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varenc • yesterday at 8:26 PM • 1 reply • view on HN

As others have said, keep the battery in the 80%-30% range. Use the `batt` CLI tool to hard limit your max charge to 80%. Sadly, if you're already down to <2hrs, this might not make sense for you. Also prevent it being exposed to very hot or cold temps (even when not in use)

I type this from an M3 Max 2023 MBP that still has 98% battery health. But admittedly it's only gone through 102 charge cycles in ~2 years.

(use `pmset -g rawbatt` to get cycle count or `system_profiler SPPowerDataType | grep -A3 'Health'` to get health and cycles)

Replies

rootusrootus • today at 2:31 AM

> I type this from an M3 Max 2023 MBP that still has 98% battery health.

That's amazing. I have an early 2023 M2 Max MBP that mostly charges in desktop mode, which limits to 80%. I just looked in battery health and it says 82%. Damn! :(

For giggles, earlier today I asked Apple how much they'd give me for this machine if I traded it in on a brand new $5K M5 Max equivalent. $825. Ouch. I think I will keep it for a few more years. 96GB is enough memory to do anything I want, and it's been such a great performer that it's easily my favorite MacBook ever. I do wish the battery weren't so degraded though.

For anec-science, here goes:

  % pmset -g rawbatt
  03/03/2026 18:29:51
   AC; Not Charging; 76%; Cap=76: FCC=100; Design=6075;   Time=1092:15; 0mA; Cycles=63/1000; Location=0;
   Polled boot=02/09/2026 07:24:50; Full=03/03/2026   18:24:52; User visible=03/03/2026 18:28:52

  % system_profiler SPPowerDataType | grep -A3 'Health'
        Health Information:
            Cycle Count: 63
            Condition: Normal
            Maximum Capacity: 82%