nameisnotimportant

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

https://sh.itjust.works/post/34209034

New Macbook, hesitant on using Al Dente app or batt, thoughts? - sh.itjust.works

HI all. Finally changed my old laptop and I’ve been wondering if I should be using an app like Al Dente or batt [https://github.com/charlie0129/batt] to preserve it’s battery cycles. Anyone have personal experiences with one or the other that they care to comment on? Thanks!

Mar 11, 2025 at 8:25amWeb
Show threadSreudianFlipMar 11, 2025

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 shitty chargers, Apple chargers are expensive but generally worth it

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

Show threadremerMar 11, 2025
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?
Show threadnotsoshaihuludMar 11, 2025
i have a 2021 mbp with 1400 cycles. 77% capacity.
Show threadconnaisseurMar 11, 2025
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.
Show threadremonMar 11, 2025
I’ve been using Al Dente for quite some time, always keeping the battery at 70-75%. As I’m pretty much always on a power adapter, I don’t see the downside.
Show threadAceMar 11, 2025
Yeah I use Al Dente and it’s great. Definitely worth paying for. I set the charge limit at 80%, and mostly use my m1 macbook plugged in. The battery life is so great anyway that I very rarely need more than 40-50% of battery in a day when using it lightly. My battery only has 350 cycles from nearly 4 years of use due to using it plugged in mostly.
Show threadAceMar 11, 2025
Honestly setting the charge limit should just be built into macos. Since it’s possible, I have no idea why they don’t offer that. I find their “machine learned charge limit” or whatever it is to be almost useless because most of the time it just charges to 100% anyway. The built-in feature seems to be very specifically for if you charge overnight and have a regular wake up schedule, it will hold at 80% until a few hours before you wake up and then still go to 100% anyway.
Show threadOnno (VK6FLAB)Mar 11, 2025

It is on my MacBook Air. It sits closed on my desk with an external display, plugged in 24/7 and sits at 80%, every now and then it charges to 100%, or discharges back to 80%.

It was like that when I bought it in July last year. Seems to be a current MacOS feature.

Show threadCatsGoMOWMar 11, 2025
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?
Show threadremonMar 11, 2025

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.

Show threadnameisnotimportantMar 11, 2025

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.

Show threadCatsGoMOWMar 11, 2025
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.
Show threadbestboyfriendintheworldMar 11, 2025

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?

Show threadnameisnotimportantMar 11, 2025
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
Show threadjefMar 13, 2025
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.