<p>I just got a new Macbook Pro today, and although I know with the Lithium Ion battery’s technology the method of charging doesn’t make a HUGE difference, I still want to maximize my battery’s life (I want this laptop to last me at least 4-5 yrs). So anyways, I’ve been asking alot of my Macbook-using friends for advice, and they’ve given me 2 different answers that contradict each other:</p>
<p>1) Leave the Macbook plugged in and charged at all times (since I’ll be using it as my main/desktop computer), even when I it’s on and I’m using or even when it’s shut down overnight. Only unplug when I need to take it with me somewhere outside.</p>
<p>2) Don’t leave it plugged in. Discharge the battery after every full charge all the way down until only about 10% life is left, then charge again up to 100%. Then unplug, discharge, and continue the cycle.</p>
<p>I’m so confused as to which one is correct…</p>
<p>I’ve heard that the 2nd option is the way to go, but when in my experience, just leaving it hooked up really didn’t affect my battery life. I’ve had mine a year and a half and my battery is still at about 95%. I used to leave it hooked up all the time, but now i tend to take it with me. I think you’ll be ok either way, just remember to do a full cycle at least once a month (thats highly recommended from all the battery articles i’ve read.)</p>
<p>Electrical Engineering student here. You don’t need to discharge completely after every charge. Every couple of weeks let the battery get to the point of dying before plugging it in. </p>
<p>Like you said, with these modern batteries, it isn’t really a huge deal anymore.</p>
<p>Also, Macs make me sad face.</p>
<p>BME here. We discussed this in Gen Chem (basically the chemistry of li ion batteries). I have also researched it as I managed to kill my laptop’s battery. Ideally speaking, you want to use short discharges (ie. 30-40% of the batter life max) most of the time (once every month or so performing a full discharge). The slower you run down the battery, the better for its health (ie. gaming, which uses alot of power rapidly will tend to damage/stress it faster among other processor intensive programs). You want to keep it around ~60% ish charge most of the time. Leaving it always plugged in is probably one of the fastest ways to kill your battery.</p>
<p>I use my MBP mainly as a desktop. After two years my battery health is 90% with about 45 charges, which I think is pretty awful. Apple has said that the optimal use is someone who uses their laptop on battery power for about 20-40 minutes every day and completely discharges it once every few months.</p>
<p>Speaking of which, I haven’t done that in a while.</p>
<p>Plugging it into a wall outlet tends to work well for me. I’ve found that using a hand crank, steam engine, or windmill to charge up the battery doesn’t work so well.</p>
<p>My MacBook Pro is over three years old and the battery is in good shape. I leave it plugged in almost all the time though I do use it on battery from time to time, sometimes draining it to the teens. Apple recommends that you periodically recalibrate the battery by running it to near empty on battery and then charging it back up to full.</p>
<p>I have recalibrated it only three times in three years.</p>