Always using battery versus occasionally remaining plugged in

[planteater]

I don't know if this has been discussed. I can't find it.

Specifically for notebooks, is there any benefit for durability of the battery to stay plugged in occasionally? I typically only plug my MBP in to charge it, and having reached somewhere from 80% to 100%, I'll unplug. And then when down to ~20%, I'll charge it again. I use my laptop many hours, so that is usually 1 charge cycle per day. Would I be better off leaving it plugged in occasionally?

 

[leman]

For long-term usage, there is very little practical difference. “Optimal” behavior (whatever that is) might prolong your battery lifespan by several months, but does it really matter whether you have to replace it after five years or after five years and six months? The biggest factor in practice is the usage intensity: the more you use your machine the quicker the battery degradation. But it will last years regardless.

 

[appltech]

Yep. If you'd like to save the battery then use Mac on the power cord (when possible)
As mentioned before, there's an inevitable battery degradation over the years (damn, there're some devices that I can't save over the time because the battery would kill them)

 

[quagmire]

I use a program called Al Dente to hold the charge to 75% in the aim to decrease degradation as it is bad for the battery to stay at 100% for long periods of time. Batteries don't like the extremes( low state of charge and high state of charge). My MBP stays plugged in most of the time. If you are concerned about degradation, look into Al Dente and keep the MBP plugged in.

Either way the battery will degrade through age.

 

[Tagbert]

I use a program called Al Dente to hold the charge to 75% in the aim to decrease degradation as it is bad for the battery to stay at 100% for long periods of time. Batteries don't like the extremes( low state of charge and high state of charge). My MBP stays plugged in most of the time. If you are concerned about degradation, look into Al Dente and keep the MBP plugged in.

Either way the battery will degrade through age.

Yes, Al Dente is good for that. If you are interested in limiting the normal charge of your battery this way, I suggest you start with the built in “optimized battery charging” feature. It is suppose do watch your usage and limit full charges based on that usages. It may take a few weeks before it does this.

Having said this, I use Al Dente because after a couple of months, OC had not lowered by charge below 100%. I installed Al Dente, set it for 80% and it holds that level fairly reliably.

 

[jdb8167]

Yes, Al Dente is good for that. If you are interested in limiting the normal charge of your battery this way, I suggest you start with the built in “optimized battery charging” feature. It is suppose do watch your usage and limit full charges based on that usages. It may take a few weeks before it does this.

Having said this, I use Al Dente because after a couple of months, OC had not lowered by charge below 100%. I installed Al Dente, set it for 80% and it holds that level fairly reliably.

At this point (after 17 months) being plugged in most of the time, optimized battery charging is working very well for me. When I do pull the MacBook Air off of my desk and use it on battery and then when done, plug it in again, it usually charges to 100% and then after about 24 hours, I'll see that I'm back at 80%. It actually discharges the battery automatically.

 

[w5jck]

Every time the battery has to be recharged a significant amount, it counts towards the total number of times the battery was designed to be recharged. ALL batteries have a limit to the number of times they can be recharged. Typically the batteries in laptops and iPads and iPhones will last a few to several years under normal usage conditions. But if you recharge a laptop every night after running it on battery power during the day, it will use up significantly more of its maximum number of charge cycles than a laptop that stays plugged in most of the time and maintains a 70-80% charge. Apple has a battery maintenance mode in their MacBooks that when plugged in keeps the average battery level between 70-80% for optimum battery longevity. I've got a 2014 MacBook Pro which after 8 years of daily use still has a good battery because it rarely runs without being plugged in on my desk. I recently upgraded to a 2020 MacBook Air M1 but kept the 2014 MacBook Pro as a backup. I tend to keep my Macs for many, many years, and I have never had a battery die because I keep them plugged in the vast majority of the time.

Not everyone has the ability to keep their laptop plugged in most of the time, but if you do, it can extend the life of its battery quite a bit. The best thing for those who need to use their laptop on a regular basis without being plugged in is to never let it fall too low in charge level before recharging. If you let your battery go down to 20% or less on a regular basis, then you are having to put it through a stressful full cycle recharge on a regular basis, and it will wear out the battery fairly quickly. In such a scenario, it is better to carry along an external battery supply to plug into it before its remaining charge level gets that low.

 

[Ethosik]

macOS recently introduced some intelligence on battery charging. I use my laptop in clamshell mode 95% of the time. In the off chance I unplug and use it elsewhere, when I plug it in it goes to 100%. But after a few days, macOS knows this and targets the batter for only 80% charge.

 

[AudiHeel]

99% of the time my MacBooks have been plugged in, and I have never had battery issues. I sold my 2017 MacBook a couple months ago after buying this M1 Air, and it only had 26 battery cycles in 3 years. To test the battery, I used it unplugged for 2-3 hours and the battery was still around 75%.

 

[ipsedixit]

Just use it how you prefer.

Mac OS has been optimized for battery life, whether always plugged-in or (almost) always on battery.

And more likely than not by the time your battery life cycles run down to zero, you'll have long passed on to a new laptop, be it an Apple product or some other marque.

 

[spiderman0616]

macOS recently introduced some intelligence on battery charging. I use my laptop in clamshell mode 95% of the time. In the off chance I unplug and use it elsewhere, when I plug it in it goes to 100%. But after a few days, macOS knows this and targets the batter for only 80% charge.

Yep--I do the same thing. My work Macs always tend to be the larger model MacBook Pros, and I just leave them docked on my desk and plugged in at all times. I may or may not have the machine in sleep mode, but I don't unplug it unless I really do want to lug that giant thing somewhere else to work or I want to dock my personal machine instead.

For this new 16" model I got about a month ago, I have mostly had it plugged in all the time other than a couple of different days when I did half the day on battery. It seems after about 3 weeks it started holding the battery down at about 80%. You just have to give it some time to average things out. The nice thing about the M1 Macs is that you don't even really have to plan ahead and hit "Charge to Full Now" if you decide to take it somewhere with you because 80% is still hours and hours of use. This feature has worked well for me since it was introduced and I don't see any reason to use any 3rd party solutions, nor do I spend any time worrying about damaging the battery on my laptops. macOS will decide if harmful patterns are developing and will throttle charging from there.