MBA Battery Health

[Caolan96]

Hi All,

Got my new MBA for Christmas. I've noticed that the battery life is considerably less than my old MBP, however it's not bad.

What I'm really worried about is the health of the battery, after 3 battery charge cycles coconut battery is reporting:

Current Battery Capacity: 6649mAh
Original Battery Capacity: 6700mAh

Anyone else noticing any decrease in battery capacity?

Here's a link to coconut battery, any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Coconut Battery

Regards,
Caolán

 

[miles01110]

Normal.

 

[Caolan96]

Thanks Man.

Anyone else?

Just to be sure.

 

[atsiang]

After just having my new MBA for 3 weeks, it's sitting at 97% health. I'm using Coconut Battery as well. This can't be normal can it?

 

[Caolan96]

After just having my new MBA for 3 weeks, it's sitting at 97% health. I'm using Coconut Battery as well. This can't be normal can it?

how many charge cycles have you had?

considering i've used mines for merely a day, and lost 50mAh already, then maybe 97% is good.

the weird thing is my 1 year old MBP got 99% health on coconut battery after a year of use.

 

[centymeat]

how many charge cycles have you had?

considering i've used mines for merely a day, and lost 50mAh already, then maybe 97% is good.

the weird thing is my 1 year old MBP got 99% health on coconut battery after a year of use.

Hey,

Don't worry,

I've had my MBA for a bit over a month, and i was worried about the same lost of mAh after only a few charge cycles.

I checked later on and battery health actually went back up, so it goes up and down , i'm hovering around 50-150mAh from the original capacity.

 

[Caolan96]

Hey,

Don't worry,

I've had my MBA for a bit over a month, and i was worried about the same lost of mAh after only a few charge cycles.

I checked later on and battery health actually went back up, so it goes up and down , i'm hovering around 50-150mAh from the original capacity.

Thanks,

Glad to know,

How is your battery in terms of mixed usage, average run time?

 

[deruch]

I noticed after a did a battery calibration my Current Capacity dropped all the way down to 6605 from a Design Capacity of 6700 and kept dropping. I did a pram reset and let the batter drain until the system shut itself off. I left to charge all the way back to 100% without using it and now my Design Capacity stay 6796-6725 all the time. Just a thought you might want to try that and see if it helps.

 

[atsiang]

how many charge cycles have you had?

considering i've used mines for merely a day, and lost 50mAh already, then maybe 97% is good.

the weird thing is my 1 year old MBP got 99% health on coconut battery after a year of use.

I've only done 4 cycles and it was at 98% health after just 2 cycles. I bought the first iteration unibody Macbook back in August 09 and when I sold it a few weeks ago, it was sitting at 98% health!

 

[Caolan96]

I noticed after a did a battery calibration my Current Capacity dropped all the way down to 6605 from a Design Capacity of 6700 and kept dropping. I did a pram reset and let the batter drain until the system shut itself off. I left to charge all the way back to 100% without using it and now my Design Capacity stay 6796-6725 all the time. Just a thought you might want to try that and see if it helps.

What is a pram reset? Sorry for the rookie question.

 

[Blondie :)]

I actually called an apple representative on this issue when I first got my MB. He told me that the batteries tend to "seemingly" decrease rapidly when you first get them, but then the rate at which the battery decreases greatly slows down.

And honestly, in my opinion, numbers change, all the time. Don't worry as much about what happens with the percentages, worry about how long the battery itself lasts. When you start to see a real drop in how long the battery lasts during normal use, that's when I would start to worry haha

 

[Caolan96]

thanks for all the help all.

judging by how well my MBP battery life held up, i'd say my battery will be fine.

battery seems great so far, really happy with usage time

 

[deruch]

What is a pram reset? Sorry for the rookie question.

Here you go http://guides.macrumors.com/Zapping_The_PRAM

 

[Caolan96]

thanks dude.

 

[newdeal]

...

mine is brand new and the battery is better than 100% however I feel it will drop like you described. My previous macbook pro with non replaceable battery did the same thing however it was at 96% when I bought it and dropped from there no matter what I did. Calibrating the battery really didn't help but the battery life was good anyway.

 

[threeputt]

I have had my 13 inch MBA ultimate since 26 November. Yesterday I downloaded coconut battery and it gave me the following info:

Current battery capacity: 6742 mAh
Design battery Capacity: 6700 mAh

That seems to be quite good after more than one month of constant use.

 

[cili0]

after calibrating the battery and after 6 cylces (a week of light usage, always recharge the laptop when it reaches the 20%) coconut reports:

6550/6700 (97%)

I'm quite upset, it seems that my battery is getting worse and worse. I thought that the change in the way Apple measures the battery life would result in a more reliable estimation, but even if I don't do anything extreme (light browsing, word and adium) I can't even go near the declared value (5 hours at maximum).

I think i'm doing something wrong. Any advice?

thanks!
ciao!

 

[The Samurai]

OP, this video may be helpful.

 

[ECUpirate44]

Take coconut battery with a grain of salt. For a brand new mac, anywhere from 95-100 is fine. I have 55 cycles with 96% capacity remaining. It fluctuates all the time.

 

[threeputt]

According to coconut battery my MBA has had 12 cycles. The capacity is still at 6742 versus the 6700 design.

 

[threeputt]

Apologies for the double post.

 

[tim100]

my 13 mba battery dropped to 94% on coconut battery and the battery seems to be draining faster. calibrated it no improvement. only 24 cycles.

 

[mexxdude]

I have had my 13 inch MBA ultimate since 26 November. Yesterday I downloaded coconut battery and it gave me the following info:

Current battery capacity: 6742 mAh
Design battery Capacity: 6700 mAh

That seems to be quite good after more than one month of constant use.

Can you share with us how you maintain your battery? What's your charging habit? Did you calibrate your battery? Thanks

 

[atsiang]

Have the same problem as well. Only 12 cycles but battery at 95% health and dropping. Even when I had the first edition unibody Macbook, after one year, it didn't even drop to 95%.

 

[aldo818]

Mine is also always around 94% after 40 cycles.
I calibrated several times already but no luck