Post Your Air Battery Status

[aussieinrome]

I'm monitoring the status of my battery on iStat nano. I'm performing a battery calibration, I've reconnected the power supply less than one hour ago and I realized that iStat is predicting a total charge time that's always abouto 30/50 minutes longer that what shown by OS X on the side of the battery icon.

Is it normal?
Is it something 'normal' just because I'm recalibrating?

As I said above, I don't hold too much trust in what iStats claims with it's readings...

 

[Santa Rosa]

So far to be brutally honest I think the batteries on these machines aren't as good as they really maybe should be. Everybody seems to be hovering around the 96% mark-ish for health when they should all really still be at 99 or 98. Whether the batteries are actually like that or the firmware for the battery needs a little revision to give accurate results is difficult to know. I'm only speculating about this but interesting to see so far.

 

[Santa Rosa]

Looking in system profiler my detailed battery stats are as follows:

Battery Information:

Model Information:
Manufacturer: SMP
Pack Lot Code: 0000
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 0009
Hardware Revision: 0401
Cell Revision: 0100
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 4841
Fully charged: Yes
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 4841
Health Information:
Cycle count: 2
Battery health: Good
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): 196
Voltage (mV): 8191

 

[buccsmf1]

health : 96%
cycles : 12

The battery has been fine for me. I generally get 3.5 hour with medium use; wi-fi on, internet browsing, word documents, backlighting.

 

[aussieinrome]

health : 96%
cycles : 12

The battery has been fine for me. I generally get 3.5 hour with medium use; wi-fi on, internet browsing, word documents, backlighting.

Is it just me who's getting incredible long battery time, I get at least 5 hours! Why doesn't anyone else? Not that I'm complaining.

 

[jlanuez]

Takes to long to charge from zero

Ours seams to take to long to recharge from zero.
Any advise? Thanks!

.

 

[jlanuez]

Ours seams to take to long to recharge from zero.
Any advise? Thanks!

.

Here it is fully charged...

.

 

[iJeff]

Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 4844
Fully charged: Yes
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 4844
Health Information:
Cycle count: 26
Battery health: Good

 

[uaaerospace]

I'm really surprised to see the low battery health percentages. Could you guys also post a brief blurb relating to your usage habits? Something like: use mainly plugged in, or use mainly on battery? I'm wondering if certain usage habits tend to prolong the battery life.

My Macbook BLACK still has 97% after 202 cycles. I am curious if the batts are that much different in the Air and regular MacBooks.

 

[bence8810]

I'm really surprised to see the low battery health percentages. Could you guys also post a brief blurb relating to your usage habits? Something like: use mainly plugged in, or use mainly on battery? I'm wondering if certain usage habits tend to prolong the battery life.

My Macbook BLACK still has 97% after 202 cycles. I am curious if the batts are that much different in the Air and regular MacBooks.

They are different somehow or the firmware in them doesnt report correctly.

I had a White MB for 7 months, and I sold it with 99% health. I got the MBA brand new, and it was on 95% already out of the box.

Ben

 

[somonster]

3.5h average

iStat: 99% health
6 cycles

mostly used with power adapter.

unplugged i get about 3.5 - 4 hours average, mostly MS word, <50% brightness, wifi on / not always connected, occasional idisk use.

MBA 1.6, 80gb

hope attached screen capture works!

 

[peterlobl]

health 99%
cycles 16

Chg remaining 5071
full chg capable 5071

Voltage 8162

Use it 70% in xp, both on/off ac

 

[Seth Hawkins]

Battery Stats

Battery Information:

Model Information:
Serial Number: SMP-ASMB017-3874-2105
Manufacturer: SMP
Device name: ASMB017
Pack Lot Code: 0000
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 0009
Hardware Revision: 0401
Cell Revision: 0100
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 3858
Fully charged: No
Charging: Yes
Full charge capacity (mAh): 4940
Health Information:
Cycle count: 18
Condition: Good
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): 527
Voltage (mV): 7928

These numbers were taken while the unit is charging - it's at 79%. Health is 97%, bit I've seen it report as low as 94%. It seems to report a higher Health # when charging.

I'm getting around 4 hrs. use on a charge, and it takes around 5 hrs to recharge from the point of letting the MBA go into sleep mode when the charge reaches 0%. My normal usage is to allow the charge to go to 0%, then completely recharge while using it. Once the charge reaches 100% I remove AC power and let it start discharging again. There have been only 2 instances when I couldn't let it go to full discharge or recharge - 1 of each.

I only monitor the charge %. I use my watch to tell me the amount of time each charge lasts. The remaining time display will vary based on usage.

 

[samuela]

Battery

Just wondering what the general consensus is on the state of the Air batteries so we can get a reasonable overview of what is happening with them:

Maybe try and keep the posts to a similar format such as:

Battery Health: 95%
Battery Cycles: 2
Calibration: Yes

Something like that anyway. Above is what I am getting at the moment.

Battery health = 97%

Battery Cycle = 43

 

[NC MacGuy]

Battery Information:

Model Information:
Serial Number: SMP-ASMB017-379d-6c0
Manufacturer: SMP
Device name: ASMB017
Pack Lot Code: 0000
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 0009
Hardware Revision: 0401
Cell Revision: 0100
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 5032
Fully charged: Yes
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 5037
Health Information:
Cycle count: 82
Battery health: Good
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): -10
Voltage (mV): 8162


Get about 4 hrs. normal usage.

 

[mark34]

97%
84 cycles

 

[shreddog]

92%
66 Cycles

Does that suck? I have no idea, but seems lower than most.

 

[sookainian]

99%
18 cycles


Battery Information:

Model Information:
Serial Number: SMP-ASMB017-3841-a73
Manufacturer: SMP
Device name: ASMB017
Pack Lot Code: 0000
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 0009
Hardware Revision: 0401
Cell Revision: 0100
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 4928
Fully charged: Yes
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 4985
Health Information:
Cycle count: 18
Battery health: Good
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): 0
Voltage (mV): 8153

 

[somonster]

92%
66 Cycles

Does that suck? I have no idea, but seems lower than most.

seems a little "unhealthier" than average here.

we're reporting these numbers, but i keep thinking it would help if i understood what "Health" means.

anyone?

 

[steve31]

Cycles: 22
Health: 95%

 

[Bambeezer]

Health: 96%
Cycles: 33

For reference, 10 days later:

Health: 96%
Cycles: 42

 

[dahcheet]

From iStat Pro
Health: 97%
Cycles: 53
Calibration: Yes (when I first got my MBA in Feb)

From System Profiler:
Full Charge Cap: 4951 (mAh)
Cycle Count: 53
Battery Health: Good
Amperage: -1985 (mA)
Voltage: 7830 (mV)

I found that the early cycles had lower health (lowest was 93%, I think) but as I went through more cycles and more conditioning it got better.

For those of you with low cycle counts and low health, I suggest you run on battery every now and then and let the battery get down relatively low (even down to 25%). It is a portable computer so you probably shouldn't have it plugged in ALL the time. Might help with battery health by conditioning a little more than the calibration but I have no evidence that this is true. Just something to try.

Break free from that outlet for a little!

 

[dahcheet]

seems a little "unhealthier" than average here.

we're reporting these numbers, but i keep thinking it would help if i understood what "Health" means.

anyone?

Here's my guess based on sookainians info.

99%
18 cycles


Battery Information:
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 4928
Fully charged: Yes
Full charge capacity (mAh): 4985

I think that the health is based on the ratio of charge remaining when fully charged and the full charge capacity. In sookainians case it's the following:

4928 / 4985 = 0.98856 ... or 99%

So it's the percentage of the full charge you're actually getting. So with my 97% I'm only getting 97% of my batteries full potential.

My Full Charge Capacity is 4951 mAh
97% Health
Last charge was up to 4802 mAh (appr)

I'm not sure when iStat or System Manager refreshes these so it's obviously not a completely accurate reading, but kind of a guideline to let you know if something might be wrong.

I have to state that this is all theory though, so don't go quoting this as fact.

 

[aveda6]

iStat Pro Information:
Health 94%
Cycles 21
Calibrated Yes


System Profiler:

Battery Information:

Model Information:
Serial Number: SMP-ASMB017-3845-f3a
Manufacturer: SMP
Device name: ASMB017
Pack Lot Code: 0000
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 0009
Hardware Revision: 0401
Cell Revision: 0100
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 4736
Fully charged: Yes
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 4793
Health Information:
Cycle count: 21
Battery health: Good
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): 0
Voltage (mV): 8141

 

[happyslayer]

Per iStat:

Battery Health 93%
Cycles: 29

Per "About this Mac"

Battery Information:

Model Information:
Serial Number: SMP-ASMB017-382c-11b0
Manufacturer: SMP
Device name: ASMB017
Pack Lot Code: 0000
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 0009
Hardware Revision: 0401
Cell Revision: 0100
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 3116
Fully charged: No
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 4774
Health Information:
Cycle count: 29
Battery health: Good
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): -1051
Voltage (mV): 7631

Is it odd that the Amperage is negative?

Anyway, I generally use it on battery until it needs to be charged, then let it charge overnight... I usually shu it down when charging (seems to do it quicker) but I leave it on and just let it sleep when it is in my bag... I usually charge it maybe every 3-4 days...

I usually just use it for email, web and the occasional Parallels/WinXP when i need to admin my client's servers.