Macbook marathon battery life.

[cowasaki]

Well 3 years and 3 months ago Mrs_C bought her Macbook and today the battery has all of a sudden gone from working perfectly to complete failure

BUT

3 years 3 months which is 1111 cycles is not at all bad is it really. Hope I can get that many out of mine but it is a young whipper snapper at only 628 cycles

I suppose I can get her a new one though. Just goes to show that they do tend to last if you look after them.

 

[Effjay]

Yep - batteries need looking after, I've given-off to many users in work about overcharging, but they never learn!

3 years is a good run, hope I get the same from this one of mine

 

[mtracerz]

How do you woek out the cycles?

Yep - batteries need looking after, I've given-off to many users in work about overcharging, but they never learn!

3 years is a good run, hope I get the same from this one of mine

Are they not built now so they dont over charge? I was under the impression they were now made to be connected to the mains constantly?

 

[andy_m]

1111 is pretty impressive!

My lil ol macbook has got 556 on in about 2 and half years.

Just upgraded to osx 10.6 from 10.4 and the battery seems to be lasting longer

 

[cowasaki]

How do you woek out the cycles?

Are they not built now so they dont over charge? I was under the impression they were now made to be connected to the mains constantly?

Cycles --- APPLE :: About this mac then click on MORE INFO then click on POWER in the left hand pane and in the right hand pain you will find cycles.

You don't need to worry too much about how much you leave a mac plugged in the charge circuit is very much more sophisticated than charge circuits of a few years ago. The biggest killer is being allowed to run completely flat. Li-Ions discharge even when not being used so if you let them run down the computer will turn off at about 5% to protect the battery BUT if you then leave the computer it can carry on and wreck it. So best advice use the computer as normal and just make sure that it isn't left flat ever.

 

[mtracerz]

Cycles --- APPLE :: About this mac then click on MORE INFO then click on POWER in the left hand pane and in the right hand pain you will find cycles.

You don't need to worry too much about how much you leave a mac plugged in the charge circuit is very much more sophisticated than charge circuits of a few years ago. The biggest killer is being allowed to run completely flat. Li-Ions discharge even when not being used so if you let them run down the computer will turn off at about 5% to protect the battery BUT if you then leave the computer it can carry on and wreck it. So best advice use the computer as normal and just make sure that it isn't left flat ever.

Ah found it

Cycle count: 181
Condition: Good


Didnt realise about letting it go flat! Iv done this a few times... will be the last time I do that..

 

[cowasaki]

Ah found it

Cycle count: 181
Condition: Good


Didnt realise about letting it go flat! Iv done this a few times... will be the last time I do that..

That is an inherent problem with Li-Ion batteries. My daughters both kept letting their Macbooks go flat and both got around 300 cycles from them. My elder daughter treated hers so badly it was dead at 287 which is lucky because Apple guarantee them to 300 cycles so they replaced it. She is looking after the replacement which is now on 700+ too.

 

[MichaelPlace]

829 cycles in 2 and a bit years, 89% health still.

I did well on my old iBook battery, first battery I kept leaving on charge over night so it was ready for the next day and it didn't last too long but it got replaced for free during the battery replacement program due to a bad batch of batteries, then the replacement battery was recalled a year later!

what's the macbook battery replacement cost by the way?

 

[cowasaki]

what's the macbook battery replacement cost by the way?

£99 for most Apple batteries from Apple

£25 from elsewhere for copies (they look and work almost exactly the same - I use them)

 

[Chappers]

Apple suggest that you run the battery flat at least once a month and then charge it up again.

From what I understand is Apple will only replace batteries up to 3 years old and under 300 cycles if it's covered by AppleCare.If not covered by AppleCare then it's I year.

 

[cowasaki]

Apple suggest that you run the battery flat at least once a month and then charge it up again.

From what I understand is Apple will only replace batteries up to 3 years old and under 300 cycles if it's covered by AppleCare.If not covered by AppleCare then it's I year.

By flat it just means down to the warning level. Apple will replace batteries that are even a little out of the 1 year warranty if the cycle count is under 300 (my eldest daughters was about 14 months old).