Calibrating Your MacBook Battery 29
Trick
Hey
MacBook laptop batteries die. Until we find a battery material that can keep its capacity for the length of its life we will have to do with getting the most out of out Lithium ion friends. You will probably know that over time Lithium and its chemical friends slowly but surely lose there hold on the electron world and reduce in the amount of electrical capacity they hold. I don’t no the in’s and out’s but I know its not that good. That is where battery calibration comes in. Calibration helps your battery stay in tip top shape and will hopefully keep its charge longer.
Calibration is easy. It only takes a couple of steps done in the right order (more difficult than it sounds).
1) Charge your battery all the way up. Kind of obvious. You want to get your battery to its peak.
2) Keep your battery charged at full for a couple of hours. Usually by keeping it plugged in. This is so it knows what full charge is like.
3) Use your computer until it runs down. Take it out of a binary jog, get those CPU cycles working. I recommend just using it normally and nothing to intensive.
4) Remember to save your work before it goes to sleep. Vital step, forgot to do this before mine died.
5) Turn your computer off or left it sleep for 5 hours or longer. After a hard day of computering it needs its rest, wouldn’t you.
6) Reconnect the battery and charge er’ all the way up.
7) Repeat once or every couple of months. Or in my case every day because I don’t bring my power adapter with me. Do this with other batteries if you have bought some.
Although calibrating your battery is a bit boring it is a very good way to keep it in tip top shape. I think the internals work out how much time over CPU it has used for a given battery. As a result it can adjust how it works. All I know is that it improves performance. Currently (and this makes me sad) I have had 109 charges for a 66% battery health, lasting approximately under 2 hours with normal to semi intensive work. You can find out your battery health through my favourite widget iStat menus. If you feel inclined, leave a comment below with your battery stats and we can see how the MacBook batteries are slowly leading to their battery grave.
If you are looking for a new battery since you old one has got to a point it has become worthless, I recommend looking on Amazon, they usually have some great deals if you look hard enough. Most of the time they are cheaper than an Apple Store.
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29 Responses to “Calibrating Your MacBook Battery”
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1
I certainly hope the battery doesn’t die as fast as it seems to be… I bought my MacBook in Nov07 and the Battery Health Monitor says I already “used up” 48% of my battery life, after 191 charge cycles (though when fully charged it still goes for in between 3 and 4 hours with normal use) . That means that within some 5 months I’d have to buy a new battery! I almost always charge and ‘drain’ the battery completely, which is supposed to be the way it has to be done. I’ll sure take into account your post to try to extend my battery’s life!
Comment By Pirate Pinion on March 14th, at 12:28 am
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2
I hope they don’t die as quick as they seem to. Hopefully they will last a bit longer.
Comment By James Powell on March 14th, at 8:15 am
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3
On my MacBook Pro I only have 4 cycles. I’ve had it for 10 months and my battery still holds a 100% charge. Using CoconutBattery it claims to have it’s full original battery capacity…actually its higher than original..doesn’t make sense there.
Anyway, I get a good 2.5-3 hours out of my battery.
Comment By John Mahlman IV on March 14th, at 3:23 pm
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4
2 years 356 cycles 66% left on my battery ;)
when discharging, your mac will be in sleep mode. don’t forget to restart it in mode “target” (press “t” when booting) and wait :) still enough power for 8 or 10 min. battery completely discharged ;)
Comment By zed on August 28th, at 9:08 pm
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5
Nice one zed. I wish I got that battery life. Mine is used constantly so it is slowly dieing.
Comment By admin on August 28th, at 11:32 pm
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6
My battery is brand new with 3 load cycles and at 100% battery life it holds a charge for 2 hours
Comment By christopher Shefferly on October 4th, at 8:44 pm
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Thats pretty good. I wish mine had that.
Comment By admin on October 4th, at 8:47 pm
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8
ive my macbook for about 18months, last night i read this article and check my stats – 582 cycles – 89% battery life. I re-calibrated and left it off. just check now and the health is down to 85%!! wtf?? that is within 12 hours… i hope this calibration technique does not fatigue the battery in some way. 4% in a day seems a bit ridiculous seeming as before that i only lost 11% in a year and a half. anyhoo its still holds 3 – 4 hrs chrge even with airport on etc…
Comment By tom on October 24th, at 3:44 pm
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Battery life goes up and down. What you saw previously was an uncalibrated figure, which was displayed wrong. When you calibrated your battery it re-calculated the figure, hence the jump. I have a really poor battery health, since I always use my battery and constantly charge it.
Comment By admin on October 24th, at 3:57 pm
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10
Macbook is 2.5 yrs old. I use it infrequently. I noticed yesterday the power indicator was showing ‘Finishing Charge’ for about an hour whilst on charge (percentage was stuck at 99%. Downloaded iStat and it showed a health of 90%.
Did the calibration procedure, put it on charge this morning at 0730 and at 1030 (3hrs) it’s still saying it needs a further 2.5hrs to charge and the battery health has dropped to 69% (charge is at 74 %).
The charge holds for 2-3 hours.
At £99 for a new battery I’m really hoping mine isn’t on it’s way out just yet.
Comment By Tim on November 18th, at 12:06 pm
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11
Oh and I forgot to mention it only has 68 cycles.
Comment By Tim on November 18th, at 12:07 pm
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12
Definitely helps… I almost never use my power cord during the day, and I have 390 cycles for 99% battery health. My battery lasts about 3 hours still. Woot!
Comment By Brett on December 7th, at 5:37 am
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13
You should mention on all your pages that Li-Ion and all batteries contain harmful chemicals such as mercury and should not be thrown out but rather disposed of at your local battery recycling centre or hazardous waste drop-off (in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, it is at any City fire station…)
The Environment is Important to All of Us!
Comment By David Khan on December 26th, at 12:43 am
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14
My computer is 6-7 years old (upgraded the operating system to panther). It’s left on all day, every day and about 1-2 years ago I got a new battery. The original capacity is 4,400 mAh but is now at 3,197 mAh (73%). Coconut battery doesn’t work so I have to use Battery Health Monitor.
Comment By Arthur on December 28th, at 10:30 am
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15
119 charges for a 97% battery health
good charges 4 every1
Comment By Ricardo Lopes on January 12th, at 1:27 am
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16
My battery lasts 1 hour at full charge =.=
1. turn off bluetooth
2. never open dashboard, if u do, type in terminal (Case sensetive): killall Dock
3. go to activity monitor, end all language processes, and end all “applespell” applications, kill all the ituneshelper if u dont use itunes a lot, also end speech synthesis server (if u dont need ur computer to speak)
now my computer lasts 4 hourz!!(btw, just reset ram if your coconut battery says 104% or something)
Comment By SIlverclaw on January 15th, at 9:55 am
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17
Nice advice #4, Zed! I’m going to do that from now on.
Comment By drCronex on February 25th, at 3:13 am
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Oh and great advice in #16, go SIlverclaw! I’m going to try some of those. My professional level work requires a lot of power.
Comment By drCronex on February 25th, at 3:21 am
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I have 398 cycles..
still at 98% healthComment By eman on March 4th, at 4:45 am
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20
My battery cycles – 100
Health as per istat – 100%
Health as per Battery Health Monitor – 104% !!!!!And i do caliberate my mac battery
Comment By Aman on March 20th, at 9:58 am
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21
I must be lucky…. I have had my MacBookPro for about 8 months now.
It has 245 cycles on the battery, and its at 90%…get a good 3 hours life out of the battery under normal usage…4 or 5 if I’m just running word and taking notes in class.Comment By Dan Pritschow on April 25th, at 8:44 pm
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22
I’ve had my MacBook for about 2-1/2yrs. My battery has 675 cycles on it, and my battery health is at 51%. I don’t know if this is below average, average, or above average for a MacBook battery.
Comment By Dave G on June 25th, at 12:09 am
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570 cycles
100% health
2 yr old batteryjust make sure that the battery is down to its last ten minutes (most of the time) before you charge and let it charge completely over night…
Comment By Scott on July 24th, at 5:57 am
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Hi ,
Thanks for writing such an interesting article. Its really good to know about the batteries in detail. Seriously do we realize how many things in your house that need batteries? Let’s count it, from the flashlight, cell phone, iPod, cameras, and many more. Knowing it should make us realize on how essential the presence of the batteries in our daily life. However, with that so many kinds of battery, which is generally different between one to another, sometimes we have some difficulties in finding the desired type.
Find the right batteries supplier is not hard if you check out batterystation.co.uk because this website provides the widest selection of batteries and you can choose the right battery based on the categories. You can get the procell batteries which available in several sizes and voltage. You also can find Duracell batteries that divided into duracell plus batteries and duracell ultra batteries. All of the batteries come with cheaper price because this website provides the discount batteries in bulk, wholesale, and retail quantities.
Thanks,
- Andrew Morales
Comment By Andrew Morales on September 1st, at 11:43 am
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25
My MacBook is 21 months old, has 50 charge cycles, and a 97% battery capacity.
It appears that the number of cycles, not the age, is the determining factor re. remaining capacity…
- Janke
Comment By Janke on October 23rd, at 5:40 pm
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Full charge capacity (mAh): 4327 (85%)
Cycle count: 701
Condition: GoodComment By sean on November 20th, at 6:09 am
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27
mine is 669 cycles 32 months old and health is 87%
In the cycle 650 it was 99% health, now it doesn’t
Calibrate it once in every while
Comment By Alejandro Flores on January 6th, at 5:33 am
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28
It seems as if many people who had great battery lives did a calibration and the battery capacity dropped like crazy. Doesn’t that indicate that calibrating hurts the battery?
I have a 23month old laptop, with 98% remaining, and I seldom if ever calibrate. I even have two chargers, one in the office and in my bed room, so I always have it on the juice, so to speak.
Can anyone analyse what is happening with my battery then?Comment By Jonathan on January 16th, at 12:06 am
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29
@Jonathan, people haven’t lost battery power when they calibrate, they are only showing what battery power they should have. The value before calibration is usually wrong, hence the move.
Comment By admin on January 16th, at 12:07 am
