1 month + of daily AlDente usage, here is the statistics: (keeping charge level at around 50%, using the mac at least 12 hours per day, or more; Battery temps usually between 32-37C)
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What should I limit my battery charge level to?
- Thread starter JohnDoe12
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I see, thanks - I installed AlDente on my 2014 MBP 13" but it doesn't seem to do anything. Not sure if that's because the battery is already down to 40% of design capacity though. I might try Charge Limiter instead, although until I get round to replacing the battery it doesn't really matter any more.
That's really, really useful and interesting - thanks! It sounds like you're also saying keeping the batteries at 100% charge isn't all that harmful if they don't get hot? If so, my take away from that is that if I'm playing games or rendering or similar where the chassis gets hot then it's much more important to already have the batteries partially discharged while on mains but the rest of the time it doesn't matter so much.
No keeping 100% charge will age the batteries much faster. Heat just compounds the issue even more so.
Al Dente only works in Catalina. Charge Limiter works with previous versions.
Right I think Al dente's interface could be confusing. That's why I went back to Charge Limiter.
Keep in mind AlDente does not work immediately in my case I had to restart the app once after installing it. Then it started working without issues. Also, any kind of SMC reset (or crash that might cause an automatic smc reset), or a system update can and will wipe the AlDente setting, so if you experience these just adjust it back to where you need it to be.
I've had a strange problem today (strange since my MBP 2020 is still quite new). I decided to do a cycle after about 2-3 weeks of sitting at 50% via AlDente and my macbook straight-up shut itself down after it went from 50% to 17% battery left.
Now, this could be an indication of a dying battery if it was old, but it is at 22 cycles and 98% health. I've never gotten any warnings from the macos that it needs to be serviced.
So could it be that keeping the charge at 50% for long with AlDente messes up the calibration that badly, that the mac thinks it has 17% left but is actually close to 0%? I did an SMC reset after shutting down AlDente and have charged it back to 100%.
I hope it's not a serious issue as AlDente has for sure kept my battery health around the same spot for a couple of months now. Currently it is fully charged at 97.9% health.
I read about issues with 2019 MBPs where they would shut down at random percentages with no warning (like in my case) and Apple apparently let out a "guide" to drain below 90% and then charge and sleep the mac for 8 hours, and update macos - which apparently solved the problem for many people.
Do you think AlDente keeping the battery at 50% simply confuses SMC to read the battery wrong? Basically, should I be worried long-term? It would suck to have to replace the battery so soon.
Has anyone experienced something similar when using charge limiters? Technically, keeping the battery at one specific capacity % will eventually require calibration, so I hope that's the issue and nothing more.
How often do you do full cycles? Perhaps doing them ~ once a month is not enough, so maybe I'll just do a full cycle weekly to maintain calibration.
Now, this could be an indication of a dying battery if it was old, but it is at 22 cycles and 98% health. I've never gotten any warnings from the macos that it needs to be serviced.
So could it be that keeping the charge at 50% for long with AlDente messes up the calibration that badly, that the mac thinks it has 17% left but is actually close to 0%? I did an SMC reset after shutting down AlDente and have charged it back to 100%.
I hope it's not a serious issue as AlDente has for sure kept my battery health around the same spot for a couple of months now. Currently it is fully charged at 97.9% health.
I read about issues with 2019 MBPs where they would shut down at random percentages with no warning (like in my case) and Apple apparently let out a "guide" to drain below 90% and then charge and sleep the mac for 8 hours, and update macos - which apparently solved the problem for many people.
Do you think AlDente keeping the battery at 50% simply confuses SMC to read the battery wrong? Basically, should I be worried long-term? It would suck to have to replace the battery so soon.
Has anyone experienced something similar when using charge limiters? Technically, keeping the battery at one specific capacity % will eventually require calibration, so I hope that's the issue and nothing more.
How often do you do full cycles? Perhaps doing them ~ once a month is not enough, so maybe I'll just do a full cycle weekly to maintain calibration.
This is the experience I had when using charge limiters outside of the Mac OS. Samsung/Lenovo/Dell - whenever I'd use charge limiters, I'd unplug power and poof, my laptop would turn off because the OS thought that the battery was at (XX%) but it was actually at 1% or less.
I use Charge Limiter, not AlDente and I have had no problems for over a month now keeping my laptop at 55-75%. I've noticed that sometimes when I disconnect the laptop will drop rapidly to 50% but nothing more than a 5% difference. (2017 MBP 13').
Very good question. I would be worried long term if my battery was allowed to sit at <20% for days, weeks on end.
In most of my years using an Apple laptop - I've done never intentionally cycled my laptop - maybe used it till 50% then charged it back to 100%. This seems to be what the Apple Battery health Mac OS update does - just keeps the electrons flowing more than 95-100%.
Had the same issue another day. The laptop shut off at about 19%. I keep my battery on 50% most of the time with Charge Limiter.
That's interesting. I hope it is a simple recalibration problem. I guess I will still need to cycle from 100% to near 0% once a month to keep the battery recalibrated.
Hmm. I will run my laptop (2020 Air) down. I am using Al Dente with it at 75% but it gets good use off the charger as I swap dock with work laptop, but not run down past 50% often. Will see if mine shuts off early. At 99% health, 16 cycles.
So looks like voltage cut off or something is shutting down (or sleep before shutdown). So over a period of time if you are at 50% limit you may only be at 30% if you do not calibrate often. Perhaps raise it to 70% charge limit if you don't calibrate often.
Hopefully more people here will run down so we can get more data.
So looks like voltage cut off or something is shutting down (or sleep before shutdown). So over a period of time if you are at 50% limit you may only be at 30% if you do not calibrate often. Perhaps raise it to 70% charge limit if you don't calibrate often.
Hopefully more people here will run down so we can get more data.
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So for those who have experienced this issue, do you have any idea whether it is due to a faulty battery calibration (e.g., battery having lower charge % than indicated)? Or is it something more serious???
Don't mean to be rude, but the answers are on the first page of this thread
I have an update on the situation. My understanding is that this is a calibration issue.
Once my MBP shut itself down at 17%. On the next cycle, in the same day, it shut itself down at 13%. On the third cycle, it lasted to 1% and then i started charging it.
So, indeed, it re-calibrated itself and is now functioning correctly. Actually, coconut now shows 100% health as well, up from 97-98% previously, although this varies so much.
I'd say that calibrating should be done more often than we thought, since it IS an actual danger to think you are sitting on 50%, but in reality are in the 20-30% range.
At least 1 cycle weekly could probably keep this from happening, although I am still not entirely sure if loss of calibration has any long-term negative effects and which approach is actually the "very best" for the battery.
Once my MBP shut itself down at 17%. On the next cycle, in the same day, it shut itself down at 13%. On the third cycle, it lasted to 1% and then i started charging it.
So, indeed, it re-calibrated itself and is now functioning correctly. Actually, coconut now shows 100% health as well, up from 97-98% previously, although this varies so much.
I'd say that calibrating should be done more often than we thought, since it IS an actual danger to think you are sitting on 50%, but in reality are in the 20-30% range.
At least 1 cycle weekly could probably keep this from happening, although I am still not entirely sure if loss of calibration has any long-term negative effects and which approach is actually the "very best" for the battery.
Ran mine down to 6%, didn't shutdown and it was late so charged over night to 100%. I guess I exercise it enough to not mess up the calibration as fast.
I think in my case it was sitting on (seemingly) 50% for about 22 days, or a few more. I'd advise against doing it for that long, can't say what is the bare minimum but for now I'll probably cycle around each week + keep battery health on for potential mini-cycling, and use it on battery more often w/o doing full cycles. It's probably not good to keep the electrons stale for very long.
Interestingly, coconut has been adamant about reporting 100% capacity over the last couple of days since doing the 3 cycles (actually 100,4 to 100,5%) so i'm not sure if it's reading wrong or my capacity is really as good as new. The information is the same in the system information power section, so that's what the mac is reporting as well.
Interestingly, coconut has been adamant about reporting 100% capacity over the last couple of days since doing the 3 cycles (actually 100,4 to 100,5%) so i'm not sure if it's reading wrong or my capacity is really as good as new. The information is the same in the system information power section, so that's what the mac is reporting as well.
No, doing 3 full cycles seems to have fixed the issue. I plan to do a full cycle every ~1 week to maintain calibration.
Thanks for the information still set stop charging at %50?Sorry if I asked too much but I ordered my 16” and trying to find the best way to keep the battery at maximum levels as possible from first day ?
Any Diehards want to try to test to find some calibration timeline data for tradeoffs on frequency? Would this be done by, after a calibration, finding what percent your voltage (system report) would be at 11760mV (the optimum 3.92V/cell) Then maintaining that charge and tracking the voltage readout each day if you are plugged in everyday.
Then you could see the variance and maybe at a week it would not warrant the calibration. It could be non linear and have a drop off at a certain time. OR, this would be interesting if it didn't move at all and the calibration being off was more tied to what happens when you get off the charger. You lose more mAh per percent off charger. Geeking out on batteries hard... I know, but this seems like the place, ?. I would consider but I'm on and off the charger too frequently.
Then you could see the variance and maybe at a week it would not warrant the calibration. It could be non linear and have a drop off at a certain time. OR, this would be interesting if it didn't move at all and the calibration being off was more tied to what happens when you get off the charger. You lose more mAh per percent off charger. Geeking out on batteries hard... I know, but this seems like the place, ?. I would consider but I'm on and off the charger too frequently.
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Here's what my data is showing at the moment. System info, coconut charge state, macOS charge state and AlDente limit setting.
I've been on 65% for a few days already but I am also using the macos battery health option and I do some mini-cycling every now and then below 65% and back up. Sometime next week I'll probably go up to 90-100% and let it drain to 20-30% or something, then back up to 65%. I'm not entirely sure if I can still maintain calibration if I do not go to the extreme ends.
BTW, here is my supposed battery health log:
This is after my mac shut down at 17% and I did 3 full cycles and an SMC reset. IDK if it's correct but it's sitting consistently a bit beyond 100%. I'd like it to be correct, but who knows.
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