MacBook Battery Logevity

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Despite looking after my MacBook like the Crown Jewels, the battery logevity seems to lower than my expectations. After 56 cycles (on a 6 month old Mac) the capacity is down to just over 4,200 mAh (from the 5200 mAh when new, that's about 82%). My wife's MacBook (bought 2 weeks earlier) has 10 more cycles but 4,900 mAh capacity left. Maybe I was unlucky or maybe I abused my battery somehow. Oh and BTW, I have calibrated recently... it actually made things worse (losing 22 mAh).

Interestingly, I have seen a few 3rd party websites start selling MacBook batteries, but ONLY for the MacBook white! How unfair is that?

Anyone else had issues with battery longevity? I did take my machine to the shop about 2 weeks after buying it askign them to check the battery was ok, because it already lost 200 mAh and they said that was normal and it would go up and down (which it had) but it has mainly gone down... :bandage:
 
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How often have you calibrated it? Its recommended to do it atleast monthly.
 
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Zoolook
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How often have you calibrated it? Its recommended to do it atleast monthly.

Only once since I got it. However my wife's has been allowed to die several times, not deliberately but just because she leaves it lying around asleep and it dies. It seems that her carelessness has actually benifited the machine! :mac:
 
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I would cycle yours a few times to see if that helps.
 
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I have 72 cycles over 9 months on my macbook just over 4900 mAh
 
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Zoolook
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I would cycle yours a few times to see if that helps.

I have 72 cycles over 9 months on my macbook just over 4900 mAh

OK, I'll do it again tonight and post the results. So to do this properly, you run it right down to sleep mode and then let it dies completely before charging?
 
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let it run until the warning comes up that it is going to sleep, after it goes to sleep, let it charge back up.
 
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Zoolook
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let it run until the warning comes up that it is going to sleep, after it goes to sleep, let it charge back up.

Well back home now and on the trusty Mac. It now has 4,186 mAh as the max charge according to Coconut, so it's running down now as we speak.
 
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This is weird...

CoconutBattery is telling me that my original capacity was 5200 mAh...now it says its nearly 5400 mAh.

This is after 40 load cycles and my Macbook is 3 months old, but I have only had it since Christmas.
 
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todd51

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I have also noticed mine will gain a percent or two if I just use about 10% of it from a full charge, then charge it again.

Kinda glad to see you all have more cycles than I do. At first I thought I was cycling it too much but mine is around 6-7 months old and I only have 40 cycles through it.
 
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From Coconutbattery:
Max Charge=5115mAh
Current Battery Capacity=5115mAh
Max Battery Capacity=5200mAh (this seems high for a battery of this physical size)
Load Cycles=2
Age=5 weeks (just bought it on 2/2/07 so only 3 days old to me)
 
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OK, I did another full cycle and lost 100 mAh so it's now down to 4157 mAh.
 
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Calibrating doesn't actually put more juice in the battery, it just lets the machine "read" the battery level better.

Apple advertises 300 cycles.

coconutBattery 2.5.1 says I've had 68 loadcycles over 3 months, I'm at 5227mAh or 95%.

Then I unplugged the charger (I'm at 100%), restarted coconut and it reports 5232mAh ... an increase of 0.1%.

As a rule, I try to keep my computer running at between 40% and 100%. I do the calibration thing once a month, and of course there are times when I run the battery down without meaning to. I'm probably running the computer on average 45-50 hours per week.
 
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how do you guys have 72 cycles in 9 months
I mean if you use your battery every day that would be like 270 cycles

do you leave your macbook pluggeed in?
 
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todd51

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I usually keep mine plugged in when I'm working on it, except for when I want to go to the couch or something. When I let it sleep or shut it down, I'll unplug it.
 
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Only once since I got it. However my wife's has been allowed to die several times, not deliberately but just because she leaves it lying around asleep and it dies. It seems that her carelessness has actually benifited the machine! :mac:

Actually, that might be contributing to the battery's loss. Deeply discharging a lithium-ion battery weakens it...
Avoid frequent full discharges because this puts additional strain on the battery. Several partial discharges with frequent recharges are better for lithium-ion than one deep one. Recharging a partially charged lithium-ion does not cause harm because there is no memory. (In this respect, lithium-ion differs from nickel-based batteries.) Short battery life in a laptop is mainly cause by heat rather than charge / discharge patterns.
(Source)

Calibrating a battery is not "good" for it; it's necessary, because it, well, calibrates the power-level meter. Otherwise, they'd get out of sync with the battery's true capacity, and wouldn't give an accurate reading. (And you'd end up draining it more often, accidentally.)
 
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what do u guys mean by cycling the battery?

thanks
 
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cycling = battery goes down to 0 (or almost ) percent power and is recharged.
 
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cycles

are cycles nesscary? i've had my Macbook White C2D since chhristmas, and i've never let the battery run out

is this bad?
 

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