Rechargeable batteries start deteriorating from the moment they are manufactured. I’ve noticed my Canon 20D’s batteries don’t last quite as long as they did 2 years ago. AA and AAA batteries seem to be even worse. As I’m heading to San Francisco in July I’ll be doing a lot of flying so it’ll be important that my Apple Macbook laptop have a decent battery life.
There’s no quick fix for this as it’s not reversible but if you’re wondering how much life is left, then Coconut Battery is a must have. I installed it last night and it looks like my battery still has 85% of it’s capacity left after 11 months of use. That’s not bad. It’s not enough to get me across the Atlantic but I don’t know if I want to spend €139 on a second battery when I’ll only ever use it once a year.
I think it is possible to slow down the deterioration. Don’t unplug your laptop! The less you use the battery, the longer the battery will last.
69% of my PowerBook’s battery remains after 21 months. But I’ll be upgrading to a MacBook Pro soon.
Interesting, thanks for the link. I just checked mine using this app – 89% capacity after 42 months and 315 battery-loadcycles. I use it without it being plugged almost daily. So it looks like my 3 year old heavily used battery is in better condition than your 1 year old battery. Strange. Maybe the batteries on newer macs are not as good as the older ones?
69% isn’t too bad! I read in some forums about people who were down to 50% after only a few months. Either their batteries were sitting on the shelf for a long time before being shipped, or they dragged their laptops around with them everwhere.
I’d like to see what happens to a Macbook battery in cold climate. Wouldn’t last long I’m sure!
Aidan – I don’t know, but that sounds like exceptional performance!
Very cool!
Cheers for the link.
I think the wi-fi download is also handy and more usful. I have a different widget for this already, but nice to have the indication on the top toolbar.
My PowerbookG4 is 87% after 25months, with 99 loads. Use 9-5 daily plugged in mainly while letting it sleep overnight unplugged…
My battery is 16 months old with 198 load cycles and it only has 33% left. I wonder if I just got a bad battery from the factory. I usually use it plugged in, but I often run it down. It seems to have deteriorated quickly in the last few months.
Actually, the best thing you can do for your battery is to run it completely out then charge it fully back up. In some cases you can even reclaim lost percentage point of capacity by doing this. If you must leave your laptop plugged in it is actually better to remove the battery after it is fully charged.
E-Train — that was only true of old nickel-chemistry batteries, only really nicads at that. Modern li-ion batteries have internal charge circiuts that look after them.
The life of a laptop battery can’t really be measured in years. It all depends on how you treated the battery. Here are some tips.
– Do not leave your battery in your laptop when you use it on the power cord.
– Store it in a cool place. (Batteries self discharge quickly in hot temperatures. Your NiMH and NiCd AA batteries can be stored in the freezer rather well. Not sure about your laptop battery though.)
– Store it when it is half full, rather than fully charged. About 40%.
– Charge the battery until 80% full, rather than 100%.
Interesting, I’m going on 25 months and iStat pro list my battery as 100%. I suspected a flaw and thus downloaded coconut…and it says 100%. In fact, my original capacity was 5020 mAh and my current is 5146! I appear to have a miracle battery that is growing!!! lol
Hey guys I just used the Coconut crap and I see that I have gone through 420 charge cycles, had an original capacity of 5020 mAh and now have 4900 mAh. My battery is still at 97% capacity. Pretty good! Oh also, there is no need to remove your battery when using your power cord. The battery has full charge shut-off and overcharge prevention circuitry So yeah. That’s it. Oh yeah and my it says that my MacBook is 18 months old.
I have a 5 day old whitemacbook with 6 cycles and its battery health is 93 % wtf ?
10 months, 113 cycles, 100% capacity, and yes my battery capacity seemed to have increased. I’m stoked that there is the overcharge prevention circuitry, it’s a pain to plug and unplug or remove the batt.
I wish I had seen this coconut battery post before buying a new battery for my macbook! It seemed to only be lasting for about 2.5 hours on a full charge, whereas I used to be able to get 5 hours out of it, so I bought a new one.
When looking up how to calibrate the new one, I found and installed this software, and it said my old battery was still at 97% health after 31 months and 415 cycles. I don’t understand why it’s not lasting as long if it’s still in such great health, but hopefully the new battery will fix the problem anyway.