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M@lew

macrumors 68000
Nov 18, 2006
1,582
0
Melbourne, Australia
As stated above, Macbooks have a MagSafe Adapter, which can come out quite easily and kill the power. Therefore, it's not that smart to be using JUST AC power when you're doing something important.
 

wordmunger

macrumors 603
Sep 3, 2003
5,124
3
North Carolina
I always leave my battery in; most of the time my Mac is plugged in. I find that after about 2 years, the battery tends to fade and I need to spend about $100 on a new one. For me, it's worth it to pay that amount every couple of years for the convenience of not messing with freezers, battery removal, trying to remember whether my battery is charged, and so on. It "just works." If you can remember to keep your battery charged, I suppose removing it might save you some wear and tear. Maybe your battery will last three years instead of two.

Now think about this: If you keep your $100 in the bank for an extra year, you'll earn about $2 in interest. So really, you're talking about saving $2.

By year 4, you're going to be needing a new computer no matter what, so in either case you'll be buying a new battery -- the question is whether you buy it in year 2 or year 3.
 

djdawson

macrumors member
Apr 28, 2005
59
0
Minnesota
Here's what seems to be working well for me

When I first got my MB C2D I intentionally let the battery run down before charging it, but noticed via "coconutBattery" that the capacity seemed to be falling quicker than I thought it should. So, after a month or two I started just leaving it plugged in whenever I could and doing a re-calibration when I remembered (I've done that official process maybe three or four times, even though coconutBattery says I have a lot more load-cycles). Since then, my battery max capacity is now higher than when I got it:

MB_Battery.png




HTH
 

smartalic34

macrumors 6502a
May 16, 2006
977
61
USA
it's perfectly fine to leave the battery in while using AC power. the battery life difference associated with removing the battery and storing it (quite minimal) isn't really worth the risk of losing your work if the magsafe pops out. just keep calibrating once every month or two and you'll be fine
 
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