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Jimmy James

macrumors 603
Oct 26, 2008
5,489
4,067
Magicland
This is pretty good basic stuff.

He makes the point that maximum battery health occurs when kept between 40-80%. This is true. He later says that laptop batteries aren’t damaged by being kept constantly plugged in. Also true, but it reduces their lifespan. It’s a known fact that lithium batteries perpetually kept at 100% charge lose their capacity quicker.

What concerns me a bit is that AirPods are constantly kept at full charge except when in use. For units without replaceable batteries this isn’t ideal. For a phone that’s constantly run up and down it’s not really an issue.
 

kohlson

macrumors 68020
Apr 23, 2010
2,425
737
What concerns me a bit is that AirPods are constantly kept at full charge except when in use.
I've had my AirPods for 18 months, usually use theme at a time for talking on the phone or listening to podcasts while walking. It's hard to determine how much charge capacity has declined, because in my case they last several days before getting even close to needing a charge. It might be down a few percent. These things have their quirks but for me, battery life isn't one of them. I am glad I bought them.
 

BigMcGuire

Cancelled
Jan 10, 2012
9,832
14,032
Nice video. I’ve met too many people that I can count that hold onto these old myths. The most common one is probably the “I need to let it drain all the way to save charge cycles!” - that one seems to have a hard time dying.

I’ve left a lot of my Apple devices plugged in for a good portion of their lifetime - batteries these days handle that a lot better than batteries in the past. One reason why I continue to buy Apple is their quality batteries and no-nonsense battery management.
 

EM2013

macrumors 68020
Sep 2, 2013
2,490
2,326
Unfortunately there will still be newbies making battery related threads.
 

Closingracer

macrumors 601
Jul 13, 2010
4,317
1,849
Nice video. I’ve met too many people that I can count that hold onto these old myths. The most common one is probably the “I need to let it drain all the way to save charge cycles!” - that one seems to have a hard time dying.

I’ve left a lot of my Apple devices plugged in for a good portion of their lifetime - batteries these days handle that a lot better than batteries in the past. One reason why I continue to buy Apple is their quality batteries and no-nonsense battery management.



Umm my not even a month old iPhone X battery is already at 99% smh lol
 

Closingracer

macrumors 601
Jul 13, 2010
4,317
1,849
An essentially estimated measurement like that can and does fluctuate a bit with some tolerance aspect to it as well.

a5381ab8aa579fb341d5b7c7cabc1667.heic



ab76a5c5aa3ba2fe384059ea87a436e8.png


That’s pretty bad tbh. At this point I’m better off burning the crap out of it before the years up so I can get it replaced for free
 
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BigMcGuire

Cancelled
Jan 10, 2012
9,832
14,032
Umm my not even a month old iPhone X battery is already at 99% smh lol

Hah, my 6s+ came from the factory at 96% and kept that for almost 200 cycles. Usually it’s not a linear regression - so hopefully it doesn’t continue to degrade. But yeah, if you have AppleCare+ use it up cuz Apple will replace it if under 80% before 500 cycles and 2 years.

My 8+ and iPad 2018 are both above capacity, woohoo! CDM is right too - these things vary a bit depending on charge level and ... I guess temperature and everything else - so I usually give it a +-3% variance. So I have a big excel file where I write down charge cycles and capacity and try to do it once or twice a week. I follow this more than I do the one time % reading. This is why I don’t care too much about % - all my devices since I’ve started recording with my 6+ have been very consistent and have lost very little capacity over 2 years (bout the time I upgrade).

I just wish things were a bit more consistent but reading Isidor’s book (guy who does batteryuniversity) - I guess trying to get an accurate reading of a battery chemistry isn’t easy.

So since I’ve recorded 3 (iPhone 6+, 6s+, MacBook Air) devices religiously - I don’t worry so much about the battery. All devices don’t wear linearly and when I got rid of them, they all were close to design capacity.

I usually only read coconutBattery when the phone/Mac/iPad is at 100% charge (true 100%, meaning no wattage going in) - seems to be the most accurate there. Outside of that, I can get an 8% variance in readings.


Sorry for the wall of text. Batteries are a huge hobby of mine, lol. I’d highly recommend just screenshooting, hitting the + symbol in coconutBattery, or recording capacity/cycles in Excel/Numbers for a few months - should help.
 
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Closingracer

macrumors 601
Jul 13, 2010
4,317
1,849
Hah, my 6s+ came from the factory at 96% and kept that for almost 200 cycles. Usually it’s not a linear regression - so hopefully it doesn’t continue to degrade. But yeah, if you have AppleCare+ use it up cuz Apple will replace it if under 80% before 500 cycles and 2 years.

My 8+ and iPad 2018 are both above capacity, woohoo! CDM is right too - these things vary a bit depending on charge level and ... I guess temperature and everything else - so I usually give it a +-3% variance. So I have a big excel file where I write down charge cycles and capacity and try to do it once or twice a week. I follow this more than I do the one time % reading. This is why I don’t care too much about % - all my devices since I’ve started recording with my 6+ have been very consistent and have lost very little capacity over 2 years (bout the time I upgrade).

I just wish things were a bit more consistent but reading Isidor’s book (guy who does batteryuniversity) - I guess trying to get an accurate reading of a battery chemistry isn’t easy.

So since I’ve recorded 3 (iPhone 6+, 6s+, MacBook Air) devices religiously - I don’t worry so much about the battery. All devices don’t wear linearly and when I got rid of them, they all were close to design capacity.

I usually only read coconutBattery when the phone/Mac/iPad is at 100% charge (true 100%, meaning no wattage going in) - seems to be the most accurate there. Outside of that, I can get an 8% variance in readings.


Sorry for the wall of text. Batteries are a huge hobby of mine, lol. I’d highly recommend just screenshooting, hitting the + symbol in coconutBattery, or recording capacity/cycles in Excel/Numbers for a few months - should help.

Oh at the start coconut stated it had a 2748 and now that. I noted the 2748 only a week ago. Don’t have Apple care plus since I don’t feel the need to spend 200.
 
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akash.nu

macrumors G4
Original poster
May 26, 2016
10,870
16,998
Well either way 97% or 99% with less then 30 days owning it it’s pretty bad. Guess I’ll have to burn it through fast before the years up

I mean it all depends on your usage really, I’m using my 8 Plus since October and am still at 100%

b9058a3cffcd8947e9bd3237625d18d0.png
 

akash.nu

macrumors G4
Original poster
May 26, 2016
10,870
16,998
I mean it’s gone through 43 cycles and I’ve only owned the phone 26 days or so.

43 cycles within 26 days is very high usage actually. Essentially you’re depleting the battery down to 0% almost twice everyday!
 

Closingracer

macrumors 601
Jul 13, 2010
4,317
1,849
43 cycles within 26 days is very high usage actually. Essentially you’re depleting the battery down to 0% almost twice everyday!

Not really 0% I’ve been charging it twice per day around 40%? Heavy user atm because it’s literally my primary device atm since not using my MacBook much.
 

akash.nu

macrumors G4
Original poster
May 26, 2016
10,870
16,998
Not really 0% I’ve been charging it twice per day around 40%? Heavy user atm because it’s literally my primary device atm since not using my MacBook much.

But if you’re charging from 40% then that won’t be counted as 2 cycles. The numbers don’t corroborate with what you’re saying.
 

Closingracer

macrumors 601
Jul 13, 2010
4,317
1,849
But if you’re charging from 40% then that won’t be counted as 2 cycles. The numbers don’t corroborate with what you’re saying.

Well those are the numbers. It’s not anything technically about it . It’s not always me deleting to zero because I rarely let it gone down that far. Sometimes it would be days where I leave at 100% and charge it at 30% when I go to sleep. Sometimes when I’m home it will be 40% mid day and I’ll charge it up to 100% again and any other ways. Not usually down to zero though
 
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akash.nu

macrumors G4
Original poster
May 26, 2016
10,870
16,998
Well those are the numbers. It’s not anything technically about it . It’s not always me deleting to zero because I rarely let it gone down that far. Sometimes it would be days where I leave at 100% and charge it at 30% when I go to sleep. Sometimes when I’m home it will be 40% mid day and I’ll charge it up to 100% again and any other ways. Not usually down to zero though

Well, that is how it supposed to be used, I am not sure why this has happened to you but if it provides any relevance, here is my cycle count in the last 9 months.
 

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Closingracer

macrumors 601
Jul 13, 2010
4,317
1,849
Well, that is how it supposed to be used, I am not sure why this has happened to you but if it provides any relevance, here is my cycle count in the last 9 months.

I think it’s a faulty battery . Could I go to the Apple store for this ? I mean it shouldn’t be at 99% less then a month old ( May 29th)?
 

BigMcGuire

Cancelled
Jan 10, 2012
9,832
14,032
My wife's laptop has dipped from 100% capacity to 97% capacity in 1 month, and now shows back to 100%. I wouldn't worry bout it - hence the suggestion of writing down your capacities over time - it fluctuates a bit but you wanna look at the long term. Use coconutBattery primarily when at 100% charge only (less than this can show an 8% difference).
 
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