# Macbook pro battery health



## IllusionX (Mar 10, 2009)

Help!! I just bought a macbook pro 13". It came out of the box with a battery health of 98%.

I used it down to ~82% then proceeded to a battery calibration... I charged it to 100% and then drained it to deepsleep. Then i put the charger on over night. Now the battery health shows 96%.

this seems bad


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## HowEver (Jan 11, 2005)

Hide the percentages.

How much actual time do you get using your computer?

Remember this is affected by: brightness of screen, wifi usage, bluetooth usage, watching DVDs or recording them, etc.

If you get many hours of actual use, forget the numbers. Hide them. They'll cause you only grief. What matters is: is the computer usable.

It will probably take a few weeks to get used to. But it should only take a few charges to go to 100% (if you're still paying attention). If it *never* goes to 100% again, call Apple. Otherwise, just enjoy the new computer.


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## WestWeb (Jul 11, 2009)

I recently purchased a 13" MacBook Pro myself and it does the same thing. I don't think the battery is necessarily incapable of holding the extra charge as it will go to 100% sometimes: it just seems to register as being charged when it is not quite charged to its maximum. 

Go to the Apple menu >> about his mac >> more info >> power... There you can confirm this by seeing that the current full charge is less mAh than the battery's full charge capacity. I don't mean to speculate here, but I was thinking it might have something to do with keeping the battery healthy over the large number of charge cycles they are expected to handle... over a very long period of time for a battery as well.

Anyways, I don't think it's really an issue because even at 96% my 13" MBP still shows that it will last (7:49) on its battery. That's seven hours forty-nine minutes just with airport connected to a wireless network; I haven't actually timed any battery usage yet but if the numbers are right that's still much better than advertised. Even after throwing a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, Firefox, and Adobe Dreamweaver into the mix: It still claims to last almost 5 hours. :clap: I'm impressed!


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## IllusionX (Mar 10, 2009)

well... after playing with it for about 2hours... it still had 64% left and said ~4h30mins..

alright... i'll leave it for a couple charges and see what it does. It kinda drives me crazy to see 96% on a brand new battery. My white macbook still shows 100% after almost years and 94 charge cycles. (i seriously don't know how people rack up those charge cycles. lol)


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## macintosh doctor (Mar 23, 2009)

only do a deep discharge once a year.. not so frequently...my wife's 13" macbook pro is about 4 months old 9 cycles and 99% health.. too much discharging will kill the battery.
that is my experience.

if you feel there is a problem - take to any service authorized dealer.. we have a tool to check the actual condition of the battery.


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## mkolesa (Jul 22, 2008)

*~*

fyi:
Apple - Batteries - Notebooks
personally i think it's much more valuable to see the battery as time rather than % after all, 100% of 15 minutes still doesn't give you much usage. click on the battery icon in the header, go to 'show' and make your choice.


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## fyrefly (Apr 16, 2005)

AFAIK, Apple also has battery firmware that trickle charges an almost full battery, to make sure it's not always topping it off and then leaving it to drain and topping it off, etc...


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## Manatus (May 11, 2009)

mkolesa said:


> fyi:
> Apple - Batteries - Notebooks
> personally i think it's much more valuable to see the battery as time rather than % after all, 100% of 15 minutes still doesn't give you much usage. click on the battery icon in the header, go to 'show' and make your choice.


But by the same token, how much time is left depends totally on what you're doing on the computer. It doesn't help much to see 4 hours left, and then after a half hour playing a game or running a heavy-duty program, it's down to 1 hour. Personally I find it more useful to see it as a percentage, and just make a mental note of how quickly it is depleting. I just don't trust the time counter to be accurate enough to depend on.


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## kloan (Feb 22, 2002)

I've been using my 13" MBP for a few months now. The estimated time is just as unreliable as it was from day one. It fluctuates constantly, even when I'm doing the same thing.

I've tested it repeatedly, with brightness at 50% and only running wifi w/ Firefox. As soon as I unplug it, it shows somewhere above 7 hours. A couple minutes later it drops to around 6:30 hrs. 

I get around 6 hours usage from my computer before it goes into deep sleep.

Another thing is that out of the box, straight from the factory, the battery is supposed to hold 5450mah. Mine from the very beginning was 5364mah. It went up after a couple full discharge cycles, but has gone down again. Today it sits at 5399. It goes up and down, sometimes dropping below 5300.

I should mention from the time it's taken me to type this out, th estimated time remaining has dropped to just over 5 hours. It was a full charge when I unplugged it at the beginning of this post.

I think Apple's new technology they've implemented to make the battery last longer, ie up to 700 cycles now, is what makes these figures jump around so much.

And now it reads 6:47.

Point being, you can't rely on the estimated time remaining to give you an accurate reading of how long your battery will last. Best to time it yourself with the clock... if you can actually put up with sitting there using your computer for 6-7 hours (if it lasts that long)........... 6:20...........


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## mkolesa (Jul 22, 2008)

*~*

have you tried re-calibrating the battery?:

Apple Portables: Calibrating your computer's battery for best performance


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## kloan (Feb 22, 2002)

mkolesa said:


> have you tried re-calibrating the battery?:
> 
> Apple Portables: Calibrating your computer's battery for best performance


You asking me that?

I recalibrate my battery once a month.


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## IllusionX (Mar 10, 2009)

I don't really understand how you guys actually reply to my thread. Sorry if i am offending anyone.

I clearly stated that my battery is brand new, and that i _JUST_ completed a battery calibration according to apple's instructions. I also clearly mentioned it was the battery HEALTH %, not the battery capacity %. Besides, just as Manatus said, having OSX display the battery as "time" is not a very good idea, as it fluctuates depending what you are doing.

My white 13" has shown 7h45mins before, it means nothing. Anyways, the issue is case closed. Let's not discuss about it anymore. I do not give a dime about the 98% health anymore as it doesn't affect the battery life


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## Carter (Sep 8, 2009)

If you find you are getting good time out of your laptop on the battery then I would run with it, but if you find that for a new laptop that it's not lasting as long as your wifes and seems very short I would check with Apple to see if there could be a chance of getting it replaced. I have not check my Apple emails for a while but also good to check if there have been any battery recalls. I will have a look tomorrow to see if there have been any recalls.



On a side note with battery care and not to hi-jack the thread but have a look at coconutBattery which should give you an overlook of your battery status. Should show you what your battery should have been new and what its' "Full" charge is now. If there is a big difference then I would say you should talk to Apple about getting it replaced. 

Here is a quick snapshot of my battery right now.










As it says, my battery is 34months old .... so about 2yrs 10months old. So for a battery that's almost 3 years old and I use my laptop all day at work as well at home I still get great battery life. Showing 80% now but I still get over 2 hours of usage.

Myself, I'm not convinced 100% which is the best way to keep a healthy battery but as I see many laptops that were loaned out to students over the years for myself, best practice that I run with it.


If I run under 75% battery power I will not plug the laptop back in until I get the battery warning.

Always connecting a laptop and not using your battery is bad! You have to use it to keep it. I have seen many faculty users that have laptops that just sit on their desks and rarely move and get unplugged and batteries last 1-2 years before they last mins. on the battery.

Though running your battery low is not bad, try to have it plugged in before the system forces deep sleep.
In the run of a day for almost 3 years, I drain my battery at least once a day if I'm doing a lot of running around to draining it a few times throughout a day. I USE my laptop a lot and for the battery lasting as long as it has I surely can not complain.




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## groovetube (Jan 2, 2003)

wow only 182 loadcycles. just checked mine, 25 months and 572 load cycles, only 56% capacity left on this baby. Time for a battery replacement.


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## Carter (Sep 8, 2009)

groovetube said:


> wow only 182 loadcycles. just checked mine, 25 months and 572 load cycles, only 56% capacity left on this baby. Time for a battery replacement.


I have a feeling that the loadcycles of 182 is not correct for my laptop but none the less, 80% life still 

How old is your laptop.

My Laptop's Estimated Purchase Date -- 26/11/06
& it's sitting @ 80%




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## phuviano (Sep 14, 2005)

Wow, 572 cycles? That's nuts.

I have 404 cycles and think that's a lot. My stats are 26 months, and 75% health. I do keep my mbp plugged in for long periods of time. I will discharge the battery at least once a month, maybe more.


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## groovetube (Jan 2, 2003)

I use it for a lot of work. In fact used it all 3 days this weekend 18 hours a day on a flash project.

Had thought of moving to one of those new silver oxide batteries in a new mbp, this one (2.2) is just past 2 years old.
bah.


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## chas_m (Dec 2, 2007)




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## pwstoneman (Feb 12, 2009)

Okay Chas_m, what is your secret?? Either you've cheated and replaced your battery, or let us in on your technique that yields a battery almost 2.5 years old that has a higher capacity than new!!??

Cheers,
Paul


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## IllusionX (Mar 10, 2009)

pwstoneman: not really any secret, because mine does this also.. macbook white 2.2ghz


the secret is NOT to drain it to the last %. It is actually pretty bad for a lithium-ion battery to be often drained below 40%. Remember... charging twice from 50% accounts for 1 cycle. whereas 2 full charge is 2 cycles. Leaving it plugged does not kill the battery, at least, not with an Apple laptop.

My battery gets drained to ~99% in about 4 days... so, i normally drain it at least once a week. I normally never drain it below 40%, this battery actually only seen anything below 40% maybe 5 times max, twice for re-calibration, and once, the apple store dude never plugged in my macbook for service.

I also charge it until full before unplugging it. In a day at school, i can get 2 or 3 recharges from 70-75%


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## kloan (Feb 22, 2002)

IllusionX said:


> I don't really understand how you guys actually reply to my thread. Sorry if i am offending anyone.
> 
> I clearly stated that my battery is brand new, and that i _JUST_ completed a battery calibration according to apple's instructions. I also clearly mentioned it was the battery HEALTH %, not the battery capacity %. Besides, just as Manatus said, having OSX display the battery as "time" is not a very good idea, as it fluctuates depending what you are doing.
> 
> My white 13" has shown 7h45mins before, it means nothing. Anyways, the issue is case closed. Let's not discuss about it anymore. I do not give a dime about the 98% health anymore as it doesn't affect the battery life


My mom's only goes to 98%, mine goes to 100%... this was brand new out of the box. They just vary, just like in overall capacity.. some have more some have less.


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## Bogi094 (Sep 6, 2008)

well mines at 220 cycles after almost a year, and its at 99% health and sometimes shows 98%

Mine came at 99% tho right out of the box. Try to calibrate it and let us know if it helps.


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## Treef (Mar 19, 2008)

chas_m said:


> View attachment 10435
> [/QUOTE
> 
> It seems odd that you and IllusionX have managed to end up with a higher current capacity than the battery's original capacity.


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## pwstoneman (Feb 12, 2009)

IllusionX said:


> the secret is NOT to drain it to the last %. It is actually pretty bad for a lithium-ion battery to be often drained below 40%. Remember... charging twice from 50% accounts for 1 cycle. whereas 2 full charge is 2 cycles. Leaving it plugged does not kill the battery, at least, not with an Apple laptop.


This is actually really great information, as I have been looking for a better way to manage my battery and hopefully get a longer lifespan out of it. The amount that the full charge has declined in 1.5 years for me seems about average if not exactly stellar. Hopefully this might slow that process.

So essentially what you're saying is when working on the battery (and I do semi- regularly) is only use it down to 40-50% before charging it fully. I think I can work with that.

Thanks!

Cheers,
Paul


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## IllusionX (Mar 10, 2009)

yeah, there isn't any reasons to make efforts to fully deplete a battery when you don't need to. just recalibrate it every 30-40 cycles. at least, that's what i've been reading regarding batteries.. Yet, i've managed to keep this one very well. I guess apple has made it so you can use your battery however you want.. recharge it 1, 2, 5 10 times a day....

on a side note, it's been about 5 recharge (3 cycles) the battery of my new MBP has gone through, it is showing some 99% now.. coconutbattery shows 99% as well.


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