless. And some things hurt some components more and vice versa, but overall, it's made to handle it, so there's no worry no matter if you reboot often or not.

 

[Alonzozo]

Hey again! Me from your cleaning thread again.

Here's a quick overview:

In general, there's not much to bother about with lithium-ion batteries. Regarding keeping it in all the time - well, all batteries need to get exercised now and then, but keeping it plugged in for large amounts of time isn't bad, as long as we're not talking like several years.
There's protections so that the battery never goes completely empty even when it reaches 0% and turns off (there's still a little charge left as to not damage the battery), and with how wear levelling is done, your charging rhythm doesn't matter that much. It'll automatically distribute the charge in the optimal way for battery health (and the discharge for that matter).

Regarding when you should restart it, well, mine usually runs for around 24 days and I only restart to install a new beta of macOS. If you experience issues, reboot, otherwise, it doesn't really matter that much. In fact, if anything, fewer reboots is better, since it's harsher on hardware to go through a full power down-power up cycle than it is to go into and come out of sleep, but the impact is minimal regardless. And some things hurt some components more and vice versa, but overall, it's made to handle it, so there's no worry no matter if you reboot often or not.

Thank you very much again Casperes1996, looking forward to your next helpful answer to one of my questions haha.

 

[Weaselboy]

One of the things I keep on thinking about when using it is about how to care the best for the MacBook.

People tend to worry too much about the battery in these. Just use it on battery when you need to be portable and otherwise just leave it plugged in. It won't hurt anything.

Here are links from Apple with battery info that may help you.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1446

https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT204054

http://www.apple.com/batteries/

 

[Alonzozo]

People tend to worry too much about the battery in these. Just use it on battery when you need to be portable and otherwise just leave it plugged in. It won't hurt anything.

Here are links from Apple with battery info that may help you.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1446

https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT204054

http://www.apple.com/batteries/

Nice info, I've read it!

 

[ZapNZs]

It will wear no matter what you do!

AppleCare - they replace the battery once it hits 80% capacity. Apple considers the average point of dropping to 80% capacity to be around 1,000 charges, which many battery-heavy users can hit in three years.

Avoid unnecessary deep discharges because they place more wear on the lithium battery. For example, if you discharge the battery to 75% capacity and then recharge it, and then repeat this process 10 times, this may actually place LESS wear on the battery than running it down to 20% just once. This is, totally opposite, to NiMH cells. I do not recommend changing your usage habits, because then you cannot enjoy the computer. But, if your cord is 10 inches away, light discharges will extend the battery longevity. With AppleCare tho, you may wish to use the battery more to take advantage of the replacement within that 3 year window!

Do not perform calibration discharges because there is nothing to be calibrated.

Do not store the battery for long periods at 100% if you will not use the computer for an extended period - this causes unnecessary wear. Store it a little below half charge. If you store it around 0%, eventually the reserves will be exhausted and that battery can go into a deep sleep cycle or death mode.

Do not expose the battery (or the rest of the computer, for that matter) to extremely high (or low) temperatures outside of its normal operating range (i.e., don't use it in your sauna, and don't use it outside in the middle of a Siberian winter.)

 

[Alonzozo]

It will wear no matter what you do!

AppleCare - they replace the battery once it hits 80% capacity. Apple considers the average point of dropping to 80% capacity to be around 1,000 charges, which many battery-heavy users can hit in three years.

Avoid unnecessary deep discharges because they place more wear on the lithium battery. For example, if you discharge the battery to 75% capacity and then recharge it, and then repeat this process 10 times, this may actually place LESS wear on the battery than running it down to 20% just once. This is, totally opposite, to NiMH cells. I do not recommend changing your usage habits, because then you cannot enjoy the computer. But, if your cord is 10 inches away, light discharges will extend the battery longevity. With AppleCare tho, you may wish to use the battery more to take advantage of the replacement within that 3 year window!

Do not perform calibration discharges because there is nothing to be calibrated.

Do not store the battery for long periods at 100% if you will not use the computer for an extended period - this causes unnecessary wear. Store it a little below half charge. If you store it around 0%, eventually the reserves will be exhausted and that battery can go into a deep sleep cycle or death mode.

Do not expose the battery (or the rest of the computer, for that matter) to extremely high (or low) temperatures outside of its normal operating range (i.e., don't use it in your sauna, and don't use it outside in the middle of a Siberian winter.)

Thankyou for your nice reply!