Battery Cycling

Basic question relating to maximizing battery life: Is it better to use the MBP 2011 plugged in if that's an option, or better to use the battery?

I ask because I recall during my iBook days some people suggested that it was advisable to frequently drain the battery because the draining and recharging allegedly contributed to the battery's longevity.

Thank you.

 

No, it's fine to use it plugged in. It won't charge the batts when full.

The only minor issue is heat which will have a slight effect on longevity. But I'm sure apple took that into account.

What you do every so often, say every 3 months at a minimum, is to run the batt down to near empty (15%). That will cycle the battery and also recalibrate the battery runtime indicator.

What shortens the battery life most is the frequency of full discharges. The battery has about 1000 charge cycle life. Which, if you did that every day, would last about 3 years.

 

There is a notebook battery guide sticky here on NBR. Worth a read. How you interpret is up to the reader.

Without restating what the guide goes into great detail about. It seems that periodic cycling is beneficial to prevent corrosion. This breakdown would go from from complete failure to loss of capacity.

The cycling recommendations seem to be about once a month. This is clearly not written in stone and likely more a convenient time frame vs a necessary. Remember your battery has a limited number of cycles available so you want to balance. In other words more is not better. You basically want to do the minimum effective dose if I borrow from another field.