New Macbook Pro 16 - Optimizing Battery Health

[gAnkster]

Hi all,

Well, I did it. I bought a new Macbook pro 16. Now that @professor has lost all respect for me, I’m curious about battery health and what sort of charger is best for prolonging the battery life in this new, perhaps overly expensive, laptop. To be fair, I need to edit video and run some fairly processor- and graphics- intensive creative software on the go these days, which was the reasoning for moving away from my beloved chromebook in the first place. Here’s the setup :

SO - here are my questions. I should state the factory charger is a whopping 96W:

1. Is it advisable to routinely use a lower wattage charger (ie. Atom III Slim or PowerPort Strip PD 2) for the battery in this machine? As far as I know, it’s not going to hurt the battery to ingest a lower wattage, but the charge will take longer. I don’t really mind the charge taking longer.

2. Should I avoid fully charging or depleting the battery? This article says that

“Going from 100% to 50% charge is half a cycle. Yet how the batteries actually work from a chemistry and physical perspective means that this puts less of a strain on battery life than going from 100% to 0% all the time.”

Another article advises

“Routinely unplug your laptop, as frequently as daily, and let it drop its power down to the 30 to 40 percent range.”

Also, it points out that

“careful charging past about 80 percent capacity. After that point, it’s easy for the batteries to overheat, which can damage them or, in the worst case, cause bulging or even fires. That’s why battery circuitry on all devices throttles charging speed from 80 to 100 percent.”

When I put these two things together it seems like the best strategy is to actually use a lower wattage charger that will power the laptop while I work on it and slowly recharge the battery so that I stay between 30 and 80%. For those that know more about this than I do, does this make sense?

3. Is there any reason I should avoid using power banks to recharge while traveling?

4. What’s the best Anker product to replace the factory charger if I find it too bulky? I’m torn between the Atom III Slim and the PowerPort Atom PD 4, which, as far as I can tell, is the only Anker product would actually provide a full speed charge (as long as nothing else was plugged in ).

Thanks is advance!

[Shenoy]

You need to change the USB-C cable from power adapter to Macbook for better efficiency - the existing setup you have, shows may be a 6ft cable, change it to may be 1ft and use PowerPort Atom PD 4 (I use this adapter daily) for use with Macbook and other devices.

If this setup is for desk only, shorter cables are better - reduces the clutter!

[paulstevenewing]

Well done on your purchase @gAnkster what a machine you’ve bought
I can offer no technical knowledge only my own experience.

My works laptop (Dell) was used as a desk based machine for 5 years and was permanently plugged in with the only power interuption being rare powercuts.
The laptop was on between 7.30am to 5pm Monday to Friday and off all other times - but still connected to the power.
The last 3 years i started brining it home and out to site where i would run the laptop for 4-5hrs and charge the next time i was in the office or that night at home and the battery was replaced just a few months ago.
The battery didn’t fail it just stopped lasting so long maybe 3-4hrs.
So there is a battery that lasted 8 years, 5 years constantly plugged in and 3 years of being charged and discharged and the battery was still very usable.

I guess another perspective is whats you upgrade timescale? Do you keep things for a year or two or do you run then until they are unusable?
Or how much is a replacement battery? If you get 3-4 years out of it before it needs replacing without taking on the added trouble of worrying is that good enough?

Please don’t think I’m being irresponsible in those statements.
Sometimes we (myself included) go to great lengths to preserve something or increase its serviceable life only to find we upgrade long before it was ever due to start causing a problem or realise a replacement parts are cheaper than we thought.

[paulstevenewing]

Another thought @gAnkster
Can you run the Mac from the power without the battery inserted?
You could keep the battery around 80% and only insert when you need to go mobile.
So kinda how you would use a PowerCore.

[gAnkster]

I guess another perspective is whats you upgrade timescale? Do you keep things for a year or two or do you run then until they are unusable?

This is another thing I have been thinking about. I don’t think it’s irresponsible at all to consider timescale for upgrades. I did get the Macbook with the higher end processor (Core i9) and upgraded graphics card (Radeon Pro 5500 8GB) so I could handle my video editing without waiting around. I was hoping that the higher-end components would be able to handle software for 5-6 years before needing to think about an upgrade. On that timeframe the battery should still be in pretty good shape. One thing I’'m concerned about is the switch from Intel to ARM in the upcoming Macbook pros and whether or not new software will eventually phase out the intel chipset…I guess only time will tell.

Can you run the Mac from the power without the battery inserted?

This is a good question…I have not considered that. I suppose I could eventually just turn it into a desktop if needed, but I do want to work on it on the go for the time being.

@Shenoy that’s good advice. This is the factory cord (6ft) for now. I have tried it out on the PowerStrip 2 PD (18W) which does not charge while using. However, the Powerport Speed 1 does charge while using. It seems that 30W is about the threshold for this device to use & gain charge at the same time.

[professor]

Now that @professor has lost all respect for me

Temperature is the #1 to avoid for batteries.

I’d suggest:

• own the fastest charger supported, the heat is outside of the battery in the PSU so don’t worry about the battery.
• keep it plugged in to power as much as possible to make the battery suffer the fewest cycles. What ages the battery the most in laptops is “oh, I have a laptop, so I’ll just use it unplugged from power as I can”. There is a fixed cycle capacity, just use that the least.
• keep it as cool as you can, using common sense (out of sun, keep off the lap, etc).

PS I still think of all the places I have been, Helena MT is the only place I’d buy, and I have enough $ to buy there in your local currency (devaluating). Thinks…

[ikari04warrior]

I don’t have any advice on optimizing the battery, I just wanted to say it looks great!

[Chiquinho]

Do you keep things for a year or two or do you run then until they are unusable?

That’s the problem with APPLE.
The hardware is still fine, but you can not update the software.
So you run short of working applications.

[TechnicallyWell]

Nice decision, @gAnkster I would agree that it’s best not to let the battery reach 0% and instead keep it above 40% whenever possible.

I’ve had my MacBook Air since 2013 and it is still going strong. You can download an app named “Coconut Battery” to check the raw data of the battery. Mine reports that the health is still 95% after 7 years.

Fortunately, Apple now includes Battery Health Management is macOS, so it will keep the battery from reaching 100% based on your usage. However, even without that feature, my MacBook seems to do fine even though it is plugged in about 95% of the time.

About battery health management in Mac notebooks

[gAnkster]

Spoken like Linus Torvalds himself!

[professor]

Worse. You must upgrade the software so what used to work doesn’t. And then what you said, can’t upgrade so then it becomes paperweight.

If software is paid for it necessarily has to be inferior. Because if it’s perfect you’d never pay for the upgrade.

Open source. Pay for support as you then pay for quality of problem fixing. If you buy software it has to be written to be flawed so you pay for the upgrade.

The only way of the future.

[Shenoy]

My first Gen iPod touch for some reason did not boot… Plugged into Windows laptop / iTunes, it said i need to restore… When it tries to restore, it just fails to find the software… Had to jump multiple hoops - downgrade itunes and more to come to this condition.

My precious iPod Touch 1G is now a royal paper weight!! Apparently Apple has stopped signing / allowing access to iPod touch for my version.

[gAnkster]

Truth here. I work almost exclusively in Moodle - been running a Moodle for a college for 7 years without paying a dime in licensing. Just run the server, manage authentication, keep it up to date, and it works very well. Huge fan of the platform and open source tech in general. My favorite part is actually the community. I have friends from around the world that I’ve worked with on all sorts of stuff for Moodle. In fact, I just got the new 2020 Moodle Educator Cert today! Here’s my “particularly helpful moodler” badge form this year

I recently switched over to OpenShot, an open source video editor, and have been a GIMPer and PIXLRer and VLCer for a while. Also have dabbled in some open SCORM creators and other such stuff. I have just never gotten into Linux as OS like @Chiquinho . I tried Ubuntu years ago, couldn’t make it do what I wanted, and I’ve been Mac/Chrome ever since. Maybe my son and I will spin up a linux os on an old machine and see if we can’t make it work this time. Or maybe just switch over to Pi and call it good

One good thing about Mac is that they do update their OS for a long time - as @TechnicallyWell pointed out they can have quite a shelf life. I just retired an 11 inch macbook air at work that’s been in the game almost 10 years! But, the battery is in terrible shape at this point. I did largely use it unplugged though which is probably why I have isses at the moment. Their phones last longer than others too. I’m on the verge of replacing the Samsung Galaxy S9+ because Samsung is ending OS updates for it after only 2 years. My iphone 6s is STILL getting updated and that was 2 phones ago for me. At this point I am dangerously close to getting an iPhone(y) for consistency across my computing platform. The only real contender other than iPhone(y) at the moment is OnePlus8 and perhaps Pixel 4a.

I know @professor you are a Huawei fan but I can’t find one that seems to fit well for me.

[professor]

I only like Huawei as I bought one and liked it, and feel they done harshly by (cough).

I didn’t assess all and rank weight and pick them. So treat as a soft like. I’m probably being forced to Google / OnePlus / Samsung next by elimination.

Agree Apple support their hardware longer than, say, Microsoft and most Android vendors, but then there is AOSP and Linux to catch hardware which is popular and not supported so long as the bootloader is unlockable.

Kudos on your award. We all live other lives on open source, Linux is about 25 years old now.

I have spent years running other non-Linux OS in a VM, e.g. Windows 7 via Virtualbox, ontop of Linux, because you are correct not all platforms do everything. My Android tablet runs a Linux chroot for one app.

[gAnkster]

Hahahaha yeah cough only knows how to do others harshly… haha … ha … heh … (cries into beer)

[SZak2015]

Temperature is the #1 to avoid for batteries.

I’d suggest:

• own the fastest charger supported, the heat is outside of the battery in the PSU so don’t worry about the battery.
• keep it plugged in to power as much as possible to make the battery suffer the fewest cycles. What ages the battery the most in laptops is “oh, I have a laptop, so I’ll just use it unplugged from power as I can”. There is a fixed cycle capacity, just use that the least.
• keep it as cool as you can, using common sense (out of sun, etc).

I’ll agree with @professor.

Although my MacBook is a much older vintage model (MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2011)), I am still using the original battery. Following what @professor mentions (as I have been since I originally bought the MacBook in 2011), my battery condition is as follows:

Charge Cycles: 347
Health: 90.8%
Maximum capacity (current): 5238 mAh
Design capacity (original): 5770 mAh
Battery age: ~9 years (3,286 days)

If you are not already doing so, a free macOS app called coconutBattery is available to see the same details I’ve displayed above regarding the battery in my MacBook.

Simply Google “coconutbattery”

EDIT: I now see that coconutBattery was already mentioned above by @TechnicallyWell…like minds I guess. Just as well, mine is also used plugged in about 95% of the time

[gAnkster]

So here’s what I’m hearing:

1. Lower wattage chargers are fine, but probably still best to have one that’s as high as you can reasonably get. I think the threshold for me on this machine is 30w, which is where the laptop will function and take a charge at the same time.

2. Avoid fully depleting the battery. It’s fine to charge fully and leave plugged in when at 100%. Modern batteries have safeguards built in to prevent maxing out true capacity.

3. No reason to avoid using powerbanks.

4. Probably best to use the fastest you can. I think for me the balance is small size + multiple ports for auxiliary devices. I’m going with Atom III Slim for my go-to charger away from home. I measured it yesterday giving a respectable 43.6w charge to the machine and I think that’s adequate for me given that it’s small and has 3 other PowerIQ ports. to work with. Also non-grounded connection to wall is desirable to maximize places it can be used.

Let me know if there’s anything I got wrong up there! Thanks everyone!

[professor]

Lower wattage chargers are fine,

Disagree.

A lower wattage charger means there are more times when the battery is slightly discharging as the charger is not quite sufficient, that then causes more quantity of smaller discharges which adds a little more battery aging.

Agree that a charger can be weaker if it always can keep the battery charged, but getting the fastest charger minimises this risk.

Agree with all the other points as they reduce load on the laptop battery.

This is specifically for laptops, for phones which you have to use unplugged, I’d be suggesting different.

[Shenoy]

try to get a shorter cable

[gAnkster]

That’s actually the factory cable…but I was just looking at that.

The only one I can find is $30 https://www.amazon.com/Certified-Anker-Thunderbolt-Supports-Compatible/dp/B076D76DRQ/ref=psdc_464394_t1_B072JYDQ7N