So how healthy is your battery?

Phate

Phate

Phate

Caporegime
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How healthy is your battery? and how do you go about maintaining your battery?

Someone at work asked me how much battery time I get out of my Macbook, I told them roughly 5 hours with general usage

I constantly cycle the battery, literally....I will not plug it in till its in reserve (5%) and when its fully charged I'll unplug it...I've done this it's entire life.

Anyway, I ran coconut battery and this is what it told me

battery.tiff


So just 11mah down from when I bought it, and its now 18months old :)

Impressed! :) - So what about you guys?
 
I don't make a habit of leaving the charger connected if the battery isn't charging, but in the screen I just took that is the case. :o

Although, I don't always charge from reserve and quite often when I was busy with Uni I'd end up charging it when it was only down to 40 or 50%. Due a new MB soon though so I'm not too concerned. :)

Picture1-11.png
 
This thread provides a nice quick chance for me to ask... How are you guys doing a screenshot and quickly and simply cropping it on a Mac? Any time I've tried to do that, I end up having to faff around with iPhoto. Is there a quicker/easy way, and so it doesn't get added to my photo library?

Aaaanyway for my early 2009 MB (which I try and cycle as much as I remember, and use plugged in a fair bit):

Current battery - 3956 mAh
Max - 3956mAh

Current Battery Capacity - 3956 mAh
Original Battery Capacity - 4100 mAh

Loadcycles - 340
Age of Mac - 17 months
 
Either use shift-command-4 followed by spacebar and you can capture a window direct to your desktop or use something like Skitch which is really very handy.

I'll post my stats when I'm home later.
 
IceBus said:
This thread provides a nice quick chance for me to ask... How are you guys doing a screenshot and quickly and simply cropping it on a Mac? Any time I've tried to do that, I end up having to faff around with iPhoto. Is there a quicker/easy way, and so it doesn't get added to my photo library?
Click to expand...

Cmd-Shift-3 - Whole screen
Cmd-Shift-4 - Select an area
Cmd-Shift-4 then Space - Select a window

The images get saved to your desktop. You could also automate the uploading to image hosts with various applications and dashboard widgets.
 
I use mine all day everyday (about 14 hours), and have done so since I bought it last summer. At work its plugged in, and at home usually its running on battery. Any reason why the Capacity has increased (or do I need to do a calibration on the machine?).

20100420-r8n47j8gu7htsn4xgb8g6rgwuj.preview.jpg
 
Delphi-uk said:
I use mine all day everyday (about 14 hours), and have done so since I bought it last summer. At work its plugged in, and at home usually its running on battery. Any reason why the Capacity has increased (or do I need to do a calibration on the machine?).

http://img.skitch.com/20100420-r8n47j8gu7htsn4xgb8g6rgwuj.preview.jpg[/img[/QUOTE]

what MB is that delphi ???
Click to expand...
 
I've just replaced the battery in my MBP 3,1 because it was knackered.

Although I do the same thing as Phate; only charge on reserve and don't leave it plugged in, it's already down to 98% after about 40 cycles.

:(
 
ps3ud0 said:
Whats the best way to look after the battery?

ps3ud0 :cool:
Click to expand...

Don't leave the charger plugged in when the battery is at 100%

Don't charge the battery until you go into reserve which is about 4 or 5% I believe, or until the Mac falls to sleep.

Those are probably the two easiest ways to look after the health, there's an article on Apple's site somewhere with suggestions as well. :)
 
K1LLSW1TCH said:
Don't leave the charger plugged in when the battery is at 100%
Click to expand...

I thought the MacBook's (/Pros) would stop charging the battery once it's at 100% and run off the mains directly? And that consequently when the LED is Green you could remove the battery and it would keep running fine, straight off the mains.

I've never tried it, but that's what I always thought...
 
K1LLSW1TCH said:
Don't leave the charger plugged in when the battery is at 100%
Click to expand...

Doesn't matter cos the charging circuit stops charging it.

You can't really do much to prolong life of li-ion, they have a finite shelf life and therefore will lose capacity whether you lose them or not.
 
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