NewerTech Battery Conditioning
When you purchase a NewerTech NuPower high-capacity replacement battery, you will need to properly condition it in your Apple notebook computer before it will charge to full capacity.
Another reason for proper conditioning is that every NuPower battery contains a "Fuel Gauge" circuit that monitors the power levels in your NuPower battery and reports that information back to your computer.
Partial discharge/charge cycles do not harm Lithium-Ion batteries. However, these incomplete cycles eventually do affect the accuracy of the NuPower "Fuel Gauge" circuit. By completely discharging your NuPower battery, you will recalibrate the "Fuel Guage" for proper operation.
Step 1: Initial Charge
Fully charge the battery overnight using your computer's AC adapter. We highly recommend allowing the initial charge to be at least 12 hours, no matter what the percentage of charge is displayed in the Battery menu. This will extend the life of the battery to its maximum. You may use the computer during this time, but DO NOT interrupt the charge cycle by unplugging the AC adapter.
Step 2: Completely Discharge Battery
When the initial charging is completed, unplug the AC power from your notebook and allow it to run until it has drained the battery completely. This can take up to several hours with all energy saver settings turned off with no usage. You may accelerate this process by running applications to boost processor and hard disk usage. Playing a CD on shuffle in iTunes with full visuals turned on is a good way of draining the battery quickly.
Step 3: Recharge Battery
Once your computer has fully discharged the battery and will no longer wake from sleep mode, plug the AC adapter into it and allow the computer to fully charge the battery again. This will take several hours. Again, DO NOT interrupt the charging portion of this cycle.
If it seems that your NewerTech battery doesn't run as long as you believe it should, you may need to repeat Steps 2 & 3 several times (up to 5 times) before the battery will run at full capacity. And please note that we do require these steps to be performed before authorizing a return.
On-Going Battery Usage, Storage, and Conditioning Tips
- "Exercise" your primary and spare battery once a month. You will actually get a shorter lifetime out of a battery if you use it infrequently as a "backup" battery. To exercise your battery, run your computer on battery power until it shuts down or until you get a low battery warning. Then use your notebook as an acceptable method to charge/recharge your battery.
- Heat generated by various components and usage types can have a negative effect on battery life and the chemical processes within the battery's power cells. Therefore, if you normally use your notebook computer on AC power on a desk, consider removing the battery from the notebook and store the battery at a 40% charge level in a cool place.
(NOTE: We have tested and discovered with Intel®-based Apple laptop computers, when the battery is not present, system performance is reduced by up to 50%.)
- With the above noted adverse effects of heat on battery power cells, do not leave your battery in a hot location such as inside a vehicle on a summer day.
- Set the Power Management features on your computer to optimize run time. Decreasing screen brightness; turning off the modem, Airport, and Bluetooth; minimizing DVD drive use; removing any media card not in use, and adjusting hard drive settings will all combine to significantly extend your run time.
- You can check how many cycles your battery has accumulated if running OS X 10.4.x or later by opening the Apple System Profiler and clicking Power in the Contents list. The battery cycle count is listed under the Battery Information section. A charge cycle is defined as using all of the battery's power and not a single charge. For example, you use half your battery power one day, recharge it fully and then use half the battery power again the following day and again recharge to full. This would count as one charge cycle. Generally speaking, a properly maintained lithium-ion battery can provide 300-500 discharge/charge cycles before a significant reduction in runtime would be observed.