Changing Magic Mouse Batteries Once A Week

I use rechargeables in mine, and charge them every three weeks.

Danny W.

The only real advantage of the Eneloop batteries and others of their type, is that they don't self discharge near as fast as other rechargeable types (retain about 80% of charge after two years).

My first Magic Mouse had to be replaced for similar reasons. My "new" one, now several months old has never shown any indication of battery weakness and I use it all day every day but have iMac shut down at 6 pm by <Pref-Energy Saver> unless I am still on it. Mouse is "off" when not in use with Bluetooth. Have only changed Keyboard batteries once since last November. Also regular batteries, not rechargeable.

Suggest you call AppleCare and talk with a 2nd level, if necessary. and what is the $20?? I'm using two AA Energizers which I buy in lots of 16 or more. I have two chargers and a number of rechargeable .. not worth the trouble, to me.

Good luck,

Ed

Hello s:

Battery life is, almost always, a function of use. Turning the mouse off is, IMHO, a waste of time as Apple BT devices go to a very low power mode after a brief period of non-use.

I use a bunch of rechargeable Duracells (2650 mAh) and a 15 minute Duracell charger. I bought all of them new on eBay at a very reasonable price. Rechargeables do not last as long as Lithium batteries - voltage difference, I think.

Barry

Barry Hemphill wrote:
Rechargeables do not last as long as Lithium batteries - voltage difference, I think.

The difference is because of the chemistry of the battery is different -- most rechargeable batteries use chemistries that can't store close to as much electrical energy (watt-hours) per unit of volume as conventional battery chemistries like alkaline or lithium. IOW, their energy density is lower.

But there is more to it than that. Different chemistries are designed for different discharge rates: some are designed to supply large amounts of their total energy at a time & some aren't. A battery designed to deliver a small amount of power for a long time (like a standard alkaline-manganese one) won't deliver as much total energy if used in an application that demands a lot of power than if used in one that doesn't.

Most rechargeable batteries do well delivering higher power, so even though they pack less energy into their cases, they may last longer in higher power applications. Since BT uses relatively large amounts of power when transmitting, you might actually get more life per charge out of a rechargeable than out of a standard alkaline battery if you use the mouse a lot.

I think I'd go to Walmart or some such and get cheaper batteries.

Hi, I think I would consider a wired mouse...L

Since BT uses relatively large amounts of power when transmitting, you might actually get more life per charge out of a rechargeable than out of a standard alkaline battery if you use the mouse a lot.

Bluetooth is designed to be Mobile and is the least of the power users.

Stick a couple of AA Energizers in it and see how that works,

I just switched to a wired Razer DeathAdder 3500dpi .. lot easier and more accurate and more buttons. Now havea couple of extra magic Mice. toys for us boys, live and learn.

n781lc wrote:
Bluetooth is designed to be Mobile and is the least of the power users.

Not true. A class 2 BT radio (the kind with a range of up to 33 feet) transmits 2.5 mW of radio power. That may not sound like much, but compared to what the circuits are designed to consume in idle or powered down modes, it is, especially if you consider the less than perfect efficiency of the transmitter circuits in converting electrical to radio power.

BT uses relatively little power because it is designed to power down as much of its implementing circuity as possible when it isn't transmitting. That's why the battery life of the magic Mouse is so heavily dependent on how much you use it -- the more you do, the more often it has to go into transmit mode, consuming many times the amount of power it does when just sitting there.

Ok, You have always held my respect in many previous posts so ... I find it very odd the reports on this topic since I have used my mouse over 5 hours every day, including many weekends without the battery changing being talked about. And, I repeat, with just ordinary cheap Energizers. In fact I have found it is a lot easier in all the gadgets to just have a few extra whatevers available to pop into them when they go down.

As I said... at least temporarily, I'm using a Razer wired and think I like it much better. We'll see. 🙂

Ed

eneloops are basically Ni-MH batteries that have traded off some total capacity for much lower self-discharge rates. (There is much more to it than that, as Sanyo will be happy to explain to you in great detail in the links at its general description web page.)

This makes them a good fit for among other things applications where the self-discharge rate of regular Ni-MH batteries would run them down as fast or faster than if the device they powered just sat there not using any power. So if say you used the Magic Mouse lightly for just an hour or two a day, they would last much longer between charges than if you used higher capacity conventional Ni-MH batteries (because the conventional ones would be losing more power due to self-discharge 24 hours a day). But if you use the MM heavily 16 hours a day, the self-discharge loss becomes less important compared to the total capacity.

However, in either scenario you have to start out with a fully charged battery to get the longest life it can deliver, so if you are charging your eneloops up to just 88%, you may need to charge them longer before you put them into service.

n781lc wrote:
I find it very odd the reports on this topic since I have used my mouse over 5 hours every day, including many weekends without the battery changing being talked about. And, I repeat, with just ordinary cheap Energizers.

Reports differ because there is no one perfect battery technology for every user's work patterns. Ordinary alkaline-manganese batteries offer very low self-dischage rates & high energy densities, & because they aren't designed for recharging don't need any of the safety features like pressure vents that rechargeables do that reduce the space in the case for energy storage. But they don't maintain as high a voltage over their service life as more exotic chemistries so they may cause anomalous behavior a little before they actually "die" enough for a user to notice they need changing, & of course once they are dead they have to be thrown out & replaced.

These characteristics make them a good fit for occasional to moderate Magic Mouse users but less so for say a graphics designer with the mouse in constant use most of the day.