How do I know what battery I need for my MacBook Pro?

Question

Hello, Is there a way to find out what model the battery is that I need for my MacBook Pro without tearing it apart? I have the serial number and also the Hardware UUID, whatever that is. If I have to tear it apart I will, but I'm hoping to keep that to a minimum as I'm afraid to tempt fate!

Answer 1

skink - thanks for the kind words.
Depending on your model (check under the Apple menu, "About This Mac", "More Info...", "System Report..." and tell me your Model Identifier. Mine, for instance, says (under Hardware Overview):
Hardware Overview:
Model Name:    MacBook Pro
Model Identifier:    MacBookPro8,2
Depending on your model, a 'good' number of cycles might be as low as 300 or as high as 1,000. But if the condition is "normal," as you say (and as mine reads) you really shouldn't have anything to worry about.
If it's a battery that needs to be replaced by an Apple tech, it's 'built-in,' meaning you can't just turn it over and change the battery (such was the case with my 2006 1,1 model and some models after that).
It's always good to keep an eye on battery health and to use some methods of keeping your CPU load at a minimum when using battery power. Viewing movies, whether in the DVD player or those that are on your computer, will really tax your CPU and result in lower battery life. To maximize your battery life, try to have as few apps open as possible when under battery power - particularly those that drain your CPU. You can keep and eye on this by keeping Activity Monitor, in your Utilities folder, open at all times. If you see a process that's taking 10+% of your CPU load, that's an app you should close or at least keep an eye on - my Firefox browser will sometime get in the 13% range, but I don't worry about that.
Battery use is, for me, primarily about Internet browsing and email. I keep open Firefox, Outlook, Activity Monitor, Word, Acrobat, Word, TextEdit, and a few other small apps and I generally get 7+ hours on battery time.
I would also suggest using two little utilities to keep an eye on battery usage - one is "Battery Health" available at the App Store free. The other is gfxCardStatus which will let you use discrete graphics, changing your GPU to the less intensive processor. It's available at http://codykrieger.com/gfxCardStatus and is "Mountain Lion ready" as of it's latest release.
Good luck - see how many more hours you can eke out of that battery before thinking about having it replaced. As much as I use mine, I know that I'm going to go over the 1,000 cycle mark before my AppleCare expires, so I know that I'm going to have to get it replaced. But for now, I'm getting the advertised hours and am quite happy.
Regards,
Clinton