Better to leave plugged in or not?

[Antimatter]

For the best battery health, is it better to leave my MacBook plugged in all the time (24/7) or to unplug it when it's fully charged and then charge it up after I use it everyday?

Thanks for your reply

 

[tobywuk]

it does not matter. once it is fully charged it will stop charging and only power the macbook.

It would probably be better to leave it in because there would not be so many charge cycles happening on the battery

 

[funkychunkz]

It's better to leave it plugged in. It's the charging cycles that will wear down battery performance.

 

[Antimatter]

But leaving it plugged in for extended periods (like a month) won't hurt it either, right? Thanks for your quick replies.

 

[burp43]

I think when you leave it plugged in, it constantly cycles between 96% and 100%, so that's not good either. Maybe someone else can clarify this? I usually leave it topped off and unplugged, unless I'm actually using it.

 

[omenamato]

Are you using it as a portable or as a desktop machine?
It takes less than 10 seconds to take the battery off.

 

[Batt]

I never unplug it unless I'm going to use it elsewhere. Same with my previous iBook. Never a problem.

 

[Antimatter]

Well right now I just have it sitting on my desk with my speakers plugged into it, but I plan on buying an external monitor and keyboard and mouse in a little bit. I thought about just buying an iMac, but I will be taking it to college next year and wanted a portable for that.

Why are you suggesting I take my battery out?

 

[iCeFuSiOn]

Are you using it as a portable or as a desktop machine?
It takes less than 10 seconds to take the battery off.

Removing the battery while using the notebook is a bad idea. Why? Because the processor will throttle itself with the battery removed, causing a performance hit.

It's safe to leave it plugged in for extended periods of time but try to cycle it every now and then just to keep the electrons moving around in the battery. Just be careful not to rack up too many cycles too soon or you'll wear the battery capacity down.

 

[gyumilly]

There were lots of talks about this. You can leave it plugged, but give a full cycle at least once a month.

 

[Batt]

Removing the battery while using the notebook is a bad idea. Why? Because the processor will throttle itself with the battery removed, causing a performance hit.

It's safe to leave it plugged in for extended periods of time but try to cycle it every now and then just to keep the electrons moving around in the battery. Just be careful not to rack up too many cycles too soon or you'll wear the battery capacity down.

What he said.