Will Apple replace my battery?

I believe it's warrantied to hold a min. of 80% up to 1000 cycles, so it's worth a call/visit.

You can check it out at: http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html

 

Yep, that's a warrantable condition .

 

Try it. It depends on the people who you're dealing with.

 

I would try and catch it below the 80% and take a photo. Then at least if its higher when you take it in, you have proof.

 

Apple will not replace your battery if the computer is over one year old. Even if you have AppleCare.

Also Apple officially considers 1000 charge cycles the maximum life of your battery. The 80% after 1000 cycles is what they state, but is more of a guideline. Many batteries consume before 1000 cycles.

For example, someone leaves their computer plugged in for the majority of time for just under three years. Lets say they have 100 cycles on their computer. Obviously the battery is going to be junk at this point. It's way under 1000 cycles. That is why the 1000 cycles/80% is a guideline. Mainly marketing anyway.

If your computer is under the one year mark, Apple will replace the battery ONLY if it fails their diagnostics. This is a comprehensive tests that looks at more than just cycle count.

This article shows what Apple considers the maximum battery life of their notebooks. So once again, they will not replace your battery for free. I believe the cost is $129 in the US.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1519

Also the article listed in the post from gr8tfly above says UP TO 80% capacity after 1000 Cycles. Also says UP TO 5 years. That is the maximum one can expect while using the battery. This is marketing, rarely anyone gets that. Many people take this as the actual set in stone warranty information for Apple batteries, but sadly it is not. They only cover the battery for a year, and it actually has to completely fail within that year in order to be replaced.

 

I'm already at 39 cycles in my rMBP purchased in Feb. Solder the RAM in, that's fine, but dammit glue the battery really??

 

Not quite true - Applecare extends the original warranty for 3 years; and covers batteries that fail for a "manufacturing defect." They key being is getting Apple to decide it is defective and not just a normal end of life behavior; since AppleCare does not cover consumables such as batteries in that case.

Per Apple:
Your one-year warranty includes replacement coverage for a defective battery. You can extend your replacement coverage for a defective battery to three years from the date of your notebook purchase with the AppleCare Protection Plan. However, the AppleCare Protection Plan for notebook computers does not cover batteries that have failed or are exhibiting diminished capacity except when the failure or diminished capacity is the result of a manufacturing defect.

 

Absolute rubbish. Your battery is covered from manufacturing defects for 3 years. Service battery after 634 cycles is replaceable.

And for the record, the battery diagnostics app maps age, cycle count and capacity. The battery does not log how it is used, so there is no way to analyse that when diagnosing it.

Mapping his cycle count, with his age and his capacity will result in a fail.

Please stop spreading FUD like that.

 

Since you said it's now showing 82%, it might be good to wait until it is solidly under 80%. The real question is, how is the the battery holding out for the way you use it? If that's not an issue, waiting a bit to replace it means that your next battery will have that much longer before it needs to be replaced.

 

That is true, so I don't want this to seem disrespectful. You did elude to it being difficult, I'll say its practically impossible.

The process for Apple Geniuses has changed. They used to be able to "push through" Battery replacements for those with AppleCare. Keep in mind this was something that was never sanctioned by Apple, as the battery warranty has always been the same. This has changed. Apple techs must now get a failed battery indication from their diagnostics for that specific computers serial number. Then a manager has to approve and over ride the cost of the battery.

Since these policies have been enforced so strictly, the chance of getting your battery replaced after the first year is practically impossible. If a battery is older than a year old, has several hundred cycles on it, it will be nearly impossible to prove it is a manufactures defect. And you will have to prove it. The only way I could see this happening is if there was a way to prove you never opened your computer up and there was some how physical damage to the battery that was obviously caused at the factory. Even this would be difficult to prove.

Technically what you are saying is technically true, but extremely difficult to prove.

I know this since I was up until recently the guy standing behind the counter

Once these new procedures were in place, I did not see a single battery even a single day over one year get covered, regardless of AppleCare. Of course every store is different, it would take both your tech AND a store manager to be able to say without a shadow of a doubt that it was a manufacturer defect.

In this case, I don't want OP to get false hope. The battery worked as it was supposed to for likely 2+ (if its an Early 2011) years at this point - proving it was caused during manufacturing is pretty much impossible.

 

In Feb., I sold my Early 2009 17" UB with 31 cycles on the battery - it was used every day and was plugged in most of the time. It still showed almost 100% capacity (I can't remember the exact number, but it was > 95%).

The battery was used about once a month, but not a full cycle every month - it's not necessary to run a complete cycle at one time (and cycle count adds up partial cycles - 5 runs using 20% equals one complete cycle).

Though the battery was only 4 years old, and could die within the next year, it's not likely. The statement above saying it would be "junk" after so many years just isn't so. Some batteries might be - and some might die with a year - but it's not a factual blanket statement.

Here's another case in point: our 5+ year old MacBook Air (purchased Feb. '08) with 739/300* cycles still shows "Condition: normal". It gets fully cycled almost every day now. (It's charging now; I'll have to see what the full capacity is after charging is complete.)

Edit update: Full charge is 4282 mAh v. original of 5090 mAh, giving a capacity of 84%. Pics on request…

*the original MBA was only spec'ed for 300 cycles according to: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1519 and pmget -g rawlog

 

I just had my battery replaced, they said it's not a warranty item as batteries are consumables. They said they would replace it this time but they would charge me next time. I am under applecare. Specs of machine below.

 

I recently had my battery replaced on a 2010 Macbook Pro free of charge at my local Apple store.

The genius who replaced it said there was a "loophole" of some sort and it took him roughly 10min to come back with a new battery in my Macbook Pro.

Could not have been happier with the service.