MacBook Pro 16 (2019) Battery Fell to 80% in 150 Cycles

sakanasama on 02/02/2022 - 19:35
Last edited 06/02/2022 - 16:38

So this 16 inch Macbook Pro 2019 that I bought in 4 Feb 2020 holds 7072 mah accoridng to the system report.
Which when divided by the original 8790 mah, is 80.5% maximum capacity, at the current cycle count of 150.

Apple's website states that:
"MacBook Owners
Your battery is designed to retain up to 80 per cent of its original capacity at 1,000 complete charge cycles. The one-year warranty includes replacement coverage for a defective battery. Apple offers a battery replacement service for all MacBook, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro notebooks with built-in batteries."

However, this macbook is reaching its two year mark from purchase, I was wondering if this would be covered by the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) or would apple simply look at its capcity and replace the battery?

Anyone has experience?

Also can I post this here? Or should i go to reddit…

Edit: attended Genius Bar appointment today, the person verified that battery capacity is borderline and agree to replace battery.

Computing 16inch Apple Computer Laptop

Related Stores

apple.com.au
apple.com.au

Comments

  • TEER3X on 02/02/2022 - 19:39
    +6

    It says "up to" so it's pretty vague, but it seems like normal wear for a battery of that age.

    That and the warranty is long gone.

  • Drakesy on 02/02/2022 - 19:44

    20% loss over 2 years is hardly alarming.

    • sakanasama on 02/02/2022 - 19:51

      I do agree if only judging by time…. one of the detail is that my battery was manufactured by SMP, while my friend who bought at the same time as me and have triple as many charge cycles still sitting above 90% charge. And his battery was made by DSY

      • Drakesy on 02/02/2022 - 20:01
        +1

        There are a fair few factors lets not forget, heat can severely degrade batteries, complete cycles are more damaging than partial cycles (not sure what the checker's definition is though.

        My Lenovo carbon lost 22% over 3 years and now 5 years on has only just hit the 25% loss mark.

        • sakanasama on 02/02/2022 - 20:11

          True that, just the casual browsing on apples website and asking around evoked this worry…

  • jace88 on 02/02/2022 - 19:49

    Just checking, when you go into the System Info > Power, what exactly are you reading?

    Health information which says Cycle count, condition and maximum capacity are the key metrics.

    Given you're under two years, I think you can try your luck and ask Apple in a Genius Bar appointment to look at it. I had my iPhone battery replaced when the battery health was below 80% within two years.

    • sakanasama on 02/02/2022 - 19:55

      I clicked in from the apple menu, About this Mac > System Report > Hardware > Power gives the below:
      Charge Information:
      Fully Charged: No
      Charging: No
      Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 7066
      State of Charge (%): 69
      Health Information:
      Cycle Count: 150
      Condition: Normal

      The condition does say normal though…I think tomorrow is the two year mark

      • jace88 on 02/02/2022 - 20:29

        Just curious, what does it say in System Prefs when you click Battery and then Battery Health? Does it say 100% or 80%?

        • sakanasama on 02/02/2022 - 23:20

          I couldn’t find that in system pref? Where it specifically tells you the battery health like iPhone. I googled the maximum design capacity and divided myself after noticing drops in usage time…

          • Filename on 03/02/2022 - 00:13
            +1

            @sakanasama: I've used coconutBattery for over a decade. Nice little app that tracks battery health and charging and can compare to others online. For me I can see health was actually 87% a couple days ago, so it does jump around.

            • sakanasama on 03/02/2022 - 13:25

              @Filename: Thanks, I downloaded coconut battery and it’s showing 79.3% for now.

          • jace88 on 03/02/2022 - 13:23

            @sakanasama: Check battery health section: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204054

            I’m still curious if it’s actually a degraded battery or deliberate limiting of charge capacity to preserve the battery health.

            • sakanasama on 03/02/2022 - 13:26

              @jace88: I think the capacity degrades as it is showing that maximum charge when the battery icon shows 100% charged

              • jace88 on 03/02/2022 - 14:36

                @sakanasama: Yep sounds like it. On my new MBP it stops at 80% and makes it clear that it’s deliberately doing this.

                Does your battery health come up as normal though? And what maximum health?

                • sakanasama on 06/02/2022 - 16:39
                  +1

                  @jace88: The Apple store guys checked it today and saying it’s borderline 80% max capacity so will replace the battery for me

                  • jace88 on 06/02/2022 - 21:14
                    +1

                    @sakanasama: Pretty stoked for you! Glad to see the legendary Apple post-sales support. Hope it was a relatively quick/painless job.

  • Filename on 02/02/2022 - 20:03
    +1

    Similar purchase date, 256 cycles, 80.7% capacity. DSY battery. I'd say it's fairly normal/expected although I've frequently ran mine in super hot ambient conditions and sub-zero.

    • sakanasama on 02/02/2022 - 20:06

      My friend with similar purchase date and DSY battery is siting above 90% capacity at around 500 charge cycles…but where in Australia do you get sub zero?

      • Filename on 03/02/2022 - 00:09

        Plenty of places in land get below zero during the nights. I'm thinking remote but even Canberra would fit.

        • sakanasama on 03/02/2022 - 13:27

          I’m in melbourne and the worst was like 3 degrees and that was like freezing…..

  • Richardc on 02/02/2022 - 21:48

    Just ask Apple to replace the battery for you.

    • sakanasama on 02/02/2022 - 22:33

      As its at the 2 year mark, and mac battery is not something you can easily change and i wasn't sure if this will be covered by the ACL, if i need to spend 300$ to replace it then I might want to get maybe another year or two of usage out of this battery

  • MagicMushroom on 02/02/2022 - 22:25

    Can depend on lots of factors

    https://batteryuniversity.com/article/bu-808-how-to-prolong-…

    • sakanasama on 02/02/2022 - 22:31
      +1

      Thanks, I might try the calibration step in the article!

  • brooksnk on 03/02/2022 - 00:37
    +2

    There is no time limit on ACL - it is based on a reasonable expectation having regards to factors like, price, build quality…etc

    80% capacity at 150 charge cycles is quite poor, especially for an Apple product. In my view, ACL should cover this. I once got apple to replace a battery after 4 years under ACL. At that time, they made a guarantee of a certain design capacity after so many cycles (wasnt "up to" phrasing like it is now). However, still reference that marketing material - in my view, this would induce a reasonable expectation that it should be around the 70%-80% mark @ 1000 charge cycles.

    Apple are pretty good - treat the genius rep with respect and just explain your reasons with good manners and I think they'll replace it.

    On a side note: Apple Australia has an internal policy of automatically considering defects claimable under ACL up to 2 years. This is NOT a policy that means that they do not consider ACL after 2 years. That would be illegal and a seperate offence to misrepresent your rights under ACL. If the rep does reference this two year policy - just calmly explain the above.

    • sakanasama on 03/02/2022 - 14:38

      I’ll definitely be respectful whether they replace it or not. And thanks for the suggestion, I’ll be sure to ask on my visit. Cheers

    • sakanasama on 06/02/2022 - 16:40
      +1

      Apple agree to replace it under warranty, thanks!

  • studentl0an on 03/02/2022 - 11:04
    +2

    I repair Macs as a sidegig and have noticed that the battery degrades between 2-4x faster in Intel macs from 2016-2019 than the 2012-2015 era.

    I've seen a few 2012-2015 batteries with 700-1000 cycles that still have 80%. I've seen a few 2016-2019 that have 80% at between 100-400 cycles. A1502 (with A1582 battery) and A1398 (with a1494 battery) seem to have the best battery life retention over time.

    This is just my anecdotal experience.

    • sakanasama on 03/02/2022 - 14:39

      My old MacBook Air is 1600 cycles and still on 82 percent health…..maybe Apple started using cheaper batteries?

      • studentl0an on 03/02/2022 - 15:08
        +1

        I don't think it's cheaper batteries. Apple tend to increase the quality of all their individual components over time, for example the speakers developing distortions in 2012-2015 macbooks don't tend to happen with the 2016+ years, and the screens no longer have the antiglare coating delaminate from the panel. What they also do is have worse thermals due to thinner chassis, have always had terrible heat pipe configurations (except for the latest M1+ generations) and fans set to be quite rather than better cooling.

        They also tend to make new problems when another gets fixed, example the trackpad/keyboard flex cable problems with the 2015 A1502 after they "fixed" the old mechanical trackpad. Then there's also the problems with the first generation of the new butterfly keyboard switches that wasn't fixed until they added a protective membrane. When Apple changed to use solder without lead they started having cracked solder joints on critical components such as the VRM controller for the Nvidia 650m in 2012.

        I do know that there was a change around 2015 for the A1398 and A1502 (they have different batteries than their 2012-2014 versions with differing mAh capacities than their previous years) and that the charging rate/battery chemistry may be different. I believe charge behavior is controlled by the SMC.

        Strangely enough now that you mention it, I've replaced quite a few MacBook Air (A1466) batteries also.There's also so many 12" Macbook A1534s that have a dead CPU/SSD. Not an easy fix either.

        At the end of the day despite their problems I think the batteries that Apple uses tend to last much longer than other laptop manufacturers. Although I will say that in your case to lose 10% a year is very bad and about the worst I've heard of.

        You obviously didn't leave it plugged in all the time either, which is bad for the battery, because of the 150 cycles in 2 years which I think is around 1 full charge cycle per 5-7 days (which is normal use of a battery). I think you should be able to convince Apple to get the battery replaced under a statutory warranty.

        I just saw that it's the 16 inch. It's about the hottest running Mac out there and if you search online you'll find many people have issues with the battery in that model.

        • sakanasama on 03/02/2022 - 17:07

          Thanks for the well informed and experienced input, yes I’ve been taking it to my workplace and back home so it’s not always on a full charge either which I believe is good for the battery….

          a quick google search did turn out that a lot of people also have fast dropping maximum capacity in their 16 inch 2019 but couldn’t find people having it successfully replaced

          I’ll try to ask and see what the Genius Bar says this weekend and possibly update with what happened. Cheers

        • sakanasama on 06/02/2022 - 16:41

          Apple agreed to replace the battery under warranty saying it’s borderline 80% max capacity. Cheers

        • sakanasama on 06/02/2022 - 16:42

          What the Genius Bar guy told me was that battery replacement requires the whole front panel to be replaced and I’ll need to wait till next Friday for it…..that’s a huge workload just to replace the battery…..

          • studentl0an on 07/02/2022 - 14:44
            +1

            @sakanasama: For Apple it's easier for them to replace the top case/palmrest that contains the battery and keyboard. The 2016+ Macbooks (and 2015 12") have their keyboard fused into the top case/palmrest so you will get a new keyboard too. You may even get a new screen if there's no damage to your current one, as it's fastest for them to put your old logic board into a different machine and not worry about changing any other components.

            I've done a few LCD replacements for the A1706/A1708 13" Macbooks and they take much longer and require a lot more attention than prior years such as the A1398, A1425 and A1502 - which don't take that long to change over the screen. I have not worked on a 16" Macbook, but I would think it would be a similar process as the A1706/A1708 ones, which is why I think you may get a new screen too.

            For people like me we use solvents and elbow grease to pry the old battery out and put a new one in with an adhesive kit. It takes quite a while, longer than it takes to remove a logic board and put it into a different machine.

            • sakanasama on 07/02/2022 - 21:39
              +1

              @studentl0an: That sounds like a lot of work, no wonder battery cost so much to replace. I got my repair done today, super quick…brought in Sunday and Monday afternoon repair done. New Top Case with Battery sitting on 0 cycles and 100% capacity. Super happy

  • Poppin on 03/02/2022 - 13:19
    +1

    If it's under 80% and under 2 years, your chances of getting it replaced under ACL is decent. Would raise a ticket and see how it goes. Worst case they say no.

    • sakanasama on 03/02/2022 - 14:40

      Yep I visited today, and they have no spot, but they noted I came today and booked an appointment for Sunday, so if it’s a problem they say they’ll honour it.

    • sakanasama on 06/02/2022 - 16:41

      Went in today and They’ll replace it. Cheers!

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