Q: Battery life dropped considerably on Mountain Lion.

Yes Beisarius that appears to be true in my case as well; an update on my anecdotal

testing for those that might be interested: two MBA's one 2011 (127 battery cycles) SL->LION->ML->LION

2012 MBA 13 (17 battery cycles)  LION->ML 10.8 -> 10.8.1; The 2011 MBA got clobbered by the battery

drain bug and drained to zero (dead) right after the ML install ( I did not see it coming and was blind-sided);

LI-IO batteries HATE to discharge to zero (usually ruins them forever)..but continued to use ML on

the 2011 for several weeks until this problem obtained more traction/attention..finally reverted back to LION and

have been watching the battery drain carefully; I'm happy to report that it appears (in my case, YMMV) that

my 2011 battery seems OK now under LION even tho it was severely maligned by ML; my new

MBA 13 has never been affected by the ML virus/bug; I continue to monitor carefully the health of my new

MBA 13 battery for signs of infection..

wait, i spoke too soon. i'm at 87% with iphoto safari, mail, calendars, notes, reminders, playing music.. 5:17.  I know some people with older macs upgraded their memory and then their battery life improved after anywhere from a couple minutes to a week..i'm not sure.

and iphoto isn't crashing my system.

Hi all...

I have a question. i put my 13" 2012 MBP to sleep about 10 hours ago at 98% battery. Now the battery shows 93%. Is this normal, or again, mountain lion has devoured my battery?

I'm considering to bring it to the store tomorrow to do a clean install of Lion.

Thanks in advance!

Alex

Scuba, you are right about not discharging Li Ion batteries to zero. Same with iphone. Who here waits all the time to have their iphone go below 5%? Few,- no one wants to be caught without. SO most of us do quick rapid charges and our iPhones rock. OR, they have the same battery technology as the macbooks. So treating the macbook battery as we do with iphones is the surest way to get max life.

Hey Alex,

The MBA 2012 am typing from right now looses, max, 1-2 percent overnight. So if you do indeed get a 5% drain in sleep (twice my rate) or when doing actual usage- say less 4-5 hrs and not 6-7.5 I get, then you have two options:

- Go back to Lion and hopefully it meets your expectations

- Open a case with Apple, do as they recommend (clean install), continue using ML, prove there is a hardware defect, and, within warranty timeframe (optional 2 more years), get the battery replaced / or the logicboard. IE, new machine.

i would choose option 2. The logicboard you will get as replacement will be far better made than the one you got initially. You will still have the remaining Apple Care warranty.

As an example as to what a replacement can be, the last Iphone 4 they replaced me (a month ago) has an odd serial number. Am sure different factory.  It is so fast, fully loaded with my usual stuff,  I had to check and ensure there is no Siri and make sure it is not an iPhone 4S. I never saw an Iphone 4 as fast as this. Only the 4S is faster. The only explanation I have is that the production unit I got a month ago is quite better made- parts, firmware, corrections on the production line- then the initial 4 types I touched in the first 1-2 years.

So if you have a problem MBA 2012, I would recommend you use it, prove an issue and and get it replaced with one without the issues and you can even upgrade next year to whatever OS (hopefully).

Chris

I just got my battery replaced (for free, out of warranty) at the Apple store, I guess persistance pays off!

Here is hoping it stays this way!

What application (on the left) is that which records battery data over time? I have Battery Health (on the right), but I don't see that option available.

GMC, not just persistence, but also logs and proof and no doubt the Apple feeling that there is an issue on their side. So, question, waht was the program you used to log? Coconut?

Congrats! Now let us know how it works. BTW, are you keeping ML or reverting to Lion?

That is Coconut Battery 2.7.4, click the arrow shown below to pop out the side window.

Then, periodically click on 'Save Data'

I am staying with Mountain Lion, I don't believe the battery they gave me will fail.  If it does, I will be right back to them.

Here are the steps I followed -

1) 8/25 -  Went to Apple Store and they ran a diagnostic on it and told me it needed to be replaced (for $129).  This was after it dropped 7% in 4 days from 78 to 71 on 73 cycles (more than 1 per week of ownership)

2) 8/26 - Called Apple support, let him know the issue, he sent me to a Sr advisor.  At this point I was at 68% on 73 cycles

3) 8/26 - I had to teach the Sr Advisor what Full Charge Capacity was (i.e. not Design Capacity), then he realized that yes, my battery was in bad shape.  We agreed that it was not normal for a battery with 73 cycles to be in such poor shape, he agreed to have me ship my mac to them for replacement.  I was not satisfied with that, so after going back and forth with him for what seemed like an hour, I was sent to a Customer Rep (or something similar)

4) 8/26 - She offered to have me go to a service center (Fry's or Mac Media here in Phoenix).  I was happy, she gave me her contact info and I was done.

5) 8/27 - I called Fry's the next day, they had no idea what I was talking about

6) 8/27 - called the Customer Rep, her voicemail was full (tried every hour), so I couldn't leave her a message

7) 8/28 - called the Customer Rep, her voicemail was full (tried every hour), so I couldn't leave her a message

8) 8/28 - called Apple Support and let them know that I can't reach her, and that Fry's can't help.  They direct me to the Mac Media store

9) 8/28 - called Mac Media store, they can do the replacement, when Apple confirms it, after they do a diagnosis on my Mac.  They will then order a battery and replace it, but the Mac has to stay there the entire time (2-3 days)

10) 8/29 - called the Customer Rep, her voicemail was full (tried every hour), so I couldn't leave her a message

11) 8/29 - went to Fry's to see if I could get somewhere in person, they still had no clue

12) 8/30 - called the Customer Rep, her voicemail was full (tried once today), so I couldn't leave her a message

13) 8/30 - called Apple Support and told them the story and asked what I should do now.  The support person set up an appt at the Apple Store for me to have it replaced.

14) 8/30 - went to Apple Store, met with a 'genius', and 30 minutes later I walked out with a new battery

There you have it, 14 (not-so) easy steps! 

Alex & Beis: in the sleep test I ran with my new MBA 13 (ML 10.8.1) I saw 4% drain in 17 hrs of sleep time

This MBA has had only 17 charge cycles and has run ML since the day it was awailable..as far as I

can deduce this machine/battery is immune to the ML battery drain bug..but I continue to be

vigilant..BTW..test parameters: no wifi no Time Machine no iCloud no usb periherals nothing running period..

I've seen upwards of 15 to 20% drop in 6 or 7 hours while asleep, on my laid 2009 MBP. ive tried logged in, logged out, wifi, no wifi. Little difference.

Running late 2009 13" macbook pro. I just fully drained my battery and charged it up to full and watched it go from 100% to 88% in 15 minutes running only firefox. Very dissapointing. Mountain Lion pretty much makes my laptop drain to mothing in something like an hour. Makes it pretty much useless on battery power.

EDIT: I do have time machine running but it hadn't run in those 15 minutes.Battery now at 86% 2 minutes after my post.

Try a clean install. My battery life improved and no more overheating.

Update on my previous post:

I sent my early 2011 15" MBP for a battery replacement and they replaced it (got 90 days warranty on the battery) but now reading the latest posts I cannot decide whether to do a clean Lion install or continue using Mountain Lion and risk damaging a new battery (that could mean I'll have to send my Mac out for service again).

What do you suggest? Do a Lion install and enjoy the new battery untill ML gets fixed or risk it with Mountain Lion?