Battery health 96% with only 18 cycles

A month ago I bought a brand new unit of the last version of the old 17" model. iStat Pro recognized the battery as new with 100% health. 30 days later it shows 18 cycles and 96% health. To what extent this information is trustworthy? Can I ask for a replacement if that fast aging process continues?

Don't worry about it too much. My battery's capacity level swings several percentage points even if I check it at different times during the same day. You will probably find that the deterioration rate will not continue linearly, but will stop and even reverse at times.
Battery readings fluctuate normally because a battery is made up of many cells that all behave slightly differently and deteriorate at different rates. It's hard to accurately track/predict the performance of all of the cells as a group; the number is always more like an estimate.
Apple has a standard that its batteries should retain 80% capacity after 300 cycles. Apple might not replace the battery until you can show that the battery is going to fall short of it at that time, and it takes about a year to get to 300 cycles.

Similar Messages

  • Battery under 80% with only 157 cycles

    Hi everyone, I wanted to see if anyone could help me and confirm my worries before going to a Genius bar.
    The thing is that I've been always concerned with my battery life in a Macbook pro 13" bought las November 2009. And now I've seen that the battery health is already 78% when I only have 157 cycles, far far way too low from the 1000 cycles Apple claims for its in-built batteries in the MBP.
    So I wanted to see if anyone could tell me what's going on, or confirm me that I should go to a Genius bar and they would replace it or how can I get it fixed.
    Thanks everyone! here's the battery information:
    Manufacturer: DP
    Device name: bq20z451
    Pack Lot Code: 0000
    PCB Lot Code: 0000
    Firmware Version: 0003
    Hardware Revision: 0002
    Cell Revision: 0100
    Charge Information:
    Charge remaining (mAh): 4314
    Fully charged: Yes
    Charging: No
    Full charge capacity (mAh): 4314
    Health Information:
    Cycle count: 157
    Condition: Normal
    Battery Installed: Yes
    Amperage (mA): 266
    Voltage (mV): 12581
    System Power Settings:
    AC Power:
    System Sleep Timer (Minutes): 15
    Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10
    Display Sleep Timer (Minutes): 15
    Wake On AC Change: No
    Wake On Clamshell Open: Yes
    Wake On LAN: Yes
    Current Power Source: Yes
    Display Sleep Uses Dim: Yes
    Battery Power:
    System Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10
    Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10
    Display Sleep Timer (Minutes): 5
    Wake On AC Change: No
    Wake On Clamshell Open: Yes
    Display Sleep Uses Dim: Yes
    Reduce Brightness: Yes
    Hardware Configuration:
    UPS Installed: No
    AC Charger Information:
    Connected: Yes
    ID: 0x0100
    Wattage (W): 60
    Revision: 0x0000
    Family: 0x0085
    Serial Number: 0x004676aa
    Charging: No
    Power Events:
    Next Scheduled Events:
    Type: Shut Down
    Scheduled By: Repeating Event
    Time: 6/20/10 3:00 AM
    Repeating Events:
    Type: Shut Down
    Time: 3:00 AM every day

    Yes, you should go to a Genius Bar and ask to have the battery tested and replaced.

  • How to increase your battery health - anyone with similar experiences?

    this is my very own self made instruction of "how to increase your battery health"
    it is the procedure how i have done it serverall times on my powerbook g4 12".
    my stats: 374 cycles, health 86% (3790 of 4400mAh)
    age of my mac: 57month (battery bit newer)
    **if you to try this: it is on your own risk!**
    **this may not be suitable for mac newbies**
    **be sure to read this twice before you do it once!**
    you will need:
    -a pocket lamp or comparable light (to see anything on your sreen when it is dark --> light from the back through apple logo)
    -coconutbattery (coconut-flavour.com/coconutbattery) or comparable programm to track your battery information in realtime
    -activity monitor
    -cool enviroment (to ensure your fans don't have to work that much)
    -some time and patience
    the intructions:
    step1: load your mac until the orange light turns green
    step2: disconnect the power adapter
    step3: use your mac until 15-25% battery life (track this information in your menu bar)
    step4: slow down your activities. the order of the following actions depend on your usage of your mac:
    __close programms that use lots of cpu/gpu to ensure the fans slow down to 0rpm (!!)
    __turn off everything that needs battery power: airport / bluetooth / speakers / etc.
    __eject dvd or cd
    __close all programms with important data
    __eject idisk / .dmg files in your finder (this is not only a matter of data security)
    __dissonnected from peripherals such as ethernet / internet / mouse / keyboard
    __use lower brightness level
    __open activity monitor to ensure that your hard drive activity is very low, may be you need to close more active programms, close activity monitor when hard drive activity is very low
    __open system preferences >> energy saver preferences >> choose longest battery life
    when your are ready with those actions go on and ensure you are able to connect to power adapter with your mac quickly (be able to charge - don't do it yet!)
    step5: be patient. now it should take some time until your battery level goes down to 3-5%
    now there should be no programm running.
    do not open any programm now!
    do not have a look at your dashboard!
    now your mac should be really quiet:
    -no fans (0rpm!)
    -nearly no hard drive activity!!
    -->> if this not the case break go on with step 11&12, try again in a week or two
    -->> if you are ready go on with step6
    step6: open coconutbattery und use the lowest brightness level
    play with your trackpad to ensure your screensaver won't start. waste time until you are at 1-2% battery life.
    step7: take your lamp and spot through the transperent apple logo, position your coconut battery window somehow that you can see the current battery charge und the maxium battery charge in the spot of your lamp through the apple logo.
    step8: go from the lowest brightness level to the level under the lowest brightness level (a dark screen)
    step9: watch your current battery charge carefully und keep on playing with your trackpad to ensure your screensaver won't start.
    step10: there is kind of battery buffer made of approximately 1% (once when my "current battery charge" was 3624mAh and this kind of buffer was at 36mAh)
    to empty this kind of battery buffer takes much longer as you might expect!
    when your current battery charge turns under this kind of battery buffer, your maximum battery charge should change. hopefully it is higher or stays the same. when it is lower now: i'm sorry - i have warned you. may be you have to go through this 'how to' more carefully!?
    step11: plug in your power adapter before the battery is cero!
    step12: load until the orange light turns green
    step13: if it was helpful do not repeat it more than once a week, better once a month
    -->webcal://www.apple.com/batteries/images/notebook_icalreminder.ics
    (via: http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html)
    anyone with similar experiences about increasing battery health!?
    (yes, i'm sorry for my poor english, i've tried my best)

    Me too! My battery lasts for 10 minutes. It is awful and I am on my 4th power adapter since they keep breaking too.
    From coconut battery: Maximum battery charge 310mah, original 4400, age of mac 45 months, 140 cycles.
    From system profile:
    Battery Installed: Yes
    First low level warning: No
    Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 310
    Remaining Capacity (mAh): 213
    Amperage (mA): -1205
    Voltage (mV): 11557
    Cycle Count: 140
    I went to an apple authorized retailer and they said nothing I can do if it is out of warranty.. is this true?

  • Battery service warning at only 40 cycles

    Hi all,
    I'm running a MBP early 2011 15 incher, and just recently upgraded to Mavericks. Lately by total battery percentage capacity has been fluctuating quite a bit, jumping between high 80s and low 90s, which I figure was pretty normal behavior. Had been dropping to mid 80s recently. After about a week of non-use, turned it on to see a service battery warning by my indicator, and a total battery percentage of only 76%! Rather alarming especially the light usage. I leave it plugged in a lot of the time, and drain it every now and then to about 20% and bring it back up. With only about 40 cycles over the last couple 2.5 years, I'm pretty shocked, especially with claims of 1000 cycles and only using about 20% total batt capacity.
    I've reset the SMC in the past but battery capacity by coconut still shows some fluctuation. Do I have a bad battery?
    Thanks

    Theres a chip on the mac called the system management controller which controls battery management etc resetting it might help you
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

  • 5 days old Mbp 13, istat show that the health is reduced to 96% WITH ONLY 4 CYCLES!

    Hi to everyone, here's my trouble!
    As it shows full charge, and health to 96% in  5 days after I purchased this one to replace my 2008 mbp15. Also the battery drains a lot faster than I expected, and I'm only doing web surfing at this time, don't have time to install protools yet.
    I know, you might say, "dude, 96% is a good battery " My answer to that would be "4 cycles!!!!"  I also read that other mbp 2011 are having drain problems, don't know if they use istat, but I used it on my  previous mbp and always showed correct info.
    Any comment on similar situation, please let me know. I will keep searching for info
    Thanks for the space! Cheers!

    Would you stop stressing?
    Go have a read through the forums at all the posts about batteries, and you will find the majority are the same question you are after 4 cycles.
    It's going to last you 2+ years if you treat it right / 300+ cycles.
    I've seen people post saying their battery is stuffed after 800+ cycles!
    And they are $100 to replace... Seriously, is it really worth stressing over 4%?
    Just enjoy your new mac & have fun!

  • 18 mo old battery with only 83 cycles full charge = 64% ... what!

    The battery in my 18 month old late 2008 model MacBook (unibody) has had only 83 battery load cycles yet will only charge to 64% (2651 mAh vs 4100) at full charge.
    Needless to say, this is disappointing when the local Apple dealer tells me it should be fine to 300 cycles. As an Apple user since the late 1970s Ive been able to fix most of my problems on my own ... but doing all the usual battery fixes does nothing. The battery is crap.
    Very disappointed in Apple battery quality. No way I can pay $140 to replace what should be still fine. Ugh. And $49 for a tech support phone call, Apple. Come on.

    Very disappointed in Apple battery quality. No way I can pay $140 to replace what should be still fine. Ugh. And $49 for a tech support phone call, Apple. Come on.
    Relax. Technology's not perfect. You have regularly calibrated it, haven't you? Maybe you should have bought AppleCare...
    Oh, and Apple doesn't make the batteries.

  • New MBPro - 96% Battery Health - only 70 minutes of working time

    I have a late 2008 MBP 2.8Hhz Core2Duo. My battery's health is listed at 96%, with 29 cycles.
    When I use it without the power supply I literally can work for only **40 minutes** before I get the red time warning. In total, I get maybe 70 minutes off the power supply before it conks out.
    This is pretty bad performance with a health rating of 96% and with only 26 cycles.
    Has anyone else had it this bad? I paid so much for this computer....
    Don't know what to do.

    I should also note that whenever I click on a message on the OSX Mail window the CPU usage for Mail goes from almost zero to 80%, the computer's fans start going crazy, and the machine starts to lag and beachball at intervals.....
    So OSX and Safari are ruining my computer experience.... Makes no sense as they are prominent Apple offerings

  • Very low battery health

    I got my macbook September of 2006, and istatpro reports a 26% battery health with only 384 cycles. I thought the battery was supposed to last significantly past 500 cycles.

    Hope this can be helpful.
    The macbook can sometimes go below 500 cycles because of the programs that are being run can sometimes interfere with battery life. Also, physical structural damage to the power adapter can also cause problems.

  • Weird decrease in battery health

    3 days ago my battery health was at 94% with 103 cycles and today it is at 85% with 106 cycles. I have noticed a slow decrease but 9% with only 3 cycles!...is this normal?

    This issue comes up all too often. The basic problem is one of TMI - Too Much Information.
    The battery health percentage information is only a semi-intelligent guess. There is no point in agonizing over insignificant variations. I wish Apple would make the information only available to service locations. It does nothing to actually help the average user.

  • Brand new macbook pro 2012 (no retina display) 95% battery health with 5 cycles? is that okay?

    I know, another battery related question. I have recently bought a brand new macbook pro (no retina display), I calibrated the battery at least twice since Ive had it and it states that I am at 95% battery health with only 5 charges. Is that normal or should I bring my macbook in to be checked? Id like to get this settled before school starts in September since I depend on my macbook a great deal.
    thanks !

    Full cycle? 100%, of course.
    How you get there is another matter. It can be a battery killing full discharge that will certainly ensure a brief life. Or a leisure set of discharges down to 20%, 30% or more. When they all sum up 100%, winner! You've got a cycle!!
    Apple recommends you enjoy your Mac and don't obsess too much on battery stuff. Just exercise the electrons every so often by bringing it down to, say, 20% and charge it back up. Going all the way down to the bitter end, when the Mac forces itself to sleep is sort of ok too and won't do (too much) damage, provided you don't make it an engrained habit. We all forget the power brick occasionally and get caught out in the wild with whatever charge was left inside.

  • 144 cycles with only 6% health, is that normal?

    Hi there!
    I´m writing you from Spain cause it seems than the Spanish Apple support service is unable to do or to tell me anything else about my battery. As I wrote on the subject my battery is just with a 6% of health after only 144cycles. The weird thing is that in spite of the fact that the battery is doing more cycles now, the cycle counter doesn´t change at all! Is that normal?
    Do you think I can get another new battery without any charge? My MBP is from March 2007 but it seems not to be under the exchange battery program.
    Thanks a lot!

    Have you calibrated your battery?
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.4/en/mh2339.html
    After doing this, do a PRAM reset:
    Shut down the computer.
    Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R.
    Turn on the computer.
    Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
    Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
    Release the keys.
    Then, lastly, an SMC reset:
    If the computer is on, turn it off.
    Disconnect the AC Adapter and remove the computer's battery.
    Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds and then release the button.
    Reconnect the battery and AC Adapter.
    Press the power button to restart the computer
    This should hopefully reset the callibration, and your battery should get better. It's possibly not the battery that's at fault, but how the mac reads the information on the battery

  • The battery for my Macbook Pro 13 "has only 121 cycles and is not charging anymore, my Mac is telling me that it is necessary to exchange it. You have any tips for me to find out what might be happening with my battery?

    The battery for my Macbook Pro 13 "has only 121 cycles and is not charging anymore, my Mac is telling me that it is necessary to exchange it. You have any tips for me to find out what might be happening with my battery?

    Guys, i am actually trying using a solution provided by the article shared by dominic23,
    It says "Another option is to get an ionizer to help the atmosphere in the workplace be more conductive and pull charges away from contact surfaces, including yourself."
    So in my home, we have such device that could clean the air using ion, and i am using it in my room...
    Result: BANG!!! The electric shock on my macbook has gone!! I don't really care about physics but somehow it works! You guys should give it a try.
    Thanks again dominic23

  • Only 52 cycles and battery health dipping to 73% at times?

    My macbook pro is less then a year old and I lately have been having strange battery health readings. The battery usually lasts a few hours depending on what I am doing with it unplugged. However the health twice now has dipped to 73% and then jumped back up to 89% or 91% and stayed there. Today I checked my battery condition and it said "check battery" but then went back to "good" later that day. I condition the battery regularly.
    Here are my specs:
    Battery Information:
    Model Information:
    Serial Number: Sony-ASMB012-376c-2895
    Manufacturer: Sony
    Device name: ASMB012
    Pack Lot Code: 0001
    PCB Lot Code: 0000
    Firmware Version: 0110
    Hardware Revision: 0500
    Cell Revision: 0303
    Charge Information:
    Charge remaining (mAh): 4796
    Fully charged: Yes
    Charging: No
    Full charge capacity (mAh): 4986
    Health Information:
    Cycle count: 57
    Condition: Good
    Battery Installed: Yes
    Amperage (mA): -1817
    Voltage (mV): 12027
    System Power Settings:
    AC Power:
    System Sleep Timer (Minutes): 0
    Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes): 0
    Display Sleep Timer (Minutes): 30
    Automatic Restart On Power Loss: No
    Wake On AC Change: No
    Wake On Clamshell Open: Yes
    Wake On LAN: No
    Display Sleep Uses Dim: No
    Battery Power:
    System Sleep Timer (Minutes): 0
    Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10
    Display Sleep Timer (Minutes): 15
    Wake On AC Change: No
    Wake On Clamshell Open: Yes
    Display Sleep Uses Dim: Yes
    Reduce Brightness: Yes
    Hardware Configuration:
    UPS Installed: No
    AC Charger Information:
    Connected: No
    Charging: No
    Message was edited by: cooleymtnbiker1

    It's normal for health to fluctuate a bit (mine ranges from 86-96%, and has done that for the past 100 cycles or so). But, your fluctuations are a bit wider than I'd consider normal. Keep an eye on it, and if it dips and stays below 80%, contact Apple before your 1 year warranty expires.
    When was the last time you calibrated your battery? That should be done every 2 months or so.
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1490

  • New Macbook Pro Retina 15inch is showing up as 1.9months old with 2 cycles on 'Battery Health'!?

    Hi,
    I've just recieved my New Macbook Pro Retina 15inch and installed 'Battery Health', but for some reason it is is showing my Macbook as 1.9months old with 2 cycles!? This Macbook isn't even a day old.. Is this normal!?
    Please advise..
    Thanks,
    P

    That is not unusual.  Note that the actual maximum charge is well above the designed level which is the most important criteria.
    Ciao.

  • Battery Issue. I only have an hour worth of battery life at 86% with minimal background lighting and only one web page open.

    I currently have a macbook pro with about 130 charge cycles that was purchased in August 2012. After about an hour unplugged with no activity only an hour and 54 minutes remain w/ 86% battery. According to coconut battery the battery health is at 85%. Should I bring the macbook into the apple store? Earlier today I lost 20% of my battery life in 20 minutes with only word open. I recalibrated the battery as well and I havent had any improvement.

    purchased in August 2012.
    I recalibrated the battery
    Your model Macbook does not need calibrating according to article - Calibrating a portable computer battery
    Current Apple portable computer batteries are pre-calibrated and do not require the calibration procedure.  These computers use batteries that should be replaced only by an Apple Authorized Service Provider.
    MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2009) and later
    MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2009) and later
    MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2009) and later
    MBP Battery Troubleshooting:
    To check for a bad battery, go to Apple/About This Mac/More Info
    In the System Profiler window, select the Power entry & look for Health Information.
    If next to Condition it says "Check Battery" then your battery is probably on the fritz.

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