Does my battery need replacing?

oliverjackson · Sep 2, 2009

Does this mean my battery needs to be replaced?

mdfuller · Sep 2, 2009

Give this a shot and report back:

coconutBattery 2.6.5 software download - Mac OS X - VersionTracker

oliverjackson · Sep 2, 2009

Here are my results

Not sure what it means, but here are the results

Screen shot 2009-09-02 at 4.31.23 PM.png

dmccloud · Sep 2, 2009

Looks like your battery is only capable of holding about 40% of its original charge. To me, that would be cause to replace the battery, as you're only getting ~40% of the rated battery life per charge.

pigoo3 · Sep 2, 2009

oliverjackson said:
Not sure what it means, but here are the results

I would say with 43% of your battery's capacity remaining...if you find that the amount of time you get "unplugged" on a full charge is not enough for the tasks you do...then I definitely agree with "dmccloud" that you should purchase a new battery.

But if you're still getting 1-2 hours unplugged on a full charge...and you're ok with that...you could probably wait a little longer before getting that new battery.

- Nick

oliverjackson · Sep 2, 2009

Battery

Thanks for the info,,, the battery has been acting quite flaky lately, so I think I will need to pick up a replacement at some point.

cwa107 · Sep 2, 2009

440 load cycles is beyond the useful life of most batteries.

pigoo3 · Sep 2, 2009

cwa107 said:
440 load cycles is beyond the useful life of most batteries.

Yeah...when I saw 440 load-cycles...but yet it still had 43% of it's original capacity...I thought that was pretty darn amazing!

- Nick

Sur3Mac · Sep 3, 2009

If you think that's pretty darn amazing... take a look at this here

pigoo3 · Sep 3, 2009

Sur3Mac said:
If you think that's pretty darn amazing... take a look at this here

That is pretty darn amazing!!

But to be honest...I'm actually a little bit confused on what constitutes a "load-cycle".

I mean I can understand if a battery is drained to like 5% or less, and then recharged to 100%...and that would count as a "load cycle".

But let's say a person rarely drains their battery below say 60%...or maybe even not below 75%...then how is a load cycle calculated?

For example...if you drain your battery to 75% 4 times...so 25% drain x 4 = 100%...would this be considered 1 load cycle?

- Nick

p.s. I "Googled" it...but didn't really come up with anything concrete.

southchatham · Sep 3, 2009

Thanks for this post. I just downloaded coconut battery. Mine shows 68 % capacity of original 496 cycles and 38 months old. I was thinking of a new one but I think I'll wait for 40% . Not sure how they judge a cycle because I would use some amount of battery and plug in when i could without letting it run down unless I was Conditioning.

Sur3Mac · Sep 3, 2009

That is pretty darn amazing!!

But to be honest...I'm actually a little bit confused on what constitutes a "load-cycle".

I mean I can understand if a battery is drained to like 5% or less, and then recharged to 100%...and that would count as a "load cycle".

But let's say a person rarely drains their battery below say 60%...or maybe even not below 75%...then how is a load cycle calculated?

For example...if you drain your battery to 75% 4 times...so 25% drain x 4 = 100%...would this be considered 1 load cycle?

- Nick

p.s. I "Googled" it...but didn't really come up with anything concrete.

I think whenever your battery is at 100%, and you start using it, regardless to what percentage, and charge it, that constitutes one cycle.

I've never "drained" mine, but still every time I use the battery, no matter for how long, 1 cycle is added.

pigoo3 · Sep 3, 2009

Sur3Mac said:
I think whenever your battery is at 100%, and you start using it, regardless to what percentage, and charge it, that constitutes one cycle.

I can see some logic in that...but then a 10% drained load cycle, and a 95% drained load cycle wouldn't be seem to be the same in terms of "wear & tear" on the battery.

For example: Two people with the same laptop, purchased at the same time:

- person A never drains their battery below 80% (20% drain)
- person B always drains their battery to 5% (95% drain)

They both do this 100 times. Then they both run Coconut Battery...the program confirms that they both have 100 load cycles on their batteries.

Maybe the difference would lie in the amount of "Current Battery Capacity" remaining.

Maybe:

- Person A (who regularly drains their battery less) would have 91% capacity remaining.
- Person B (who drains their battery much more completely on a regular basis)...maybe only has 79% battery capacity remaining.

Thus both batteries have 100 load-cycles on them...but because of the different ways each owner drains their battery...their remaining battery capacity differs.

I'm not saying either battery draining method is better or worse...just that maybe two or more people with the same number of battery load cycles cannot expect to have the same battery capacity remaining....due to the potentially drastic differences in how they drain their battery.

Just a theory in place of any better explanations,

- Nick

todd51 · Sep 3, 2009

I've already been through one battery replacement. My original battery was a fluke, it had only 70 load cycles on it and it's health was at 44%.

Now after over a couple of years, my second battery is already at about 56% and it doesn't even have 100 load cycles on it. If I drain it, it takes about 4-5 days for the pulsing light to shut off completely!

Sur3Mac · Sep 3, 2009

pigoo3 said:
I can see some logic in that...but then a 10% drained load cycle, and a 95% drained load cycle wouldn't be seem to be the same in terms of "wear & tear" on the battery.

For example: Two people with the same laptop, purchased at the same time:

- person A never drains their battery below 80% (20% drain)
- person B always drains their battery to 5% (95% drain)

They both do this 100 times. Then they both run Coconut Battery...the program confirms that they both have 100 load cycles on their batteries.

Maybe the difference would lie in the amount of "Current Battery Capacity" remaining.

Maybe:

- Person A (who regularly drains their battery less) would have 91% capacity remaining.
- Person B (who drains their battery much more completely on a regular basis)...maybe only has 79% battery capacity remaining.

Thus both batteries have 100 load-cycles on them...but because of the different ways each owner drains their battery...their remaining battery capacity differs.

I'm not saying either battery draining method is better or worse...just that maybe two or more people with the same number of battery load cycles cannot expect to have the same battery capacity remaining....due to the potentially drastic differences in how they drain their battery.

Just a theory in place of any better explanations,

- Nick

I can see where you're coming from... that is illogical, however, it's still a machine that sees black and white, not shades of grey.

pigoo3 · Sep 3, 2009

Sur3Mac said:
I can see where you're coming from... that is illogical, however, it's still a machine that sees black and white, not shades of grey.

Well that still get's back to my earlier question...How exactly is a battery load-cycle calculated?

Also...can two batteries with the same # of load cycles have differing levels of "Current Battery Capacity" remaining according to Coconut Battery (as I tried to suggest/explain earlier in this thread)?

- Nick

Does my battery need replacing?

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