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Maintaining Battery Life
If somehow you happen to hear someone said that it's fine to connect your MacBook battery to power socket all the time, then it's unlucky that you've got the wrong idea. Plugging your battery all the time will shorten your battery life.
Checking Battery Condition
There is an application called Coconut Battery that can help you inspect your battery life.
How is your battery condition?
Fortunately, there is a quick tip that can help you maintain your battery life: by calibrating your battery every month or two.
Calibrating Battery
- Charge the battery until it's fully charged
- Keep the fully charged state for two hours or more. You may use your MacBook during this time
- Disconnect power adapter
- Use your battery until it goes to sleep (empty state)
- Leave it for five hours or longer until the MacBook's light stop blinking
- Connect the power adapter and charge the battery until it's full. Don't use it in this period of time
Update: Thanks to David for additional information.
Source: Apple Support.
Categories:
Tips and Tricks
Tags:
Battery,
Hardware
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16 Comments
Sandpiper
i don't think that information is correct.. It's not good for a Li-ion battery to drain it a lot, it should be charged for at least 10% at all times, to maximize its lifetime. When your laptop is connected to the mains, you should remove the battery so it doesn't heat up. heat is bad. source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium-ion#Guidelines_for_prolonging_Li-ion_battery_life
Sandpiper
forgot my email in last reply
Wendy
Calibrating the battery every once a month is meant to let all the liquid inside the battery to flow. Anyway, don't try to remove the battery inside MacBook, it's not designed to be removed when you're charging the battery. :-)
David
Actually this information is completely correct. This is even per Apple's recommendation here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1490 Apple's explanation is the following: "The battery has an internal microprocessor that provides an estimate of the amount of energy in the battery as it charges and discharges. The battery needs to be recalibrated from time to time to keep the onscreen battery time and percent display accurate." I generally like to add that for steps 1-4 in your post it is okay to use the computer. And if there is any uncertainty for step 5 (i.e., "did I have it going for 5 hours? I'm not sure."), I generally tell people that if the light in the front of your computer has stopped blinking, then it has been at least 5 hours. If the light is still blinking, leave it until it stops. Reason: you want the battery completely, 100% drained. Also, I tell people *not* to use the computer for step 6. Just let it charge, and use it once it's done. Good article. This is something maybe 95% of laptop owners don't know and should know.
Wendy
Thanks for the info, David. I've put the additional information up.
sandpiper
well, the battery should be drained completely only to recalibrate the microprocessor, so the health of the battery can be calculated more precise. what you (david) are citing does not say anything about battery life. Draining a lithium-ion battery completely will shorten its lifetime. check the wikipedia page from my fisrt comment.
sandpiper
oh, i missread the article ; thought it was about keeping your battery as healthy as possible, my bad
Kristjan Kannike
All these settings can be checked from System Profiler's Hardware > Power without any third party applications.
jack
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Ctneale
This is weird i've had my mac for several months now and i leave it plugged in whenever im not using it away from my desk, 1-2 hrs a day, so its plugged in 22 hrs a day, yet my battery health is better than what cocunut battery says it was originally.
Champloni
I called Apple support because even my Macbook goes to sleep mode when battery is exausted the light in fornt of it doen't blinks... I use to wait for more tham 40 hours and when I plug it to charge, it "comes back" from sleep mode... So the battery was not drained... Any Clue? Thanks
Mark
Easier to buy a new battery, and not to have that headache.
Mark
.... and you can get one at our store: http://www.cheaplaptopadapter.com/catalog/battery-for-apple-macbook-7-1.html
Bill
Coconut Battery software is great. I have installed on my mac and I sow some problems :D Best regards, Professional Reviews
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