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deSales327

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 22, 2016
2
0
I recently purchased a new battery, not an authentic one but it was all I could afford in such a short amount of time.
The thing is, I am concerned that it wont last long. I installed it 2 days ago, charged it once and the design capacity is already at around 70% as shown in the following print I took from coconutBattery.
Should I be worried about this? Is coconutBattery reliable?
 

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DeltaMac

macrumors G5
Jul 30, 2003
13,751
4,575
Delaware
Coconut Battery is reliable.
What you DON'T know is if your third party battery will follow the full specs of an Apple-supplied battery.
All you can do now is use it for a while, as you would any battery.
If you quickly lose the ability to both charge, and maintain a charge so you can use it for a reasonable amount of time on battery, then you know that you made a mistake when going "on the cheap"

Another expectation - a battery may have improved charge after a small number of charge cycles.
Plus, the best way to decide if you like your battery is to just use it.
Your CBattery window shows that you only have one charge cycle. I wonder what it will look like after 10 cycles.
Could be way down to nothing, or maybe no change after 10 cycles (because the battery is working normally, and that's all you get is 70% of what an Apple-supplied battery will give you)
More important is to watch what happens in actual, day-to-day use.
If you use it for a few days, charge it a couple of times, and the full charge capacity continues to drop, then you simply have a bad battery, and you wasted some money, and you move forward with a lesson about life with batteries :oops:
(Maybe your good buy will last longer than some that I have seen...)
 

deSales327

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 22, 2016
2
0
Thanks in advance for the reply, m8
But do you know if calibrating the battery might solve the problem?
And right now it says it's able to stand up to 3, 4 hours using only the battery, which I think is pretty normal. But nothing like using it for a couple of times and see what happens. I just thought it could be a calibration issue, or something like that.
 

DeltaMac

macrumors G5
Jul 30, 2003
13,751
4,575
Delaware
Apple does not now provide information about calibrating batteries, so that may give you a hint about the importance of that operation for Apple.
You can certainly try a "calibration" if you like.
If you have an idea for how you want to do that, then try it out.

Now, keep in mind that you already don't quite trust what Coconut Battery might be telling you. The BEST way to tell about battery life is to use your laptop on battery, and watch how long your battery actually lasts on a charge.

Just in case you want to try out MY idea about battery calibration, this is how I would proceed. I do this once or twice a year, at the most.
Use your laptop on battery only, letting the battery run completely down, until it eventually goes to sleep (and you can't continue without plugging in to charge)
Plug in. Let it charge to full charge (the LED on the charger will change from orange to green) You can continue to use your MBPro while it is charging.
At full charge, shut your MBPro off. Unplug the charger. Let it sit, power off, fully charged for a few minutes, maybe an hour or two.
Use it as you normally would.

I think one of the reasons that Apple no longer offers tips about battery calibration, is that it is, on the face of it, rough treatment of a battery. It can push a "problem" battery over the edge.
I had a 2008 MacBook with a battery that was not charging completely. I tried a calibration, and the battery suddenly swelled to the point of bursting - big surprise!
 
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