Battery health software question

[bwintx]

Have an iMac at home, but my personal laptop for at-work stuff is a Dell XPS 15. Am considering replacing it with a 2018 MBP. My question is about whether there’s a Mac app for automatically managing the battery’s health. Dell has an app called Dell Command Power Manager which, among other things, lets you set the peak battery charge at whatever you want — e.g., 60% — rather than automatically going to 100% when you’re plugged in for long periods. I know that the FruitJuice app will monitor the battery and suggest when to unplug, but it apparently provides no automatic control function comparable to what’s in the Dell app I mentioned. Also: in checking out a 2018 MBP yesterday, I saw nothing in System Preferences that sounds remotely like that.

So . . . anybody know of a Mac version of this Dell app, or similar?

 

[robvas]

It’s been discussed a million times. The Mac can monitor the battery and charge it fine on its own

 

[cambookpro]

Is it actually necessary? Presume you want it to attempt to prolong the life of the battery?

My knowledge is a couple of years old, but lots of Windows laptops would charge the battery and then constantly drop it to 80% or so before charging it back up, increasing the number of cycles it would do. Now I'm not sure if they've changed it, but a quick Google brings up a few discussions about it on Dell XPS machines.

With Mac laptops, once they hit 100% they automatically switch to mains power with no trickle charging etc., so there's little extra wear on the battery.

 

[bwintx]

Is it actually necessary? Presume you want it to attempt to prolong the life of the battery?

My knowledge is a couple of years old, but lots of Windows laptops would charge the battery and then constantly drop it to 80% or so before charging it back up, increasing the number of cycles it would do. Now I'm not sure if they've changed it, but a quick Google brings up a few discussions about it on Dell XPS machines.

Could well be. Not familiar with that. It wasn't how my current Dell (9550, from 2016) did it before I installed that app I mentioned; it always charged to 100% and kept it there.

With Mac laptops, once they hit 100% they automatically switch to mains power with no trickle charging etc., so there's little extra wear on the battery.

True, but what I’ve read suggests that Li-ion batteries are better off not charged fully to 100%. So that’s my starting assumption. Certainly, if not, good deal. Just want to be sure.

 

[cambookpro]

Could well be. Not familiar with that. It wasn't how my current Dell (9550, from 2016) did it before I installed that app I mentioned; it always charged to 100% and kept it there.



True, but what I’ve read suggests that Li-ion batteries are better off not charged fully to 100%. So that’s my starting assumption. Certainly, if not, good deal. Just want to be sure.

I think the software would report it at being at 100% regardless of whether it was draining or recharging in the background but could be wrong.

Whilst there is some scientific truth in Li-ion batteries degrading slightly faster if being kept at 100% constantly, if you only ever permanently charge it to 80%, that's for all intents and purposes the same as the battery degrading by 20% which isn't going to happen quickly.

Personally, I just use my laptop and charge it when I can. I'm on 600 cycles and 92% battery health which is perfectly fine for me.