Best practices for long battery life

[lagopus1990]

Hi everyone,

I just received my new 14 inch Macbook Pro, after happily using a late 2013 MBP 15 inch for 8 years. Feels like I'm entering a new century with this machine, and happily skipped the touchbar generation.

Regarding the battery life span I was wondering a few things.

A friend of mine recommended the use of an app called Al Dente, which limits the battery charge to 80%, based on this article:

BU-415: How to Charge and When to Charge?

BU meta description needed...

batteryuniversity.com

Since I am mainly plugged to the power outlet, but do need the portability of a laptop, this kind of software is relevant for me.

A few questions come up when reading about this:
- Anybody else has other reliable sources about this?
- Any people confirming this information by experience?
- Apple seems to be doing some similar thing with "Optimised battery charging". But how smart do we think Apple is about battery ageing? Maybe they don't wont the battery capacity to stay too healthy over many years, because bad battery capacity is an important reason for laptop buyers to buy a new one? Any opinion on this?
- The article above says that fast charging batteries is not the best this for the lifespan of these kind of batteries, since for me this feature is not relevant, any way to turn it off?
- Other best practices or information is welcome

With my old laptop I never did anything in particular and the laptop still holds 1h or 2h depending on what I do. But with this new machine, I'd like to have more awareness about this.

 

[cappo3]

I am using Charge Limiter on my MBP Late 2013, it does what Al Dente does. It is set to limit charging to 80-85%, depending on what I am planning to do with the laptop.
I am on my second original Apple battery now, on the first I did not use any such software nor had any awareness for its health whatsoever. To be honest, after 1100 cycles on the first and 500 on the second battery, I cannot identify any positive impact on battery longevity due to Charge Limiter.

 

[EuroChilli]

Honestly, I would just plug it in when you need to charge it, and unplug it when you need to take it somewhere else. Save your time and effort installing 3rd party software and just let the built in charge optimiser do its thing. If the optimiser is holding it at 80% and you need a full charge sooner, just tell it to finish the charge.

My first ever Apple device was a 2011 MBP. In 10 years, still on the orignal battery, it has gone just over 2000 cycles and I can still watch almost 2 full length movies on a single charge, on moderate screen brightness. Battery condition still shows 'normal'. Did/do I follow any specific 'best practices'? No. It would very often stay plugged in at 100% for days on end. My wife then got a 2012 MBP and its battery kicked the bucket after about 1400 cycles in 7 years. No specific best practices followed either. We also each have the same iphone SE 1st gen, but I got mine a year after her, in 2017. My battery is barely holding half a day doing almost nothing, yet she plays with her phone a lot more than I play with mine and her battery holds out better.

Moral of the story, batteries are luck of the draw. While fancy software might help, to a point, when a battery is going to give up, it will, because battery chemistry is not an exact science. So no, I do not buy into these conspiracy theories about Apple purposefully shortening battery life spans.

 

[white7561]

Hi everyone,

I just received my new 14 inch Macbook Pro, after happily using a late 2013 MBP 15 inch for 8 years. Feels like I'm entering a new century with this machine, and happily skipped the touchbar generation.

Regarding the battery life span I was wondering a few things.

A friend of mine recommended the use of an app called Al Dente, which limits the battery charge to 80%, based on this article:

BU-415: How to Charge and When to Charge?

BU meta description needed...

batteryuniversity.com

Since I am mainly plugged to the power outlet, but do need the portability of a laptop, this kind of software is relevant for me.

A few questions come up when reading about this:
- Anybody else has other reliable sources about this?
- Any people confirming this information by experience?
- Apple seems to be doing some similar thing with "Optimised battery charging". But how smart do we think Apple is about battery ageing? Maybe they don't wont the battery capacity to stay too healthy over many years, because bad battery capacity is an important reason for laptop buyers to buy a new one? Any opinion on this?
- The article above says that fast charging batteries is not the best this for the lifespan of these kind of batteries, since for me this feature is not relevant, any way to turn it off?
- Other best practices or information is welcome

With my old laptop I never did anything in particular and the laptop still holds 1h or 2h depending on what I do. But with this new machine, I'd like to have more awareness about this.

According to the article that you linked. Which is a good one. It should have an effect. I myself use it and set it to 75% since I'm usually plugged in. But I want to make sure that if I need to go I can just top it up faster than setting the limiter to 50% (which will help it even further but again. The time to charge is not worth the extra life i think) .

So yeah use it if you want to

 

[throAU]

macOS will do the battery charging limitation itself.

it will show as your "battery health" drops if you keep leaving it plugged in.

if you start using it, it will come back up.

 

[smirking]

I'm thinking of giving AlDente a try with my new 16" MBP after the high drain activities that I do destroyed my last three MBP batteries. I've found Apple's Battery Health charging algorithm to be unreliable, but it probably has much to do with my very unusual usage patterns and schedule.

I have a sleep disorder and depending on the day I could be just as likely to be awake and at work at 1am as I am at 1pm. Battery Health didn't know what to make of this. It wants to give you 100% charge only at times when it thinks you'll need it and I presume that because it couldn't make heads or tails on a pattern for me, it simply concluded that I always need 100%.

I've had the same experience on my iPhone. It initially limited my charge, but the more I used it with optimized battery charging turned on, the less it would optimize until it stopped optimizing entirely.

I don't think many people reading this have the sleep issues I have so you can always start with Battery Health and try something else if it doesn't seem to be doing anything.

My first ever Apple device was a 2011 MBP. In 10 years, still on the orignal battery, it has gone just over 2000 cycles and I can still watch almost 2 full length movies on a single charge... My wife then got a 2012 MBP and its battery kicked the bucket after about 1400 cycles in 7 years.

2000 cycles! I hate you... and your 1400 cycle wife too! 😜

Almost all of my laptop batteries are in bad shape by 500 cycles and usually well before that. One of the reasons why I was so eager to upgrade to an M1 was to have a laptop that'll has so much battery headroom that I'm not as likely to kill it by needing max power drain every time I unplug it.

 

[Raebo]

For the first couple weeks I tried the optimize battery health 80% but it just kept the rate at 100%. Maybe if I tried it longer it would have started going to 80%. After reading a couple threads about Aldente in Macrumors I decided to give it a try and it seems to be working well. Google ”Aldente” and you can go to their site.

 

[EuroChilli]

2000 cycles! I hate you... and your 1400 cycle wife too! 😜

Here ya go:

I thought I took a screenshot of it over 2000 cycles, been looking, can't find anything. I could still take one, but I got a free new battery from my brother in law so I'd have to re-install the old one. I might just do that, I have some time and it takes about 10 mins. Thing is, this new iFixit battery is performing worse than the old one when it was still new.

Like I say, I thoroughly abused this old battery and it kept going and going and going, and going....So, I wouldn't worry too much about best charging/use practises.

I just bit the bullet and have ordered a new iPhone 12 mini to replace my 1st gen SE, because while a new battery for that is only €40, with postage, I figured it's not worth the hassle, based on past iFixit battery experience, the chances of properly buggering up the phone also quite likely. The same brother in law fried his daughters phone trying to replace the battery.

Replacing wife's battery. The one on the left is the new iFixit battery, lasted all of about 150 cycles before it started swelling to the point you couldn't press the track pad anymore. They sent a replacement, but again, these generic batteries are just not the same. I don't have high hopes for them, so as painful as it is, it might often be a better idea to just get a new device, because it's not just the batteries that 'go out of date', it's the OS and apps too.

 

[cool11]

From here,

GitHub - AppHouseKitchen/AlDente-Charge-Limiter: Menubar Tool to set Charge Limits and Prolong Battery Lifespan

Menubar Tool to set Charge Limits and Prolong Battery Lifespan - AppHouseKitchen/AlDente-Charge-Limiter

github.com

where is the dmg for aldente?

 

[TheRealAlex]

Don’t charge past 90% don’t deplete past 15% period.

 

[Fatus_Asticus]

I use Aldente, its set to stop the charge at 65% right now and I run off of power. Occasionally I'll need the laptop to be portable and I'll use it (65% is still many hours of use off power) and then charge it back up.

The key to long battery life is to limit cycles, not let the cells sit close to 100% or get trickle charged all the time. Mac software will take care of not continuously charging but holds charge at a high level and that is a no no for me. By limiting the power streaming into the battery and keeping it from sitting at full you'll be giving your cells the best chance at a long life. Use Aldente.

One final thing, try and not discharge it below 10-15% when in use off power.

 

[cool11]

So, setting Aldente, lets say at 80%, is it better than let mac os handle this battery topic?
Will I see 80 instead of 100%?
If I use Aldente for many years with such setting, will this preserve the longevity of mbp battery, than leaving mac os handle it?
---------------
I want to clarify things about this situation, as my current mbp appeared during the last years a deformation on the bottom part.
I am not sure if it is because of the use of a rather not good hard shell, or it is a battery problem,
as we talk about a mbp 15' late 2013 model.
Other than this deformation my mbp runs absolutely well, every app about battery shows alright, I have running time if I use battery etc
Almost 95 of the time for eight years of use, it is plugged in.

So I appreciate any information about a proper battery handling,
to ensure that my new mbp (ordered but not yet in my hands),
will not have such problem, if it is related with battery.

 

[moro30]

anyone use "Aldente pro" ?

 

[Fishrrman]

My (standard) recommendation:

I wouldn't depend on software to maintain the battery.

DO NOT leave the MacBook plugged in continuously, never removing the charger.

3-4 times a week, unplug the MacBook and let the battery "run down on its own" to about 45% charge. Then, reconnect it.

AT NIGHT (whether you power down the MacBook or just let it sleep):
Unplug the charger from the wall outlet.
Plug it back in, in the morning.

Yes, I'm a "battery troglodyte"... (look at the avatar)