How to take care of the battery if you don't use it everyday?

[RoboCop001]

Hello. I'm just wondering what the best way to keep battery health up is.

Right now, coconutBattery says the load cycles are 194 (I really don't remember charging it that many times) and the age of my MBP is 11 months (got it last December).

The battery health is at 80% right now. Does that sound right for 11 months old and 194 cycles?

I used to use the battery quite often, almost every day, but whenever I'd use the battery I would charge it back up the same day.

But right now I don't really need to use the battery as often. However, I do notice that after a day or two, the charged status goes down 1 percent every day if I leave it plugged in. So for example, Monday is 100%, Wednesday is 98%.

I've kind of asked this question before, and basically I've been told to just use the battery regularly. But maybe I'm doing it wrong, or something. Or maybe after 11 months it's typical to be 80%?

And yes, I do the monthly charge-discharge routine.

Thanks.

 

[bobcan]

What Apple says...

I can only say that the Battery I have in here now is 227 Cycles Deep and Sold about Apr-06 (spare from my first 1.83 MBP) ; it shows 91-92% most days...

I do try and Cycle it thru to DEATH once in a while (4-6 weeks) and do the Apple Advised things... Some other good threads if you search a bit too...

http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html

 

[RoboCop001]

Hmm.... maybe I just charge it too quickly after using it. I think it's only gone one full day without charging it back, and for that time it was just sleeping. I charged it the next day.

Could it be that I shouldn't always charge it back to 100 if I don't need to? Or should I just not let it go down too far? I dunno. I wonder if I can get any battery health back, 80% after 11 months really sucks.

However, the Apple page does say that a good use of it would be someone who uses it on the train on their way to work, and then charges it at work. That sounds like every day use of the battery, at least 5 days a week anyway.

Edit... I just unplugged the charger (last night I did the calibration) and now it says 85%.