Apple Battery Charger ! Never Shows 100%

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Dino1956 Author

Level 1

51 points

Apple Battery Charger ! Never Shows 100%

I bought the Apple Batterry Charger & I charge the Batteries for well over 6-7 Hours. Until the Indicator Light Shuts Off. When I put the Batteries in my Mouse & Keyboards, it report between 77-81% Charged. Do I have faulty Batteries? Anyone who own this item, please comment.

iMac 27" 3.06 GHz. ATI 4670 4GB 1TB, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Feb 25, 2011 8:20 AM

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Answer 1

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captfred

Level 7

26,422 points

Feb 25, 2011 8:34 AM in response to Dino1956

No, that's normal. The reason is because the rechargeables are 1.2 volts where non rechargeables are 1.5 volts. So you'll never see a 100% reading for rechargeables.

Regards,
Captfred

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Answer 2

Dino1956 Author

Level 1

51 points

Feb 25, 2011 8:43 AM in response to captfred

captfred, I was hoping you would reply. I saw your other post. 🙂
But why do they all show different Percentages? And also, are you getting longer battery life with yours? Better than the Duracell Rechargeable's? Have you noticed a difference?
I wish Apple could apply a Software Update to reach 100%. 🙂
I just can't understand, 2 sets of batteries fully charged, show different percentages.
Magic Mouse=81% Apple Keyboard=77%. Both Fully Charged.

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Answer 3

Dino1956 Author

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51 points

Feb 25, 2011 8:45 AM in response to Dino1956

Also, I'm down from 81% to 73% in only one day.

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Answer 4

captfred

Level 7

26,422 points

Feb 25, 2011 9:01 AM in response to Dino1956

Dino,

I usually get a good Month's worth of usage per charge. I doubt if there will be any update to change the charge percent because it's measured by voltage and the device doesn't know it has recharables installed vs regular.

I don't know why you get different charge percents for Magic Mouse vs Keyboard.

You can try other rechargables like Duracell but be aware that some brands don't fit as well, make a bad connection and cause problems. I use the Apple batteries and they do a good job.

Edit: Thanks for your confidence. 🙂

Message was edited by: captfred

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Answer 5

Dino1956 Author

Level 1

51 points

Feb 25, 2011 9:10 AM in response to captfred

Yea my percentages are very inconsistent. I could see if they all charged the same & indicated the same percentage lower than 100, but why does one report different than another? I know I'm making too much of all this, but I'm one of those people that has to know. Maybe KB reports different than Mouse. I'll check that. Thank you for your time.

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Answer 6

Dino1956 Author

Level 1

51 points

Feb 25, 2011 9:18 AM in response to Dino1956

Ok, apparently the numbers are all jacked up. The keyboard by Default reports a lower percentage.

I ran this Test.

Before Switch
KB=77%
Mouse=73%

After switching them
KB=56%
Mouse=81%

So the percentage will in fact drive you nuts, since IMO, it make no sense at all.

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Answer 7

captfred

Level 7

26,422 points

Feb 25, 2011 9:21 AM in response to Dino1956

Interesting. I'll have to do that test when I get back in town tomorrow.

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Answer 8

Dino1956 Author

Level 1

51 points

Feb 25, 2011 9:30 AM in response to captfred

Yea I would appreciate that.
This way I will know if my Batteries are defective or not! 🙂
Thanks again.

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Answer 9

El Deanio

Level 3

804 points

Feb 25, 2011 1:59 PM in response to Dino1956

Dino1956 wrote:
I bought the Apple Batterry Charger & I charge the Batteries for well over 6-7 Hours. Until the Indicator Light Shuts Off. When I put the Batteries in my Mouse & Keyboards, it report between 77-81% Charged. Do I have faulty Batteries? Anyone who own this item, please comment.

Hi Dino

What happens, I wonder, if you charge the batteries up to full, remove them and wait for them to cool down (say 30 minutes) then try charging them again? What reading do you get then?

I've have one of those sophisticated 'intelligent' Universal battery chargers that are supposed to be clever enough to work out when you batteries are full and other things about it. All except the battery's actual chemistry, of course.

Playing around trying to work out why some of my batteries would work in my Magic Mouse where others wouldn't I found that if I did a second charge, about half an hour after my Universal Charger said the batteries were full, my batteries would work. Well, at least or a while.

They didn't work after the first charge but they did work after the second charge for about 3 days. Then, mysteriously, they just stopped working. I have since found evidence that the battery connection can be feeble and the failure I experienced after the second charge may have been a coincidence.

If you try to charge your batteries the same way as I did, I would be curious to know if you have a similar experience as myself.

Anyway, I eventually found a better solution for my problems. A post here mentioned, that a poor connection was the real problem. I discovered evidence that this may be correct.

See my post - http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2746533&tstart=0

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Answer 10

Dino1956 Author

Level 1

51 points

Feb 25, 2011 2:08 PM in response to El Deanio

El Deanio, Thanks for Info. But I tried that. Someone else told me to keep them charging hours past when the Light Goes Out. I tried that also. This should not be that involved & complex. I have a Duracell Recharger with Duracell Batteries & they are about 5 years old. But when I first bought them, I could have sworn they reported 100%. Like I said, I tried what you said and got 85%, but never 100%.

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Answer 11

El Deanio

Level 3

804 points

Feb 26, 2011 1:12 AM in response to Dino1956

If they are 5 years old and, one assumes, that you use them quite well I wonder if that is their way of showing a natural gradual decline?

My charger just has a red LED that turns green when the battery is charged so I don't know anything about the actual charge level when full. In my case I will probably notice over time that I need to have to recharge them more and more frquently as the charge capacity naturally declines.

I think what you are seeing is simply normal wear and tear and you need not worry about it. Just recycle them when the figure gets too low to be of any further practical use. At this point I reckon you will notice that you are recharging them more frequently, same as me. To be fair though, I would hazard a guess that you will get another four, maybe five, years out of them.

Post back in five years and let us know how you got on. 😉

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Answer 12

Dino1956 Author

Level 1

51 points

Feb 26, 2011 8:24 AM in response to El Deanio

These are brand new Batteries! All 3 sets Charged up to a different percentage. 1st Set 80% , 2nd Set 77% and 3rd Set 61%. This is all on their 1st Charge. I'm sorry to say this cannot be normal. I can understand them all not charging to 100% because they are Rechargeable, But then all 3 Sets should charge almost to the same Percentage. They are all brand new & made by the same Manufacturer. None of this makes any sense to me. I've used Rechargeable Batteries before & never remember having these issues. I'm thinking of just bringing these back. Maybe my lot is defective.

El Denio I have a Question: Have you not checked your Charge Level under the Bluetooth Settings for Keyboard & Mouse? That is where I'm looking. There is no Gauge on the Charger. That's how I know the Percentage my batteries are charged.

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Answer 13

captfred

Level 7

26,422 points

Feb 27, 2011 11:08 AM in response to Dino1956

Dino,

Sorry for the delay. I did your test using the KB and Magic Trackpad and got inconsistent results as well. These test were using Apple rechargables.

Trackpad - 26%
Keyboard - 70%

---Switch------
Trackpad - 41%
Keyboard - 26%

---Switch back to original----
Trackpad - 8%
Keyboard - 70%

---Replaced Trackpad with fresh recharged batteries---
Trackpad - 83%

Very odd indeed! 😉
I don't think it's your batteries, I think it's the nature of the beast.

Captfred

Message was edited by: captfred

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Answer 14

Feb 27, 2011 4:32 PM in response to Dino1956

I'm finding the Apple rechargeables are been drained fast in the Magic Trackpad. My Keyboard has had a set in since early January (now 38%) the trackpad seems to want a fresh charged set every 2 weeks. They are charged overnight and register around 80% when installed (I know about the lower percentage compared with normal AA's).

Not a big issue, but I'd rather they lasted a bit longer. Waiting for someone to develop a USB power adaptor for the trackpad!!

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Answer 15

Dino1956 Author

Level 1

51 points

Feb 27, 2011 5:37 PM in response to captfred

Captfred,
Thank you for testing. So what do we do? What's going On? I guess the Bluetooth software is not reliable with Rechargeable's, especially ones made by Apple. One thing for certain. Our vbatteries are not defective. At least I think they are not.

I found this on the Internet:
(Sorry for the LONG Post)
What is the starting battery life percentage with a Magic Mouse? Apple BT Keyboard?
I have 2200 Energizer batteries (that were charged by a pure garbage 15-min Energizer recharger) in my Magic Mouse. When fully charged and cooled down 3 hrs later, the percentage starts from approx. 72%, not 100%. Do Apple's batteries start out at less than 100%? One reviewer mentioned the BT keyboard started at 81%.

Best Answer
I have a Mighty Mouse (not a Magic Mouse). Even with fully-charged NiMH batteries, the charge percentage never shows more than about 70-75%. Same with the wireless keyboard.   The battery charge display is calibrated for alkaline batteries, not NiMH. Alkaline batteries start at 1.5V and the voltage drops relatively quickly as they discharge. NiMH batteries start at 1.2V, and the voltage stays pretty constant until they are nearly discharged. Software that's calibrated to show the remaining charge in an alkaline battery won't show the charge accurately for NiMH batteries. Any brand of battery will behave this way. It doesn't indicate a problem with the batteries; they are just different than alkaline.   Maybe Apple will update the software so it can show the charge more accurately for NiMH batteries.

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