Leave Mac Book Pro plugged in all the time?

Placebo

Hey guys,
i use my MBP as my main machine, i pretty much work on it the full day, then i leave it to sleep during night. Will this effect my battery life?

http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html

e. An ideal use would be a commuter who uses her notebook on the train, then plugs it in at the office to charge. This keeps the battery juices flowing.

what ?

Sad Professor

Leaving it plugged in all the time isn't good for the battery. It needs to get some use if you don't want the battery health to plummet.

Placebo

so people that use a laptop fulltime, do they keep plugging it in and out every 3-4 hrs ?

bohsfan

I had a Macbook that I used in a similar way to yours. When I plugged it in every morning I popped the battery out so it ran on the mains only all day. Then I popped the battery in when I was going home.

Is that an option with your machine?

Sad Professor

MacBook batteries are built-in now, so removing it isn't really an option.

Placebo wrote: »

so people that use a laptop fulltime, do they keep plugging it in and out every 3-4 hrs ?

Probably not. I don't anyway. And my battery life now sucks as a result. But I wouldn't take Apple's example too literally. You don't need to unplug it ever few hours. That would just waste battery cycles. But you should ensure it gets regular usage and isn't left plugged in for weeks at a time.

Placebo

I'll shut down the machine when im sleeping but its pretty much in use/running 12-15 hrs a day. I can decharge it every month as mentioned on the site but other than that i can only see it losing charge cycles !

Sad Professor

From the sounds of it you never run it on battery anyway, so does it really matter to you if the battery life diminishes?

Placebo

i guess, but i would like the option of having a decent batter, which is why i bought a laptop, should have saved the extra cash and bought an iMac

Sad Professor

Just unplug it for a few hours every day and it will be grand. Or leave it and don't worry about it and you can get the battery replaced down the road if it becomes a problem.

The Black Oil

When working on college assignments, I have it (4 year old Macbook) it plugged in at the library and let it charge to full, then generally let it go low whilst writing/researching. Right now, for example, it's at 5% and if I go to college tomorrow and charge from first thing in the morning, do what I've stated above...unless I'm reading the thread incorrectly, this sounds unwise? I believe I calibrated it correctly when I first bought it, classmate was fairly insistent on that.

Colonel Panic

Macbooks with built in batteries are apparently good for 1000 cycles! That's pretty decent. I can't get over how long the battery lasts on my MBP.

To the OP, just use it on batter power once every couple of weeks. That's what I did with my older Macbook and it's still at around 95% capacity after nearly years.

thewing

I have a MacBook Pro and use it similar to the OP. I would plug it out only at weekends when attending lectures, and barely plugged it out at all over the summer months. Have had it for a year and have monitored battery health with Coconut Battery - health has gone from 98% when first got it, to 91% on average now. Not really an issue for me.

DubDJ

I was thinking the same thing with my laptop. Sometimes I leave it plugged in as I won't be needing it for travel much. But I usually charge it to full and just plug it out and let it discharge.