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Studying the Slow Decay of a Laptop Battery For an Entire Year

Posted by timothy on from the ashes-to-ashes-dust-to-dust dept.

First time accepted submitter jradavenport writes "I've been keeping a log of the health of my MacBook Air battery for the past year, taking samples every minute I use the computer (152,411 readings so far!). This has allowed me to study both my own computing/work habits, but also the fascinating rapid decay of battery capacity. Comparing it to my previous 2009 MacBook Pro, the battery in this 2012 Air is degrading much faster."

8 of 363 comments (clear)

  1. Ah, I see the problem. by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Funny

    You're discharging it wrong, don't do that.

    1. Re:Ah, I see the problem. by h4rr4r · · Score: 5, Informative

      You have to do that every once in awhile if you want the battery status indicator to be correct. This is because the voltage curve is so flat there really is no other way to determine level of charge other than to count power out and calibrate what the battery should hold periodically.

  2. Survey says... by djupedal · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Let's see the comparative graph where you did identical tracking over time for both, instead of detailed now against casual before, which seems a bit weak. I'd also like to see how you factor out the constant logging's effect as well.

    1. Re:Survey says... by BoRegardless · · Score: 5, Informative

      We live with what we got now. That is life. But ...

      Within a few years that will change with lithium-sulfur batteries if the lab geeks have anything to say about it.

      http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/157525-new-sulfur-based-battery-is-safer-cheaper-more-powerful-than-lithium-ion

    2. Re:Survey says... by gnasher719 · · Score: 5, Informative

      PROTIP: Remove your laptop battery if you are running from the mains most of the time and keep it in a cool drawer somewhere.

      MacTip: DON'T. Your Mac automatically scales back its clock speed to 1 GHz tops. Brownouts can crash your computer immediately because there is no battery to supply power. Magsafe connectors and no battery are an obvious bad combination. And you'll get dust into your computer.

  3. Love my MacBook Air, hate the battery by geek · · Score: 5, Informative

    I got 10 hours of battery life on my 2011 macbook air when I first got it. I don't just mean 10 hours of it sitting idle either. I could get 7 hours of continuous play of movies. Then Mountain Lion came out and I was lucky to get 3 hours tops. That lasted 6 months until they "fixed" it and I was able to get 5 again. Now in I can consistently get 4 hours with it sitting mostly idle.

    I love the machine but I hate that I cant change the battery myself. I'll have to pay the Apple tax to get this fixed. I am holding out hope for Mavericks though, hopefully the power saving features can breathe some new life into this thing.

    1. Re:Love my MacBook Air, hate the battery by samkass · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I love the machine but I hate that I cant change the battery myself. I'll have to pay the Apple tax to get this fixed. I am holding out hope for Mavericks though, hopefully the power saving features can breathe some new life into this thing.

      If you are willing to unscrew two dozen little screws, the battery swap-out is actually pretty easy according to iFixit. Of course, the battery itself will cost you over $100 bucks new, and Apple only charges about $120 installed, so the only real reason to do it yourself is if you live far away from an Apple Store and don't trust a carrier service with your laptop.

      --
      E pluribus unum
  4. Re:Two Things by Culture20 · · Score: 5, Funny

    1) It's "without further ado," not adieu.

    You're making much adieu about nothing.

    Cockadieudledoo!