HI all.
Finally changed my old laptop and I’ve been wondering if I should be using an app like Al Dente or batt to preserve it’s battery cycles. Anyone have personal experiences with one or the other that they care to comment on?
Thanks!
I’ve been using batfi for over a year and its one of my must have apps, I don’t even have limit charging or charging protections enabled. The features I always use are the menu bar battery icon with inline % and extra battery info in menu bar dropdown, like: battery %graph, power distribution meter(shows charging/discharging speed over different sources), battery temp, battery health %, apps with significant battery usage.
I could totally be misunderstanding the problem or question here, but doesn’t Mac OS have a built-in setting/feature to cap the battery charge when left plugged in?
Yeah, I tried if for a few weeks. But it’s trying to be “smart” and predict your behavior. But that just resulted in it randomly charging my battery to 100% once a day for no reason.
Switched back to Al Dente where I can directly control the battery level and when to charge.
I could totally be misunderstanding the problem or question here,
You understood the question right, simply put MacOS is meant to optimize battery life and use but there’s some alternatives (like those mentioned) that aim to do better.
Think about “Photos” and “Mail”: there’s an option built in but some alternatives exists and they are better for that matter in my opinion.
Oh ok, that makes sense. I never looked too closely at the built-in setting, but I just checked and see that it’s dynamic and not something you can set a hard limit on.
I repair Macs. Just use basic lithium battery practices:
- mostly keep charge between 30-80%
- charge fully if you are about to use
- long term storage with a 70% charge
- don’t run down to empty if you can help it
- don’t leave plugged in all the time
- avoid prolonged temperature extremes
- avoid shitty chargers, Apple chargers are expensive but generally worth it
Beware of add-ons that access hardware, for various reasons.
Apple batteries are rated for around 1000 cycles, or around 5 years of average use. Follow the above advice and you might eke out 1500 or so.
i have a 2021 mbp with 1400 cycles. 77% capacity.
Is leaving it plugged in with a charge limit of 80% better than cycling the battery? Wouldn’t the internal power management bypass the battery?
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It is on my MacBook Air. It sits closed on my desk with an external display, plugged in 24/7 and sits at 80%, every now and then it charges to 100%, or discharges back to 80%.
It was like that when I bought it in July last year. Seems to be a current MacOS feature.
The battery life is so great on the current MacBooks, that I wouldn’t even bother. Sure you could eek out another six months before the battery needs to be replaced several years into the future.
How long do you plan on using the machine?
Thanks for your reply ! My last unit lasted 9 years so that counts but looking at feedback from recent models it looks like a lot of progress has been made already so I’m not sure if it’s worth it to worry that much
I’ve been using Al Dente for quite some time, always keeping the battery at 70-75%. I’m pretty much always on a power adapter, so there really is no downside.
