How to find out if your Mac’s Battery need Replacement

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Has the performance of your Mac’s battery has gone down? Is it not the same as it was when you newly purchased it? Then it is time that you look after the health of the battery and decide on buying a new one.

But before we can dwell on the health of the battery you should know some facts about them. It is completely normal for a battery to lose its ability of holding its charge as time pass by. The ability might wither due to several reasons like age of the battery, temperature under which the battery is working and several others. The usage of a battery is measured in terms of Cycle. A cycle is the complete discharge of the battery. However, it is not necessary that the battery has to be discharged from 100% to 0%. When it is discharged from 100% to 80% then it is counted as -20% and so on. When 100% is reached it is said to be have completed a full cycle.

Apple while manufacturing the batteries makes sure that they last up to 80% even after 5 years or 1000cylces. While on the other hand makers like Hp see to it that their batteries have a 80% of life cycle only for 1 year or just 300 cycles.

Moreover, how you use the battery is also responsible for the charging ability. For example, if you are keeping your battery always plugged in then the battery will die sooner than normal rate. Similarly if you are using the battery on any extreme temperatures like hot or cold then it will run out sooner. The best practice is to charge it and then allow it to completely run on battery until you hear the low battery signal so that you can charge. Another advisable practice is to allow your battery to completely run down at least once in a month. This will ensure that the health of your battery is at good condition.

When to tell that your battery needs replacement?

So how do you find out whether your Macintosh needs a replacement of battery? The easiest way to find out is by going to System profiler. The system profiler can be accessed in two ways; either through Applications>Utilities or through Apple Menu>About this Mac>More Info. Click on the power option and you will be displayed various things like the count rate and the condition of the battery. There are various ratings shown in the condition section such as ‘Normal, ‘Replace Soon’, ‘Replace Now’ and “Service Battery’.

If you would like a detailed analysis of your Macs battery then I would recommend you to download coconut battery. It is a free application for Macintosh. Install it and it will compare the original capacity of the battery and its current capacity. There is a percentage in rating in numerical value. If the percentage is above 80% then it is good to use. But if you find the percentage to be lower than 70% then you can be assured that your battery should be replaced now or in the near future. The lower the percentage the sooner will you have to replace the battery.

Tags: Macintosh Laptops