Optimising your battery on a new Mac Notebook

MadGamer · 21-09-2009, 21:37

Hi guys, came across on my travels some info on getting the best out of your Mac notebooks battery: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1490

Products Affected
iBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook, PowerBook, MacBook Air

looper35uk · 22-09-2009, 02:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by MadGamer

Hi guys, came across on my travels some info on getting the best out of your Mac notebooks battery: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1490

Products Affected
iBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook, PowerBook, MacBook Air

To maximise the life span of any rechargeable battery you should fully recharged then fully discharge, it's not a mac thing it's a battery thing.

There's a good dashboard widget, iStat pro that will monitor the health of your battery. It also monitor fans, temperatures, network, disks, memory and cpu usage. It's a free app and you can get from the main apple store. My battery health check is telling me that my batteries health is 98%, that after 250 cycles. I believe thats pretty good.

Anyway MadGamer how are you liking your new Mac.

Druchii · 22-09-2009, 09:37

Not true Looper, it depends on the battery type. A full discharge can hurt some types of batteries in fact.

jamiefrost · 22-09-2009, 10:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Druchii

Not true Looper, it depends on the battery type. A full discharge can hurt some types of batteries in fact.

Very true, lithium ion batteries can be damaged by a deep dishcharge. They prefer a constant topup. For lithium ion batteries this does not adversly effect the life of the battery.

On a side note you should not buy a backup lithium ion as they start to degrade straight after manufacturing. You could buy not use it for years and then find it won't work.

The apple website is more to do with claibrating the battery with the OS so it shows a true representation of remaining power.

JJ

**Chris** · 22-09-2009, 12:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by looper35uk

There's a good dashboard widget, iStat pro that will monitor the health of your battery. It also monitor fans, temperatures, network, disks, memory and cpu usage. It's a free app and you can get from the main apple store. My battery health check is telling me that my batteries health is 98%, that after 250 cycles. I believe thats pretty good.

Another vote for iStat here ... a very useful little dashboard widget. Here's a screenshot of mine in action a few moments ago.

haydnwalker · 22-09-2009, 14:38

Unfortunately the new Unibody Macs has a non-user replaceable battery so when its gone it could be costly to replace, though apparently they will be good for at least 5 years...

looper35uk · 22-09-2009, 16:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Druchii

Not true Looper, it depends on the battery type. A full discharge can hurt some types of batteries in fact.

There's a lot of conjecture pertaining to this very subject.

The memory effect is the battery only using those cells that are fully discharged and charged on a regular basis. If there's only a partial charge then the battery will only remember those cells.

Lithium-ion: In the first instance may suffer from the memory effect. Fully charge the battery and allow it to fully discharge. The device using the battery will shut down when that point is reached in order to protect the battery.
NiMH: also susceptible to the memory effect. Same thing fully recharge and fully discharge.
NiCd: the oldest of all the rechargeable technologies are extremely susceptible to the memory effect.

The only batteries I can think of that dont let you fully discharge them are the lead acid type, lot older technology from the 70s. Big and bulky, these batteries are mainly used in security and fire alarm systems, they are permanently connected to a power supply.

jamiefrost · 22-09-2009, 16:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by haydnwalker

Unfortunately the new Unibody Macs has a non-user replaceable battery so when its gone it could be costly to replace, though apparently they will be good for at least 5 years...

Good old Apple, you can have anything; as long as you do it our way, when we tell you and how we tell you.

JJ

**Chris** · 22-09-2009, 16:26

It's a piece of consumer electronics Jamie and is sold as such. Most people who buy Apple products are happy with that proposition. Nobody moans that there are no user-serviceable parts inside a DVD player or a TV.

Plastic · 22-09-2009, 16:42

The memory effect, even on NiCd batteries, is a bit of a myth. It only affects cells that are charged and discharged to exactly the same point many times. That's not something that happens with any typical use pattern of a laptop battery.

Provided you don't leave a rechargeable battery in a discharged state for a long time, your likely to get just as much lifespan out of a battery by topping up as you would by fully discharging and recharging every time.

In other words - don't worry about... just use it as is convenient. It'll wear out whatever you do.

Xaccers · 22-09-2009, 16:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by Plastic

The memory effect, even on NiCd batteries, is a bit of a myth. It only affects cells that are charged and discharged to exactly the same point many times. That's not something that happens with any typical use pattern of a laptop battery.

Provided you don't leave a rechargeable battery in a discharged state for a long time, your likely to get just as much lifespan out of a battery by topping up as you would by fully discharging and recharging every time.

In other words - don't worry about... just use it as is convenient. It'll wear out whatever you do.

Exactly, the heat from your laptop is going to degrade the battery much more than deep charging will (charging a lithium battery leaves deposits in the electrolyte which reduces it's capacity, hence why top ups are better than deep charges).

jamiefrost · 22-09-2009, 17:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris

It's a piece of consumer electronics Jamie and is sold as such. Most people who buy Apple products are happy with that proposition. Nobody moans that there are no user-serviceable parts inside a DVD player or a TV.

No, but we are talking about a battery, you don't need a degree to change the batteries on the remote.

There is only one real reason for Apple to do this. I just get anoyed with the whole 'apple we love our users image' at times.

JJ

Bob · 22-09-2009, 17:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by looper35uk

There's a good dashboard widget, iStat pro that will monitor the health of your battery. It also monitor fans, temperatures, network, disks, memory and cpu usage. It's a free app and you can get from the main apple store. My battery health check is telling me that my batteries health is 98%, that after 250 cycles. I believe thats pretty good.

Ooo nice app! My battery is 97% after 386 cycles. So I'm really pleased with that. That's after over a year of near constance use lol!

Lew · 22-09-2009, 20:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by jamiefrost

There is only one real reason for Apple to do this.

Correct. The reason being that they could fit a larger (physical size) battery in the laptop. Yes, it can be a pain but most people don't use a second battery so the extra runtime is a reasonable tradeoff for most users.

Stuart · 22-09-2009, 20:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by jamiefrost

Good old Apple, you can have anything; as long as you do it our way, when we tell you and how we tell you.

JJ

I have a Macbook. I had a Sony Vaio laptop.

Under similar amounts of use (and with similar charge/discharge patterns), the Sony lasted about 13months before the battery could not hold enough charge to be useful.

The Macbook still averages about 3-4 hours normal use on a full charge and is nearly 30 months old.