[bokaroseani]

Hi, Newbie here. I recently bought a Macbook, my first experience with Mac OS x. This might have been discussed earlier but since I hear a lot of contradictory opinions on this issue, I wanted to confirm with others about this. Should I leave the battery in when using the AC adapter? I use my macbook as a desktop replacement and and travel with it only rarely (once in a month or two). Would you suggest me to keep the battery in the laptop? Will this affect the life of the battery due to overcharging or the heating? I understand that the battery is not just the battery but also a leg for my laptop and removing it can mean the laptop wont sit very well on my table. I dont mind putting the battery in to calibrate once in a month but keeping it plugged to AC power 24 hours a day for few weeks at a stretch...can that cause damage by trickle charging or heat?

[Dr.Michael]

Originally Posted by bokaroseani

Hi, Newbie here. I recently bought a Macbook, my first experience with Mac OS x. This might have been discussed earlier but since I hear a lot of contradictory opinions on this issue, I wanted to confirm with others about this.

The only thing you will get is a bunch of new contradictory answers. So you could indeed do a search.

Here is the first answer, that will be yelled at soon:
Heat lets the internal contacts of your battery corrode faster, thus raising the internal resistence. So the capacity of your battery will decline.

If you use the Macbook with ac for a longer period of time, charge the battery to 50 -70 % (attention, more numbers like 55 - 75% to come soon ), and store it in a cool place like a drawer (not the fridge due to condensing water). Check every few months and reload if necessary. Make sure the battery does not go into deep discharge. Then it will last much longer than you want to keep your macbook.

BTW: opinions do not bring you forward. What you need are educated answers. There are a couple of sites to google where you find measurements, not opinions.

[bokaroseani]

Thanks for the quick reply. I will do some google searches as you suggest. Hopefully I will find something more than opinions to help me decide one way or the other.

[Dr.Michael]

Originally Posted by bokaroseani

Thanks for the quick reply. I will do some google searches as you suggest. Hopefully I will find something more than opinions to help me decide one way or the other.

Here is useful info:
http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm

[ibook_steve]

In general you do not need to remove the battery. The previous posters have decent points, but I wouldn't go through the hassle for the savings. The idea of a portable computer is to use it as a tool when needed without worrying about its battery. The only thing you need to do is calibrate the battery every so often as mentioned in your manual. Also, without the battery, if your nifty MagSafe connector pops off, which it can quite easily, you're done. Finally, on some Apple portables (don't know if this is the case with MacBook), if the battery is not installed, the CPU always runs at a reduced frequency, limiting your performance.

Steve

[ghporter]

Don't bother removing the battery. The old advice about doing this came from OLD battery technologies and dumb charging systems. Current technology means that your laptop won't bother with the battery if it's fully charged, so leaving it in or taking it out won't make a bit of difference.

If the laptop stays on a desk and plugged in most of the time, it's a good idea to run it off the battery almost all the way down every now and then to help keep the laptop's battery calibration accurate (see the link from Dr.Michael). Otherwise don't worry about it because both the battery and the computer you put it in are smart enough not to give you a problem.