[mbobylev]

does anybody know how to check iBook battery for its wear/tear, in other words is there way to know how much longer the battery will last? I just got a used battery and whant to know how many months (days) it's going to work.
thanx

[RadarBob2]

Battery life is highly variable. My experiences...

Original blueberry iBook's battery worked great for about 1.5 years. My guess is this is the normal expected battery life if all goes well. After that it slowly quit holding as much of a charge. After about 3-4 more months it was working less than one hour between charges. So a normally functioning battery should not just up-n-die.

It's replacement lasted 6 months; the next one lasted less than a year - thank goodness it had a warranty.

On our 700MHz iBook the battery was DOA after less than a year. It up-n-died very suddenly. Replaced under warranty. Replacement working well so far (the better part of a year).

I've heard plenty of anecdotal advice on how to maximize battery life but my sense is that there's a bit of luck involved.

Here's two particularly helpful references.
http://www.apple.com/batteries/
http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm

[cold aspiration]

I remember there was something you type in the terminal and it gives you a number for the charge on the battery.. basically how much charge it can hold. there was a patter than the number went down as the ibooks got older. Does anyone know what I am talking about? I tried searching but too many threads about batteries to look through all of them..

[brianb]

Not that I have the exact number, but most bat5teries Seem to be close to one another. Just about every type of Litium Ion battery that I have run across i've been told that they are at life expectancy at around 500 charges. They may last alot longer but 500 seems to be the magic number. Now if you Charge everyday that would give you roughly a year and a half. If the person only charged once a week the battery could have a much longer life. I have no clue as to the rate of decay for batteries where they just won't work even if they have only been charged once

Take my words with a grain of salt because as someone else said it is highly variable

[ginoledesma]

Check out iBatt. It will let you compare your battery's current charge and rating against the "standard" ones, including user-submitted information. It will give you a "grade" for your battery's_performance.

Three months ago iBatt gave my battery an A rating. Now it's down to a C. Really surprising drop in performance. Sigh! I think frequently discharging-recharging can increase the wear-and-tear.

[cold aspiration]

does it matter if the author wrote that it is specifically for powerbooks?