REV A from launch day - Battery condition: Replace Now

[matthewHUB]

Hi guys,

I got my MBA 1.8 SSD in January of 2008. I had the logic board replaced for free by Apple in January 2009. Now my battery says "replace now". Is this normal? Has anybody else from the REV A camp had to replace theirs?

I would have thought with the SSD the battery would last longer than 23 months. And i'm still having overheating issues.... argh.

 

[juro]

I've had mine for 22 months and battery health is still at 85%.

 

[jrabbit]

Stats

I have a first-day 1.8/SSD as well (no repairs, no problems), and here are the stats per coconutBattery:

Current Battery Capacity: 4572 mAh
Original Battery Capacity: 5090 mAh
Capacity: 89%
Battery-Loadcycles: 318
Age of your Mac: 23 months

 

[matthewHUB]

So why is mine so bad?? Could it be because it's always overheating? They replaced the logic board and it didn't help. LAst time i checked, Coconut battery didn't work on 10.6 so i can't get real stats. i'll check again.

 

[matthewHUB]

just checked it. condition is 44% of original. OS X says "replace now"

 

[matthewHUB]

in the last half hour it's gone down to 42%. maybe it also fluctuates with the charge of the battery. Total charge lasts about 40 mins these days.

 

[GeekGirl*]

Why not call Apple They can do more then us.

 

[Retops]

Time for a new battery

Sounds to me like the original poster needs a new battery. Mine is 23 months old and still at 93%, but I have really babied the battery. If you have a lot of cycles, the original Rev A battery does not seem to last as long as the newer models.

 

[ayeying]

Batteries are a wearable item. They won't be at 100% forever. It's rare but there are a few batteries that do outlive the life of the system but those are rare.

Its almost 2 years, be happy cause most conventional batteries for other laptops such as Dell or HP normally last a year before they need to be replaced. My friend's Dell laptop that he had for 3 years, the battery died 4 times within the first year. Afterwards, Dell refused to replace it for him so he's basically been using that laptop as a desktop ever since cause it was 100+ for a new battery.

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

OP, how many charge cycles have you had?

 

[matthewHUB]

I've had 570 charge cycles. I really take care to look after it too and not charge it every day. I don't know how this number got so high.

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

That sounds like a lot of cycles. Some batteries are fine with that number, some aren't. There have been 675 days since January 29th, 2008 when the MacBook Air was launched and from when you say you bought it. So you've pretty much gone through six charge cycles per week.
If you've run your laptop down pretty much every day and charged it again then those charge cycles are pretty much normal. Just buy yourself a new battery off eBay and install it yourself. It's pretty easy to do. If you bought extended Applecare then take it in to a Genius and play nice, they may replace it for you.

 

[matthewHUB]

That sounds like a lot of cycles. Some batteries are fine with that number, some aren't. There have been 675 days since January 29th, 2008 when the MacBook Air was launched and from when you say you bought it. So you've pretty much gone through six charge cycles per week.
If you've run your laptop down pretty much every day and charged it again then those charge cycles are pretty much normal. Just buy yourself a new battery off eBay and install it yourself. It's pretty easy to do. If you bought extended Applecare then take it in to a Genius and play nice, they may replace it for you.

When i first got the machine, probably for the first year, I didn't charge it every day. It'd be interesting to see a graph of my charge cycles. I reckon they've increased exponentially as the battery decayed. One thing i noticed is that this thing is so frigging hot when its charging that as soon as it's done (if i'm using it on my lap for example or in bed) i tend to disconnect it to keep the heat down. If it didn't run so hot charging I would leave it with the power cable in and save my battery that way. Is it better to buy from ebay or ifixit? or are there any (better?) 3rd party batteries?

Thanks for all your help.

 

[matthewHUB]

http://www.ifixit.com/Mac-Parts/MacBook-Air-Original#0-Batteries

According to ifixit, there are two options available for battery replacement, the one from REV A and the later version, which is a little higher in capacity. I had contacted them months ago to ask if it was possible to use the later one and they said they hadn't tried it. Now they offer them both as a "REV A" part? Has anybody tried it?

M

 

[Mactagonist]

As I recall people on this forum have used the newer 40wh battery in the Rev A with no problems. Based on the age and number of cycles your battery condition doesn't surprise me at all. With less use the batteries can last however. I have a Rev A from launch week that my girlfriend is now using. It is under 200 cycles and still at 90% health.

 

[iSee]

Try calling Apple Care and see if you can get it covered -- no harm done, if not, right?

FYI, from this page, http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html

The built-in battery of the MacBook Air is designed to retain up to 80% of its original capacity at up to 750 full charge and discharge cycles.

So maybe you've got a chance?

Good luck.