Unexpected Drop in Battery Health

[netnative]

Are you satisfied with the battery health of your M1 Pro or M2 Pro MacBook? On April 7 the real battery health of my M2 Pro MacBook was around 99% as reported by Better Battery 2 and coconutBattery. On April 8 it took a dive to 96%. Today, April 12, it is around 97% with 21 charge cycles. I follow the recommendations to preserve battery health that are available on the web and cannot think of what caused the sudden drop. However, it is worth noting that on April 7 I updated macOS to 13.3.1. By the way, macOS still reports the battery health to be 100%.

 

[JPack]

Aging. Even if you had zero cycles, Li-ion ages the moment it leaves the factory.

 

[Mike Boreham]

Are you satisfied with the battery health of your M1 Pro or M2 Pro MacBook? On April 7 the real battery health of my M2 Pro MacBook was around 99% as reported by Better Battery 2 and coconutBattery. On April 8 it took a dive to 96%. Today, April 12, it is around 97% with 21 charge cycles. I follow the recommendations to preserve battery health that are available on the web and cannot think of what caused the sudden drop. However, it is worth noting that on April 7 I updated macOS to 13.3.1. By the way, macOS still reports the battery health to be 100%.

The "health" reported by all the third party apps is the one available from ioreg and goes up as well as down. See This post of my Better Battery 2 history

 

[doboy]

yes, my 1 yr old M1 Pro is at 100% after 29 cycles according to system info.

 

[LockOn2B]

Are you satisfied with the battery health of your M1 Pro or M2 Pro MacBook? On April 7 the real battery health of my M2 Pro MacBook was around 99% as reported by Better Battery 2 and coconutBattery. On April 8 it took a dive to 96%. Today, April 12, it is around 97% with 21 charge cycles. I follow the recommendations to preserve battery health that are available on the web and cannot think of what caused the sudden drop. However, it is worth noting that on April 7 I updated macOS to 13.3.1. By the way, macOS still reports the battery health to be 100%.

No it took a nosedive after only 15 months and has been coasting at 84% for weeks now

 

[satcomer]

No it took a nosedive after only 15 months and has been coasting at 84% for weeks now

That because many many users over many years have be posting and complaining about the lithium batteries in Apple laptops so Apple in current Mac OS was releases they put battery protection scene to prolong the batteries especially if a user leaves the laptop on power! So after about 1-2 months me MBA 2002 M1 I saw this happen to me when after that it would only power to 80%! so you are arguing up hill with your argument!

 

[MrGunny94]

I had my M1 Pro going down to 82% thankfully Amazon has refunded me and I bought the M2 Pro base model. I don't know why but these new Pro models battery health just drop like crazy.

 

[mi7chy]

Battery was at 100% (reported by MacOS) until it approached 40 charge cycles where it seems to be dropping a percent with every charge cycle and it's never kept plugged in except to charge. Haven't determined if the cause is due to heat induced since it coincidentally started happening with games testing where device is heating up more, business decision to use lower quality battery and charging $159 for more frequent replacements or 30W charger may contribute to it (iPad 1 battery is still going strong and it uses like a 10W charger). Going to switch to an 18W charger or lower to see if it helps slow down the deterioration.

 

[bp1000]

I use to obsess about this stuff. Since getting my M1 MBP in 2021 its had 150 cycles and is at 96% health.

Thing is, if I tried to optimise charging or whatever, it probably wouldn't be any different. Given a different pack, the same routine this time and I might be at 88%. It's just luck.

Just try to avoid constant deep discharging and excess heat.

 

[spiderman0616]

I use to obsess about this stuff. Since getting my M1 MBP in 2021 its had 150 cycles and is at 96% health.

Thing is, if I tried to optimise charging or whatever, it probably wouldn't be any different. Given a different pack, the same routine this time and I might be at 88%. It's just luck.

Just try to avoid constant deep discharging and excess heat.

Yeah--these days, I actually worry about the opposite. Just like you don't want an EV to sit in the garage overnight charged to 100%, I don't particularly love having my MacBook sitting here at 100% overnight either. I know there's Al Dente and all that stuff, but I go the more organic route and try to avoid charging it to 100% unless I'm going to use it right after.

Other than that, I don't really worry about it though. Leaving it in sleep will sip some battery off the top so the risk of swelling is at least reduced. Funny how in the past we were always trying to keep those Intel processors hooked up to a wall, and now we're trying to make our batteries stay useful as long as we know our Apple Silicon will!

 

[LockOn2B]

That because many many users over many years have be posting and complaining about the lithium batteries in Apple laptops so Apple in current Mac OS was releases they put battery protection scene to prolong the batteries especially if a user leaves the laptop on power! So after about 1-2 months me MBA 2002 M1 I saw this happen to me when after that it would only power to 80%! so you are arguing up hill with your argument!

I don’t keep my MacBook on the charger and just let it stay at 100% that often. Maybe once a month while transcoding videos. I’m talking about my battery HEALTH going down to 87% Not my battery LIFE (state of charge).

I’m just not quite sure what you’re trying to get at, sorry.

 

[MrGunny94]

I bought my M1 Pro on launch day here's how low it looks like ever since I started tracking it:

As you can see it went down really really fast on the 2nd year. I'm now using the M2 Pro as Amazon replaced my M1 Pro because of the battery.

 

[jdb8167]

I don't particularly love having my MacBook sitting here at 100% overnight either. I know there's Al Dente and all that stuff, but I go the more organic route and try to avoid charging it to 100% unless I'm going to use it right after.

That’s where optimized battery charging works well for me. I plug in my M2 MacBook Air when I get home from work and MacOS charges to 80% then stops until early in the morning where it finishes charging to 100%. I just let OBC and MacOS do their thing and it seems to work perfectly.

 

[tstafford]

Kills me that my OCD won't allow me to just ignore and treat the battery as a consumable. Likely my electric car ownership is influencing me - but I like to charge to 80% unless I know I need more. OBC worked for me some of the time but (again OCD) that's not good enough for me. Al Dente seems to have it close to nailed. Feels like an unnecessary waste but it makes me feel better!

 

[emraha06]

I had my M1 Pro going down to 82% thankfully Amazon has refunded me and I bought the M2 Pro base model. I don't know why but these new Pro models battery health just drop like crazy.

what was the battery cycle count your M2 model out of the box before any charging?

 

[MrGunny94]

what was the battery cycle count your M2 model out of the box before any charging?

0 from my M2 Pro. I'm currently on 9 after 1 month

 

[spiderman0616]

Kills me that my OCD won't allow me to just ignore and treat the battery as a consumable. Likely my electric car ownership is influencing me - but I like to charge to 80% unless I know I need more. OBC worked for me some of the time but (again OCD) that's not good enough for me. Al Dente seems to have it close to nailed. Feels like an unnecessary waste but it makes me feel better!

I believe thinking around this has changed. When we got our first EV, nobody ever mentioned anything about charging to 100% being harmful or anything like that. We charged it to 100% every night, and didn't even always drive it the next morning to lower the percentage. The manufacturer said nothing, the dealership said nothing, I didn't really think much of it myself, and if the manual included that info, I wouldn't know because I never read those.

However, with the EV we just got, it was made very clear to us that charging to 100% is a) for long trips only, not daily driving and b) to only be done if you're going to drive the car immediately after getting to 100%. I think Apple seems to be sticking to similar rules with optimized charging. Most days I could definitely get a full work day on 80% charge with Apple Silicon anyway. The only time I've ever told it to top off manually is when I've had to travel with it.

 

[james948]

I believe thinking around this has changed. When we got our first EV, nobody ever mentioned anything about charging to 100% being harmful or anything like that. We charged it to 100% every night, and didn't even always drive it the next morning to lower the percentage. The manufacturer said nothing, the dealership said nothing, I didn't really think much of it myself, and if the manual included that info, I wouldn't know because I never read those.

However, with the EV we just got, it was made very clear to us that charging to 100% is a) for long trips only, not daily driving and b) to only be done if you're going to drive the car immediately after getting to 100%. I think Apple seems to be sticking to similar rules with optimized charging. Most days I could definitely get a full work day on 80% charge with Apple Silicon anyway. The only time I've ever told it to top off manually is when I've had to travel with it.

i believe this may be to do with the type of battery. My tesla has an LFP battery which, they say, means it should be kept as close to 100% as possible. The older models weren't LFP and the advice was the opposite. I always have trouble remembering what's what.

 

[Homy]

I believe thinking around this has changed. When we got our first EV, nobody ever mentioned anything about charging to 100% being harmful or anything like that. We charged it to 100% every night, and didn't even always drive it the next morning to lower the percentage. The manufacturer said nothing, the dealership said nothing, I didn't really think much of it myself, and if the manual included that info, I wouldn't know because I never read those.

However, with the EV we just got, it was made very clear to us that charging to 100% is a) for long trips only, not daily driving and b) to only be done if you're going to drive the car immediately after getting to 100%. I think Apple seems to be sticking to similar rules with optimized charging. Most days I could definitely get a full work day on 80% charge with Apple Silicon anyway. The only time I've ever told it to top off manually is when I've had to travel with it.

I've read that EVs don't really charge the battery to 100% even if it shows that in order to protect the battery.

 

[spiderman0616]

I've read that EVs don't really charge the battery to 100% even if it shows that in order to protect the battery.

I'm sure that's true--it's very stressful on the battery to have it sitting there truly full.

 

[spiderman0616]

i believe this may be to do with the type of battery. My tesla has an LFP battery which, they say, means it should be kept as close to 100% as possible. The older models weren't LFP and the advice was the opposite. I always have trouble remembering what's what.

I think you're right. Seems like with our LEAF it didn't care what we did with the battery level. On the ID.4 it more or less defaults to 80% and won't go above unless we say otherwise.

 

[JPack]

I believe thinking around this has changed. When we got our first EV, nobody ever mentioned anything about charging to 100% being harmful or anything like that. We charged it to 100% every night, and didn't even always drive it the next morning to lower the percentage. The manufacturer said nothing, the dealership said nothing, I didn't really think much of it myself, and if the manual included that info, I wouldn't know because I never read those.

However, with the EV we just got, it was made very clear to us that charging to 100% is a) for long trips only, not daily driving and b) to only be done if you're going to drive the car immediately after getting to 100%. I think Apple seems to be sticking to similar rules with optimized charging. Most days I could definitely get a full work day on 80% charge with Apple Silicon anyway. The only time I've ever told it to top off manually is when I've had to travel with it.

1) EVs have much more physical space for batteries. Replacing the battery is expensive. Therefore, manufacturers make only about 90% of the available capacity to the user. This means even if you charge to 100%, it's only 90%.

2) MacBook and iPhone are much smaller devices. The battery is cheap to replace. Every square mm is used and there is no reserve capacity. If you charge Mac or iPhone to 100%, it really is 100%.

 

[JPack]

i believe this may be to do with the type of battery. My tesla has an LFP battery which, they say, means it should be kept as close to 100% as possible. The older models weren't LFP and the advice was the opposite. I always have trouble remembering what's what.

CATL LFP offers about 5X as many charge/discharge cycles compared to traditional NMC cells. In other words, the battery will outlast the car. LFP battery health is still negatively affected when charged to 100%, but not as much as NMC. The benefit of 100% charges is it keeps the gauge as accurate as possible.

 

[health_hafnium.0o]

Number of recharge cycles: 36
Condition: Ordinary
maximum capacity: 97%

is this normal for two months of use? I didn’t check the parameters when I bought it (because I made a taxfree deduction and didn’t know what to check at all (this is my first macbook!

 

[NikkoTuason]

I'm satisfied. Purchased February 14 and been using it constantly, draining its battery to zero at least four times a week, keeping it plugged in overnight, gaming on parallels...etc. I treat this thing bad and its still at 100% health

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