Al Dente - Do you use it? How is it?

[TheWraith]

Looking to limit my battery being stuck at full all the time on my MBA M3. It is plugged in a lot of the time, so Apple's optimized battery charging sounds nice, but effectively it ends up back at 100% for days and weeks at a time. Al dente seems great, but complicated reading about it—do people find it integrates with Apple's charging logic? Does it work for them? And have they seen an improvement in battery capacity. over time?

 

[SjoukeW]

I use Al Dente to put it to 80%. It works. It doesn't integrate with Apple's logic, it just limits the charge to 80% in my case. Good enough.
I don't have any clue about the battery capacity degradation. My mac is used as a 'couch potato'. Always on the charger unless it is being used on the couch.
Batteries do degrade by age and use, no clue what degrades mine the fastest.

 

[KhunJay]

The same functionality can be accessed via settings>battery in Ventura.
I uninstalled Al Dente 2 days after installing initially.

 

[SjoukeW]

My macbook doesn't 'learn' to only charge to 80% after a month. Then I switched to al-dente and don't pay much attention to it. Always enough charge in the battery for the hour on the couch anyway then back to the charger.

 

[TheWraith]

I use Al Dente to put it to 80%. It works. It doesn't integrate with Apple's logic, it just limits the charge to 80% in my case. Good enough.
I don't have any clue about the battery capacity degradation. My mac is used as a 'couch potato'. Always on the charger unless it is being used on the couch.
Batteries do degrade by age and use, no clue what degrades mine the fastest.

This sounds a lot like my situation—it's basically almost always a 'desktop' that has the feature that I can travel with it and very occasionally use the battery.

 

[TheWraith]

The same functionality can be accessed via settings>battery in Ventura.
I uninstalled Al Dente 2 days after installing initially.

In my experience these settings don't do much for you if you are on the charger 98%-99% of the time.

 

[Hudzilla]

I use al dente on all my Macs (Pro, Air & Mini) works a charm as I nearly have them all plugged in when at home

 

[foldpages]

Al Dente really messed with my battery health. I finally uninstalled it and am now just using the built in settings in MacOS that do the same thing.

 

[Akira1]

I use BatFi after Al Dente stopped working on log in (wouldn't automatically boot at login)

 

[mlody]

In my experience these settings don't do much for you if you are on the charger 98%-99% of the time.

Exactly. Apple should have add the hard limit option like they did for iPhone 15's, otherwise this setting is pure garbage especially for systems that are plugged in 24h

 

[Jim Lahey]

1. Yes
2. Excellent

Apple's Optimized Charging is ridiculous because it only works if you either never ever unplug your Mac from the outlet or never ever deviate from a completely rigid charging routine. Ergo not how anyone who needs a laptop actually uses a laptop. Now I'm sure Apple may argue that varied use negates the need for an 80% hard limit, but this is patently false since they added it to iPhone (arbitrarily feature rationed behind an anti-consumer hardware upgrade but that's another conversation).

I have a lifetime AlDente Pro license as I regard it as the first most essential installation on a MacBook. The Pro version brings excellent features, especially to the menu bar configuration and information options.

ETA: Without AlDente my battery health plummeted from new to 90% in two years. A further four years later, with AlDente onboard, it averages ~92%. Only potential foible I find is that I need to flex the battery up to 100% from time to time or it will begin losing reported charge accuracy. The Pro version has a calibration mode to help with this if you desire. After recalibrating, my reported charge level accuracy is always restored to normal.

 

[Lynxpoint]

I use BatFi after Al Dente stopped working on log in (wouldn't automatically boot at login)

How does Batfi compare to AlDente?

 

[Howard2k]

Exactly. Apple should have add the hard limit option like they did for iPhone 15's, otherwise this setting is pure garbage especially for systems that are plugged in 24h

Works fine for me. Mine is plugged in almost 24/7 and sits at 80% the vast majority of time.

 

[Akira1]

How does Batfi compare to AlDente?

Seems to work the same with the added bonus of BatFi having cycle counts and battery health monitors.

 

[al3zza03]

Been enjoying Al Dente Pro for a few years. It works really well for me, have it set to 80% and "sail" down all the way to 30%.

 

[eltoslightfoot]

Been working fine for me...set it to 80% except when I travel--which ain't often LOL.

 

[Jim Lahey]

Seems to work the same with the added bonus of BatFi having cycle counts and battery health monitors.

Just FYI for those who may not know - AlDente Pro can also show this information. It's available in the Stats pane of Settings and from there can be configured to show in the Popover window that appears when you tap the menu bar battery icon. Battery Health, Battery Specs and Electrical Specs.

 

[StoneJack]

I dont use it. After years of use all my batteries are still 100 percent

 

[krspkbl]

Thought about trying it but I don't understand how it works and if I should get the free or paid version.

I wish Apple would just give us the option to limit charging to 80% like they do on iPhone 15.

My macbook doesn't 'learn' to only charge to 80% after a month. Then I switched to al-dente and don't pay much attention to it. Always enough charge in the battery for the hour on the couch anyway then back to the charger.

I think for optimised charging to work you need to charge over night and have location services on with system customisation and significant locations enabled. So it depends on time and location.

Optimised Charging only "works" on my Airpod Pro 2 as it will keep the earphones at ~80% then slowly charge them up for when it thinks I'm going to use them. Have never seen this in action on my iPhone, Watch or MacBook but I don't charge them at night.

 

[Isamilis]

I dont use it. After years of use all my batteries are still 100 percent

Keen to share what are the tricks? I never had such device that are still 100% health after years of uses.

 

[StoneJack]

Keen to share what are the tricks? I never had such device that are still 100% health after years of uses.

Very simple. Just plug and charge when needed. No tricks, no apps. preferably until full charge. 2 years of mba m2, 100 percent battery health

 

[bill-p]

Keen to share what are the tricks? I never had such device that are still 100% health after years of uses.

15" M2 MacBook Air here. Still 100% and it has been 10 months.

My previous 14" M1 was at 98% after 2 years. Seriously, I think people really overblows this whole battery issue. The new Apple Silicon Macs are much more resilient with regards to battery longevity because of how efficient they are overall. Intel Macs killed batteries because they were running very hot all the time.

 

[ro5]

i know i'm late to the party but just wanted to share my experience.

i have a release day 2021 M1 14" MBP and have been running AlDente (free version) since day 1. my battery health is 96% and cycle count is 35.

if your macbook is plugged in 99% of the time (which mine is) the best way to use AlDente imo is to set the charge limit to something like 80%, let your battery charge up to that level, then once it reaches the desired charge level set the charge limit down to something like 30%. this effectively does what "sail" mode does in the pro version. once the battery trickles down to 30% (over several weeks) then set the limit back to 80% and let it charge up again and begin a new cycle.

the goal is to make your macbook use the cable as the power source as much a possible while your battery behaves like it's just sitting on the shelf idling.

i'm aware that this method does require some manual work and micromanaging, but i find that it is minimal (each cycle is several weeks and i rarely find myself actively thinking about it) and the payoff is well worth it.