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wondering how to conserve my battery

C

carmidy

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 21, 2010
20
0
In cold, cold South Dakota
I just bought a MBP 13" yesterday. I talked to the guy at the store about the battery and how I'm supposed to "take care" of it. He said to run it down and then fully charge every time. However after searching the forums I read a lot of posts of people saying to always keep it fully charged (like the iPod Touch) or to let it run to 1/4 battery life and then fully charge it. Now I'm confused. What do you guys do?

P.S. i'm sorry if this was already posted somewhere else. In my defense I did actually search battery life topics but the search wasnt working for me.
 
carmidy said:
He said to run it down and then fully charge every time.
Click to expand...
He's wrong.
This should answer most, if not all, of your battery questions: Apple Notebook Battery FAQ
carmidy said:
P.S. i'm sorry if this was already posted somewhere else. In my defense I did actually search battery life topics but the search wasnt working for me.
Click to expand...
Searching the forum with MRoogle will usually find answers to most of your questions.
 
carmidy said:
I just bought a MBP 13" yesterday. I talked to the guy at the store about the battery and how I'm supposed to "take care" of it. He said to run it down and then fully charge every time. However after searching the forums I read a lot of posts of people saying to always keep it fully charged (like the iPod Touch) or to let it run to 1/4 battery life and then fully charge it. Now I'm confused. What do you guys do?

P.S. i'm sorry if this was already posted somewhere else. In my defense I did actually search battery life topics but the search wasnt working for me.
Click to expand...
What store did you buy your MBP? I can't imagine an Apple salesman giving you that advice. I bought my MBP in June and I found the advice provided in the links by GGJstudios to be most helpful.
 
You usually want to calibrate (running down to empty, letting set, etc) at least once a month to keep your battery health in check. What I do is, when I'm at my desk and need the processing power (coding, compiling, gaming) I will have it plugged in; when I need it, I take the power out, use it and plug back in when I see it hit around 25%.

You won't have any major issues with battery memory in these new batteries, so that is nothing to worry about - just use battery power when you need it, otherwise, unless it's defective, it should be good to go. :)
 
Stvwndr219 said:
You usually want to calibrate (running down to empty, letting set, etc) at least once a month to keep your battery health in check. What I do is, when I'm at my desk and need the processing power (coding, compiling, gaming) I will have it plugged in; when I need it, I take the power out, use it and plug back in when I see it hit around 25%.

You won't have any major issues with battery memory in these new batteries, so that is nothing to worry about - just use battery power when you need it, otherwise, unless it's defective, it should be good to go. :)
Click to expand...

The only thing calibrating does is to allow the battery's controller to report more accurately, be it time remaining or percentage battery left, it does not affect the battery health itself in any way.
 
GGJstudios said:
He's wrong.
This should answer most, if not all, of your battery questions: Apple Notebook Battery FAQ
Click to expand...

Sorry, read through your FAQ and have one question:

To what amount do you run the charge down to before you charge it? Is there a certain amount of charge the notebook should stay above for optimal health, or should I just relax because it doesn't matter?

I've always been confused about this lol. Thanks in advance.
 
I can save you some time and headaches. Use your MBP and forget about it. Enjoy your machine, the battery percentages can swing as much as 10% so trying to chase it down is a waste of time. Calibrate every so often and let it go. And you let your battery discharge until the computer dies or goes to sleep.
 
trigonometry said:
I can save you some time and headaches. Use your MBP and forget about it. Enjoy your machine
Click to expand...

I agree. It's just not worth obsessing over this stuff. In the two weeks I've had my MBP13 my cycle count is four.

The FAQ says it's supposed to retain 80% charge capacity for 1000 cycles. If I end up having to replace the battery in two years, big deal. Replacement is $120 from ifixit.com and five minutes with a screwdriver; that'd work out to $5 a month over two years or $3.33/month over three years.
 
winninganthem said:
To what amount do you run the charge down to before you charge it? Is there a certain amount of charge the notebook should stay above for optimal health, or should I just relax because it doesn't matter?
Click to expand...
For the most part, it doesn't matter. If you're not near a place to plug in, leave it on battery, of course. If you're plugged in most of the time, just reach up every few days and unplug and run on battery a few hours, as said in the FAQ under the AC Power section. I usually let it run down to around 50% or more before plugging in. It is not necessary to run it all the way down, unless you're calibrating. Also, be aware that it likely won't recharge if you plug it in at 93% or more. (See the FAQ section on Charging)

For the most part, just use it and enjoy it. Just make sure you run on battery often enough to keep electrons moving.
 
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