MBA Mid 2013 battery life

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Level 1

8 points

MBA Mid 2013 battery life

Hello,

I've been using heavily for the lat three years my MBA 13', now the cycles count is at about 560 and battery life is at 85% of the design capacity. Fine with that. Battery life, though, is somewhat bad. I think I can get at half of what I used to when first got it (12 hours with WiFi on, 16-18 without connection). Can it be considered normal due to the wear of the battery? Maybe I should change it? Is it a common problem and it's due to the different OS (I'm on El Capitan, always updated)?

Thank you.

MacBook Air, OS X El Capitan (10.11.5), null

Posted on Jun 2, 2016 3:04 AM

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Answer 1

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,329 points

Jun 2, 2016 4:41 AM in response to Tia_93

Batteries do not last forever. Based on what you have posted, it is within the bounds of what might be expected.

Per Apple specifications, when the maximum charge level becomes 80% less than the original design charge level, the battery then is 'used up' and should be replaced. Your not quite there yet.

If your situation requires long battery run time, replace it, otherwise continue as you are.

Ciao.

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Answer 2

Tia_93 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 2, 2016 4:41 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

Thank you very much.

So I can aim to the 12 hours again with a new battery? I don't really have way to be sure that the system hasn't become more power consuming.

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Answer 3

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,329 points

Jun 2, 2016 5:01 AM in response to Tia_93

Battery life is also influenced on how it is used. For example if one is prone to discharging the battery to near exhaustion, that will decrease the life. By the same token, if a battery is kept constantly fully charged or near full, that also will decrease the life. A 'happy' medium must be achieved for maximum battery life.

Ideally a lithium ion battery should not be discharged past the 20% maximum charge level nor charged over 80% of the maximum charge level. This is very difficult to achieve in reality. I try to avoid deep discharges and let the Mac charge to 100% when I have it connected to the power adapter. It is not perfect, but I consider it to be a good compromise.

There are some sophisticated third party applications that will provide statistical information and graphs regarding battery usage that you might explore. CoconutBattery is good enough for my purposes.

Ciao.

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Answer 4

Tia_93 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 2, 2016 5:02 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

Thank you again, I actually use always my Mac connected to the wall when I'm home, and floats between 100%-40% when I'm not. I guess I could do better than that. Although, using it between 20 and 80 always means doing a lot more cycles. We'll see.

Headed to an App store to find out about the replacement.

Thank you!

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Answer 5

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,329 points

Jun 2, 2016 5:19 AM in response to Tia_93

Tia_93 wrote:

. Although, using it between 20 and 80 always means doing a lot more cycles.

Not at all. To start at 80% charge and stop st 20% charge results in 60% of one cycle. A full cycle would be from 100% charge to 0% charge.

Please read this:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201585

Ciao.

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Answer 6

Tia_93 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 2, 2016 5:21 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

I read it a bunch of times. What I meant was: unplug at 80, use up to 20, plug in, 80, unplug, and so on=much more cycles than staying plugged at a 100 when using the notebook.

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