I recently bought a new MacBook Air. There are all sorts of tips about extending the duration of a single charge. Does it matter when I charge it if I want to get the battery's life to be the longest? Should I charge it when the battery is at 50%, 25%, or maybe let it run down to shutdown?
Laptop battery charging?
Started by ●October 6, 2020
Reply by ●October 6, 20202020-10-06
On 06/10/2020 22:33, Dean Hoffman wrote:> > I recently bought a new MacBook Air. There are all sorts > of tips about extending > the duration of a single charge. Does it matter when I charge it if I > want to get the > battery's life to be the longest? Should I charge it when the battery > is at 50%, 25%, or > maybe let it run down to shutdown?Not sure about when to start charging it, but you should set it to stop charging before it gets to maybe 80% (mine is set to stop at 60%), to prevent the cell voltage getting into the range that causes degradation. As far as I know the decision about when to start it charging is mostly determined by how much charge you want to have available in the event that you unexpectedly need to use it for a while without mains power. I set mine to start charging at 50% and stop at 60%, but since it is used on AC power it very rarely charges. Letting it stay near completely empty might be a bad idea, since if you forget about it or are unable to access it for a while, the battery could get into deep discharge, in which case it is bricked as the controller will refuse to charge it ever again for safety reasons, or "safety reasons".
Reply by ●October 6, 20202020-10-06
On Tue, 6 Oct 2020 06:33:00 -0500, Dean Hoffman <deanhofman@clod.com> wrote:> > I recently bought a new MacBook Air. There are all sorts >of tips about extending >the duration of a single charge. Does it matter when I charge it if I >want to get the >battery's life to be the longest? Should I charge it when the battery >is at 50%, 25%, or >maybe let it run down to shutdown?If Li-Ion, you've got x number of charge cycles in the battery's life, before capacity is reduced to 50% of its label rating. Keep it plugged in and charging/charged, whenever you don't need portability. RL