MBP Late 2016: Battery health dropped 15% in a year

[Skoopman]

Greetings,

I’m turning to this forum for help as I’m watching my battery health drop lower and lower on a machine that is a bit over a year old (got it at launch). It’s the 13" MBP without a TouchBar that had a healthy battery once (coconutBattery showed 103% when I got it), now it’s down to 87.6 %. I know that it should fluctuate, but not like this. I have treated the laptop good, haven’t let it drain completely, tried to use it regularly on battery. Besides the failing keyboard, which prints double leetters (guess which are the probleem), the battery is now another thing I have to worry about.

I originally bought it as a BTO from computeruniverse.net (16 gb RAM, 512 GB SSD) because I needed the qwertz layout. The problem is: I need to get this device fixed, but I’m constantly travelling. I won’t be in a country with an Apple store for quite some time so I thought I should go to an authorised service provider in Skopje in February.

Anything I should try before I do so?

 

[_Kiki_]

return to seller for repair, you have 2 years warranty under EU Law

 

[Lastgreen]

shouldnt you let the battery drain to 1% before charging?

 

[haydn!]

Batteries historically have typically lasted 1000 cycles or 5 years. Sounds about right really?

 

[jerryk]

shouldnt you let the battery drain to 1% before charging?

No. That is something people did in the old days with NiCad batteries. With more modern charging management circuits and Li-Ion battaries, you can just charge it when it is convenient for you.
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Greetings,

I’m turning to this forum for help as I’m watching my battery health drop lower and lower on a machine that is a bit over a year old (got it at launch). It’s the 13" MBP without a TouchBar that had a healthy battery once (coconutBattery showed 103% when I got it), now it’s down to 87.6 %. I know that it should fluctuate, but not like this. I have treated the laptop good, haven’t let it drain completely, tried to use it regularly on battery. Besides the failing keyboard, which prints double leetters (guess which are the probleem), the battery is now another thing I have to worry about.

I originally bought it as a BTO from computeruniverse.net (16 gb RAM, 512 GB SSD) because I needed the qwertz layout. The problem is: I need to get this device fixed, but I’m constantly travelling. I won’t be in a country with an Apple store for quite some time so I thought I should go to an authorised service provider in Skopje in February.

Anything I should try before I do so?

What does the official battery status/condition show under About Mac. I believe this is what Apple will use to make a determination of warranty action.

 

[mj_]

Don't worry about your battery, try to get your keyboard replaced. As luck would have it Apple has to replace the entire top case in that case, which includes keyboard, trackpad, and - tada - battery.

 

[Skoopman]

What does the official battery status/condition show under About Mac. I believe this is what Apple will use to make a determination of warranty action.

Battery is still in good condition. Still, the battery health is lower than the one on my partner’s 2012 MBA, which is ridiculous for a 1,800 Euro notebook. With the health degradation, my runtime has also been reduced. I lost at least an hour.

return to seller for repair, you have 2 years warranty under EU Law

The problem with getting in touch with the seller (an online shop): They’ll tell me to send it in and the repair will probably take weeks. I don’t have the luxury of giving my work notebook up; as a copywriter, I need it to get work done.

Don't worry about your battery, try to get your keyboard replaced. As luck would have it Apple has to replace the entire top case in that case, which includes keyboard, trackpad, and - tada - battery.

Interesting, that didn’t cross my mind. Thanks for the tip.

 

[bcave098]

Typically Apple considers a battery to ‘fail’ when it holds less than 80% of its rated capacity. They may decline to replace it under warranty since it hasn’t ‘failed’ yet.

 

[ZapNZs]

Are you seeing dramatically shorter runtimes than you were when the system was newer?

shouldnt you let the battery drain to 1% before charging?

This is one of the least ideal things one can do to lithium batteries. Deep discharges stress them, and can expedite wear substantially.

 

[Skoopman]

Are you seeing dramatically shorter runtimes than you were when the system was newer?

I haven’t clocked my usage time but at least an hour less, maybe more. I definitely have to charge more often than before. If it goes on like this, it’ll drop below 80% next year. The problem is the reduced usage time until them.

 

[New_Mac_Smell]

What's your cycle count? Mines showing 96.2% at 32 cycles, however it was 98% at 31 (101% at 24 cycles - 06/17)... I would take it all with a large pinch of salt to be honest, although mine does appear to have suddenly started degrading apparently significantly with ~5% in 8 cycles. It's not a 100% accurate stat and Apple will just go by the 80%/5 year rule and use their own equipment to determine it.

I don't think there's any 2 year EU warranty either, it may have changed but used to be 6 months on the battery as it's a 'consumable'.

Have a chat with Apple to get a more accurate figure on the status and to determine whether you should take things further or relax.

 

[Skoopman]

What's your cycle count? Mines showing 96.2% at 32 cycles, however it was 98% at 31 (101% at 24 cycles - 06/17)... I would take it all with a large pinch of salt to be honest, although mine does appear to have suddenly started degrading apparently significantly with ~5% in 8 cycles. It's not a 100% accurate stat and Apple will just go by the 80%/5 year rule and use their own equipment to determine it.

I don't think there's any 2 year EU warranty either, it may have changed but used to be 6 months on the battery as it's a 'consumable'.

Have a chat with Apple to get a more accurate figure on the status and to determine whether you should take things further or relax.

150 cycles as per screenshot.

 

[New_Mac_Smell]

Try doing the usual resets and keep an eye on coconut, use the history feature.

As I said it's not that accurate, so log a history once a week to keep an eye on it and from there you can determine the extent or degree of loss.

 

[magbarn]

Do you leave your MBP plugged in the majority of the time?

 

[Skoopman]

Do you leave your MBP plugged in the majority of the time?

No, it runs on battery most of the time.

 

[magbarn]

Sorry that looks just like the bum battery my wife's 2015 rMB 12 that's down to 77% in total capacity in less than 24 months...

 

[Skoopman]

Sorry that looks just like the bum battery my wife's 2015 rMB 12 that's down to 77% in total capacity in less than 24 months...

Did you take it to Apple and ask them about the battery?

 

[magbarn]

Did you take it to Apple and ask them about the battery?

Yup, got fed the usual out of warranty line and was charged $200...

 

[simonmet]

Greetings,

I’m turning to this forum for help as I’m watching my battery health drop lower and lower on a machine that is a bit over a year old (got it at launch). It’s the 13" MBP without a TouchBar that had a healthy battery once (coconutBattery showed 103% when I got it), now it’s down to 87.6 %. I know that it should fluctuate, but not like this. I have treated the laptop good, haven’t let it drain completely, tried to use it regularly on battery. Besides the failing keyboard, which prints double leetters (guess which are the probleem), the battery is now another thing I have to worry about.

I originally bought it as a BTO from computeruniverse.net (16 gb RAM, 512 GB SSD) because I needed the qwertz layout. The problem is: I need to get this device fixed, but I’m constantly travelling. I won’t be in a country with an Apple store for quite some time so I thought I should go to an authorised service provider in Skopje in February.

Anything I should try before I do so?

You said you haven’t let it drain completely. You should do this every now and then so it can calibrate the capacity levels. This might be your problem. There’s no harm in letting it run until it sleeps. When it does, give it a few minutes, then charge it up completely.

How many cycles does it have?