Why are people using their MacBook Airs on battery?

[ThailandToo]

Each time you put a cycle count on it, it lowers the resale value of your Air. It also shortens the lifespan of both the internal battery and the laptop. Simple way to prevent it, is by buying and using a battery pack on it when needed. I did this, got an Anker prime 27650mah portable battery bank and for any times that I need to use the Air on battery, I run it off here instead so that I don't put any wear on the internal battery. Much cheaper to buy a new battery bank than a new Air.

Just curious why more don't do this?

How about they want to use their MBAs on the go??? I mean why stay plugged in if you don’t have a desktop. I saw a guy using a Mac mini once with a portable battery. I was shaking my head. But I would be shaking my head more to see someone not using their MBA because they can’t plug into an outlet for the resale value? I don’t buy something based on resale value. And the battery is one thing we can still replace on these Macs. Makes zero sense what you have pondered…

 

[jake.au]

Bruh, most people buy stuff also intend to use the functionalities

 

[laptech]

I would still like to keep the cycle count down. A laptop with high cycle count is not easy to resale unless you're selling at a heavy loss.

If your thinking of resale value of your macbook then you bought it for the wrong reasons in my opinion.

 

[SBlue1]

Why do you even use your stuff? They will wear and tear. God there are so many weird people on this planet.

Americans are funny. I have seen them keep the plastic wrapper on their couches or an ugly black plastic front cover on a shiny new car just to prevent wear. 🤪

 

[Zest28]

Each time you put a cycle count on it, it lowers the resale value of your Air. It also shortens the lifespan of both the internal battery and the laptop. Simple way to prevent it, is by buying and using a battery pack on it when needed. I did this, got an Anker prime 27650mah portable battery bank and for any times that I need to use the Air on battery, I run it off here instead so that I don't put any wear on the internal battery. Much cheaper to buy a new battery bank than a new Air.

Just curious why more don't do this?

Most people I see in Starbucks use their laptops on the charger really.

 

[JPack]

Americans are funny. I have seen them keep the plastic wrapper on their couches or an ugly black plastic front cover on a shiny new car just to prevent wear. 🤪

It's a global phenomenon. We've all seen that guy using the new car/appliance/gadget/furniture with the factory film protector. But a pound-plus power bank is too heavy for MacBook Air, unless absolutely necessary.

 

[majkom]

Because it is laptop, thats what you do with laptop

 

[n-evo]

Why use the MacBook Air at all? Just keep it wrapped inside the box and buy a second €200,- laptop from AliExpress.

 

[wanha]

And pay an Apple tech $500 for labour? It's not even worth replacing the battery on Airs. Most just buy a new laptop.

This obviously comes as news to you, but the labor charges for changing the MBA battery are included in the $159

 

[Sezel]

OP should carry another battery pack for the first battery pack, so that the first battery pack get a much higher resale value.

 

[jimmy_uk]

Buy the thing > use as intended > worry about resale value later.

 

[throAU]

In my experience macbook batteries last the approximate usable life of the product reasonably well.

If you're trying to push the macbook far beyond the lifetime of the battery, you probably over-capitalised on the machine and should consider buying lower spec but more frequently. Trying to push the life out beyond 5 years means you're way behind on modern standards for various things (like displays, wifi, cpu instructions, etc.).

 

[jtgil]

Continuous charging generates more heat, which is bad for the battery long-term, and Apple's battery management software does a good job of keeping laptop batteries in modern MacBooks in good condition so cycle counts aren't a huge issue.

I also suspect most people don't really care.

What does the OPs situation of keeping it plugged in always (battery charged at 100% always) has to do with generating heat? There is none.

Ps. yes, Apple does a good job generally on the battery management anyways.

 

[jtgil]

Each time you put a cycle count on it, it lowers the resale value of your Air. It also shortens the lifespan of both the internal battery and the laptop. Simple way to prevent it, is by buying and using a battery pack on it when needed. I did this, got an Anker prime 27650mah portable battery bank and for any times that I need to use the Air on battery, I run it off here instead so that I don't put any wear on the internal battery. Much cheaper to buy a new battery bank than a new Air.

Just curious why more don't do this?

Keeping your laptop connected to power all the time wears the battery the same as adding cycles to it.

And I can tell you about it because I had a MBP15 from late 2013 that I kept 95+% of the time on its charger and the battery degraded as if it had more cycles.

I’m glad I didn’t get into the whole micromanaging my battery because it’s not worth it really and that is when I learned that actually keeping it at 100% is as bad as it is on the battery “stress” zone.

But “why” you ask, because think about compressing air into a can, initially adding air into a can is easy, but when reaching the limit you need more force to compress the rest. And keeping the can compressed will fatigue the container eventually…

So translating into layman’s terms to the battery charging the ions in a battery is the same, you need more amps per 1% of charge in the 80-100 range than in the 10-80 range.

Which is why we can normally fast-charge our device up to 80% but not above 80 due to higher heat production from the chemical process.

There is a reason why all battery manufacturers will advise that if you store a battery device long term, to do so with the battery at around 40-60%. That is because at this %, the battery natural discharge is the slowest and on the least wear zone.

I know it’s hard to understand the idea but although not the same think of it like a car engine:
-extremely low revolutions is high wear
-high revolutions is high wear
-normal driving revolutions least wear


Things that affect battery life more:

-fast charging (heat)
-any charging in hot environments without adequate cooling (heat)
-constant charging from ~80% to 100%
-regular discharge below ~5/10%

 

[jtgil]

In my experience macbook batteries last the approximate usable life of the product reasonably well.

If you're trying to push the macbook far beyond the lifetime of the battery, you probably over-capitalised on the machine and should consider buying lower spec but more frequently. Trying to push the life out beyond 5 years means you're way behind on modern standards for various things (like displays, wifi, cpu instructions, etc.).

Excellent reply and I can attest to this, see my previous reply but the tldr on this topic:

I kept a MBP15 late2013 for 10 years and changed the battery on year 8 at around 80% (approximate since I don’t remember).

8 years is over capitalisation for both this device and my use case.

Second attestation, 2xMBP13 from 2009 and the battery lasted acceptably for more than 6-7 years, more than their use cases and specially considering the technology advancements by ~2015.


PS >> Do not micromanage your battery, you have better things to concentrate on in life and if you really want to ~150 for a new battery is more than worth it if you are keeping a device this long

 

[leman]

Each time you put a cycle count on it, it lowers the resale value of your Air. It also shortens the lifespan of both the internal battery and the laptop. Simple way to prevent it, is by buying and using a battery pack on it when needed. I did this, got an Anker prime 27650mah portable battery bank and for any times that I need to use the Air on battery, I run it off here instead so that I don't put any wear on the internal battery. Much cheaper to buy a new battery bank than a new Air.

Is this a satirical post? Or do you really buy your laptop just to sell it?

Just curious why more don't do this?

Probably because it sounds like a massive pain and is also quite silly? Also, it won't do what you think it will. Batteries age over time and need regular cycling to maintain proper operation.

 

[jtgil]

MacBook batteries are rated to have 80% battery capacity after 1,000 full charge cycles. One year has typically 365 days, which is only a third of the way to that rated lifetime if you fully drained the battery every day. It would take roughly three years to reach 80% battery health—which Apple fudges a little with the design vs real capacity—but this statement is laughably false.

Correct in the data but not 80% in 3 years, it takes much longer unless you are annihilating your battery every single day with more than 1 full charge. iPhones don’t get close to 1000 cycles in 3 years and their battery being smaller are subjected to more charging cycles than MacBooks are.

 

[AlixSPQR]

the battery health checker apps (which are never accurate BTW)

How do you know they are not accurate?

 

[IsaacM]

I bought a Macbook Air laptop so I can use it without wires and have a device that is light, elegant and portable.

Batteries are replaceable and spending $129 every 2-3 years to replace it is completely fine on my end.

 

[brofkand]

Is your couch still sealed in plastic? 😃

I never bought a couch because resale on them is horrible. I use ball chairs.

 

[Anaxarxes]

Each time I drive my car, it lowers the resale value of my car.

It also shortens the lifespan of both the internal combustion engine and the tires.

Simple way to prevent it, is by towing my car each time I want to use it.

I did this, got a truck and for any time that I need to use my car, I tow it with my truck to wherever I want to go so that I don't put any wear on the car and the milage stays the same!

Much cheaper to get a second hand truck then losing some $$ on my car when I sell it.

 

[johannnn]

"Why are people using their Macbook Airs on battery?"

Why are people driving their new car, and why are people talking walks with their new iPhone?

 

[chrono1081]

How do you know they are not accurate?

There's an entire slew of reasons. Basically there's no good/reliable way to measure a battery using a single metric, there's just estimates based on a ton of things that can fluctuate.

Voltage for example is wildly inaccurate and most apps use it in their calculations. Temperature can cause this to fluctuate and even though apps usually use an average, this throws off the average big time if you use a device in the cold/heat.

There's also profiles manufacturers provide that OS's use to calculate battery, which have been showed to be super inaccurate as well but this is one of many metrics that apps will use to calculate battery.

There's also battery load whenever the device is in use, if it's taking measurements when you're running intense applications it's going to throw the reading off.

There's a slew of other things but basically battery measurement apps are just an extremely rough guess. They can generally tell if a battery is bad, but the whole "battery health" thing is largely nonsense.

 

[black_knight]

Each time you put a cycle count on it, it lowers the resale value of your Air. It also shortens the lifespan of both the internal battery and the laptop. Simple way to prevent it, is by buying and using a battery pack on it when needed. I did this, got an Anker prime 27650mah portable battery bank and for any times that I need to use the Air on battery, I run it off here instead so that I don't put any wear on the internal battery. Much cheaper to buy a new battery bank than a new Air.

Just curious why more don't do this?

EVERYTHING in life is a trade off. Now re-read that sentence over and over again.

 

[AlixSPQR]

There's an entire slew of reasons. Basically there's no good/reliable way to measure a battery using a single metric, there's just estimates based on a ton of things that can fluctuate.

Voltage for example is wildly inaccurate and most apps use it in their calculations. Temperature can cause this to fluctuate and even though apps usually use an average, this throws off the average big time if you use a device in the cold/heat.

There's also profiles manufacturers provide that OS's use to calculate battery, which have been showed to be super inaccurate as well but this is one of many metrics that apps will use to calculate battery.

There's also battery load whenever the device is in use, if it's taking measurements when you're running intense applications it's going to throw the reading off.

There's a slew of other things but basically battery measurement apps are just an extremely rough guess. They can generally tell if a battery is bad, but the whole "battery health" thing is largely nonsense.

Interesting. How about Apple's own battery information?