Related Article: If battery charging is paused or on hold on your Mac

Why does my MacBook get hotter when battery charging is on hold?

MacBook Air M2, with Optimized Battery Charging enabled:

  • Cool when fully charge (a few weeks after I started using)
  • Cool/Warm when using battery, which is expected
  • Very hot when battery charging is "on hold", feels burning at the palm rest, hotter near the display


No process using much CPU, so it may be battery/power system heat.


What causes this heating problem? How to fix it? Will the battery catch fire?

MacBook Air, macOS 12.6

Posted on Sep 20, 2023 10:57 PM

Reply
2 replies

Sep 21, 2023 4:43 AM in response to thntk

kmb kmbp: How to deal with MacBook Pro an… - Apple Community


Keep in mind, if your case shows no sign of expansion it is very difficult to determine if your battery will overheat.

There is something called thermal runaway with batteries that happens on a very small percentage of them.

When it does, usually the battery starts increasing in size to the point the case will push apart. If your Mac is under a year old, you are still under hardware warranty regardless, so bring it to an Authorized Apple Service Provider to have them verify if there is any risk of that happening. If not, just keeping it in a well ventilated place is the best recommendation. And don't use a charger that doesn't have the right wattage support for your computer.

Sep 21, 2023 6:03 AM in response to thntk

Charging will always may a battery heat up. How much is dependent on several factors.


What's happening is the charging is essentially the reverse of letting electricity flow out; charging is basically pumping power into the battery. This is done by chemical processes and those processes are exothermic.


https://www.ritarpower.com/service/148.html


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exothermic_process

Why does my MacBook get hotter when battery charging is on hold?

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