MacBook Pro Battery

[Bond]

Does anyone have experience with buying a third-party battery for the macbook pro? I'm on my second Apple battery and it now holds a charge for an amazing five minutes.

[Fox 6]

Call Steve jobs

[Acebot44]

I've had my MacBook (black) since August of 2006 and have gone through 1 apple battery and about 3 third party batteries. Their length of effectiveness has varied each time, so it's pretty much a crap shoot. All the ones I've purchased off of ebay had warranties however, so just swapped em out.

[Seth]

A friend of mine said to keep the battery detached when not needing it. 2007 macbook. I usually keep mine at a desk but I haven't taken out the battery. Your thoughts?

[Bond]

Originally Posted by Seth

A friend of mine said to keep the battery detached when not needing it. 2007 macbook. I usually keep mine at a desk but I haven't taken out the battery. Your thoughts?

I have heard this advice as well from a friend ... will probably try it out with my next battery.

[gekko]

I've never been a fan of that advice. Of course not using a battery will improve it's life, but it greatly affects the device's usability.

Are you running Windows by any chance? My last battery died in a hurry when I started running Windows daily.

[manasecret]

I have had batteries completely die within a year or two on multiple laptops when using them mainly as desktops. (So plugged in all the time.)

I think gekko has a good point. The better way to save the battery I think is to just leave the computer unplugged until it's almost dead, and then let it charge up completely, then unplug it again. I think batteries last longer when you let them discharge fully before you recharge.

What I don't get is why none of the laptop manufacturers have figured out how to turn off the battery charger when it's fully charged, so it doesn't kill the battery. Should be simple.

[Seth]

I've read that having it fully charged significantly reduces the maximum charge over time. The battery has a log that knows how many times the battery has been used to below 75%. Everytime this happens it logs it as a charge cycle and apparently there's only so many cycle's before the battery 'ends' itself. They said every once in a while it's good to use the battery down to 1% then fully recharge.
If storing for a longer period of time then reduce charge to about 50% and store in the fridge.

There's a program called coconutbattery. It can display the max. Capacity.
coconut-flavour.com

I'm getting it this moment so I'll have more impressions in a bit.

[gekko]

I used coconut to check the heath of my first battery, which was at like 5%. Apple replaced that one, since it was under warranty. I've since bought another battery and haven't had any problems with it yet. I wonder if Apple provides warranties for the stand-alone batteries.