Apple @lemmy.world nameisnotimportant @sh.itjust.works 4d ago

New Macbook, hesitant on using Al Dente app or batt, thoughts?

HI all.

Finally changed my old laptop and I've been wondering if I should be using an app like Al Dente or batt to preserve it's battery cycles. Anyone have personal experiences with one or the other that they care to comment on?

Thanks!

13 comments

I could totally be misunderstanding the problem or question here, but doesn’t Mac OS have a built-in setting/feature to cap the battery charge when left plugged in?
- Yeah, I tried if for a few weeks. But it's trying to be "smart" and predict your behavior. But that just resulted in it randomly charging my battery to 100% once a day for no reason.
  
  Switched back to Al Dente where I can directly control the battery level and when to charge.
- I could totally be misunderstanding the problem or question here,
  
  You understood the question right, simply put MacOS is meant to optimize battery life and use but there's some alternatives (like those mentioned) that aim to do better.
  
  Think about "Photos" and "Mail": there's an option built in but some alternatives exists and they are better for that matter in my opinion.
  
  Oh ok, that makes sense. I never looked too closely at the built-in setting, but I just checked and see that it’s dynamic and not something you can set a hard limit on.
I repair Macs. Just use basic lithium battery practices:

mostly keep charge between 30-80%

charge fully if you are about to use

long term storage with a 70% charge

don’t run down to empty if you can help it

don’t leave plugged in all the time

avoid prolonged temperature extremes

avoid shitty chargers, Apple chargers are expensive but generally worth it

Beware of add-ons that access hardware, for various reasons.

Apple batteries are rated for around 1000 cycles, or around 5 years of average use. Follow the above advice and you might eke out 1500 or so.
- i have a 2021 mbp with 1400 cycles. 77% capacity.
- Is leaving it plugged in with a charge limit of 80% better than cycling the battery? Wouldn’t the internal power management bypass the battery?
I've been using Al Dente for quite some time, always keeping the battery at 70-75%. I'm pretty much always on a power adapter, so there really is no downside.
I‘m using Al Dente on my MBA that I bought in jan 2023 and it gives me some peace of mind whenever I use it plugged in for longer hours. Have it set to keep the battery to 90% charged, which for me is enough juice to use my machine unplugged when I need to. Every once in a while I disable Al Dente to charge to 100% for calibration purposes. If this whole process really does something good for long term battery health I don‘t know, it should at least do no harm.
The battery life is so great on the current MacBooks, that I wouldn’t even bother. Sure you could eek out another six months before the battery needs to be replaced several years into the future.

How long do you plan on using the machine?
- Thanks for your reply ! My last unit lasted 9 years so that counts but looking at feedback from recent models it looks like a lot of progress has been made already so I'm not sure if it's worth it to worry that much
I've been using batfi for over a year and its one of my must have apps, I don't even have limit charging or charging protections enabled. The features I always use are the menu bar battery icon with inline % and extra battery info in menu bar dropdown, like: battery %graph, power distribution meter(shows charging/discharging speed over different sources), battery temp, battery health %, apps with significant battery usage.

13 comments