Apple Care and battery?

Given that batteries tend to lose their maximum charge after a year of constant usage; ex.: 7 hrs rated when new and then after 15 months it came down to just 4 or 3. Will apple care cover for the battery replacement?

Can anyone share their experience with apple care when they tried to get the battery replaced?

thanks!

 

One of our users had a batter that wouldnt hold a charge any longer, and there were less than 100 cycles on the battery. It wouldnt even charge - Apple replaced the battery under warranty in that case.

 

Depends on how AppleCare interprets their warranty -- however, the battery has an individual, 12 month warranty that is separate from the 3 yr AC coverage.

Under normal usage patterns, with average cycle counts, I would expect AC to decline a battery replacement in those scenario you posit. The situation that diggy describes is a battery that essentially failed (unable to charge with reduced cycle count), and not normal wear/tear on a consumable component (which would be excluded).

 

True, I understand that if the battery just fails or refuses to hold a charge within the 36 month AC period (low cycles or not); I will demand apple to replace it. Why use a laptop when you have to plug it in order for it to start up.

So we cannot use AC as a somewhat guarantee or claim to apple that from the 1st month to the 36th month- my battery should last at least 5 hrs+

If I have AC and due to normal depreciation of the battery it only lasts 2-3hrs after 1-2yrs (far from the 7hrs which i normally get with the same usage) AC can decline me if I try claim for "battery issue: only holds 3hrs from the stated 7hrs"? do you agree with me on this?


hmmm... Ok I will read the AC terms and conditions to see if there are anything related to battery.

 

batteries are a user-expendable part. if there is a high cycle count, they will not replace it for free. if the battery failed prematurely, they will replace it under warranty. the batteries are designed to fail after a certain number of cycles. If they perform as expected, they aren't covered as a repair item under warranty. Also, the batteries aren't rated for 7 hours forever. It's 7 hours new, and then 80% of that after x number of cycles, and then no guarantees after that point.

 

I don't know my experience with Apple Care is that they try to provide the best service possible so if you complain and they think its a reasonable issue they will try to help you even when other companies wouldn't try and help you.

Regardless, read the terms and services.

 

Considering that most Apple laptops now have an integrated laptop battery that makes it near impossible to replace without the right tools, I would like to think that Apple covers the battery as long as the full laptop is warrantied.

I guess I'll find out if they're nice or not in a few years once my MBA starts to loose its charge.

 

Yes that is the sole reason why I posted this topic and one of the main factors in making me want to use an AC before my initial 1 year is over.

Maybe I'm just thinking too much ahead.

This makes total sense and I agree with you.

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ok now it is very clear to me.

 

That is truly unfortunate. If I ever run into a battery problem with my MBA and they don't resolve it at a reasonable cost, it will make me very angry ...

 

It would be expensive. My former supervisor's MBP's battery went out. He had a unibody design (I think the first one from 2009) and never purchased AppleCare. The battery went through an obscene amount of charges since he believed in completely draining the battery before charging it. He quickly depleted the battery the end of last year and went into the local Apple Store back in February of this year. I believe he said they wanted to charge him $250 to replace the battery since it drained accordingly to the amount of charge cycles is experienced.

Whether or not that carries over to the MBA is another question and that might be just for his specific MBP. There are third party batteries out there for MBPs with integrated units, I haven't looked for MBA battery replacement. I hear that installing one even on a MBP can be a pain.

 

Let us just hope for the best! see you all in the next year.

(I will now bring my charger everywhere I go with my mba)

 

Use the MBA normally and don't worry about it. The batteries that Apple uses in their MBPs and MBAs are designed to last a while and, unless you drain your MBAs battery three times a day and completely charge it up three times a day, you don't really have anything to worry about. Odds are high that you will already be looking for a replacement by the time your MBA's battery really gives out. Small decreases in battery capacity (going from 100% to 95% to 90% and even down to 80%) really aren't that bad and relate to inconsequential minutes that can also be gained back by using smart portable practices (turning bluetooth off, dimming the display, not using keyboard backlight, etc.).

 

well, only if you weren't doing those things already to maximize battery life. you could have been doing those things the whole time. optimizing battery life isn't really a strategy to recover lost battery life, just to optimize it in general.

 

Right. But my point was that the batteries that are being used are designed to last a good while before there is a noticeable decrease in battery life. So a decrease seen a year from now (assuming the user isn't doing what my former supervisor was) would be rather small almost as if the user was running the system with the keyboard backlight on or something else along those lines. I wouldn't expect noticeable battery life decreases until around 2 years assuming everything is being used normally.

 

Great advice kornchild2002 and masterchef341!