Receiving new MacBook Air 2018 with empty battery

[fekimoki]

My friend received his with empty battery. Tried turning on, charging logo displayed in screen.
He charged the battery to 100% in Monday, then sleep the Mac completely. He opened the lid in Wednesday, battery is 86%.

The mac was "green peel", brand new in box. Bought from respectred supplier which we often buy Macs & iPhones.

Is it normal?

Thanks.

 

[chabig]

Macs used to ship with charged batteries, but I think I read that recent changes to dangerous goods handling practices might require electronic to be shipped with depleted batteries for safety. Since the machine works fine, just go with it.

 

[jpn]

the new regulations for cargo hold shipped lithium ion batteries is 30%, no need to be fully depleted.

its more likely that especially on setup the machine was involved in background updates, since it was a machine that had just been bought. sleeping with lid closed does not circumvent most processes that are allowed to run in the background.

 

[Eksoccer99]

the new regulations for cargo hold shipped lithium ion batteries is 30%, no need to be fully depleted.

its more likely that especially on setup the machine was involved in background updates, since it was a machine that had just been bought. sleeping with lid closed does not circumvent most processes that are allowed to run in the background.

This makes sense. Mine was around 25-28% when I turned it on. (new)

 

[oneMadRssn]

In general, I noticed that macOS has become less energy efficient in sleep mode.

Maybe it holds longer before hibernating than it used to, maybe certain pre-sleep tasks require more power, I'm not sure. It happened in 10.10 or 10.11, don't remember exactly, but on my old Air it went from losing 1-2% overnight to losing 5% overnight. No big deal for me, but it was noticeable.

 

[Audit13]

I think it depends on the sleep mode settings in MacOS.

Hibernatemode 25 should write the ram contents to the SSD and power off completely.

 

[AustinIllini]

Multiple jurisdictions require lithium ion batteries to be undercharged when they ship. Apple isn't going to ship different level batteries. This is just something we'll have to get used to.

 

[marconiusrex]

I got a 128 GB 2018 MBA last Saturday and it had about 46 percent battery life on it when I set it up. I decided to exchange for a 256 GB model and when I set that one up on Wednesday it only had 16 Percent life on it. I guess it's luck of the draw perhaps?

 

[0906742]

Is it normal to receive brand new Air 2018 with empty battery right out of the box? I got mine today and it was empty. Bought it from authorized reseller. Seems that manufacturing date was about 5 and half months ago, so I think it is long enough for emptying battery during storage but is there any guidance from Apple how long new Macbooks are allowed to sit on store shelf before selling them?

 

[Jimmy James]

It sounds like batteries were shipped with a low barge and self-discharged due to some shelf time.

 

[0906742]

Probably so, but is it common to receive it with 0% battery charge if it has been manufactured 5-6 months ago? That cannot be good for the battery if it has been sitting for a long with empty battery.

 

[0906742]

what battery health and capacity reading others are seeing on their new Air 2018?
Mine was after first complete charge 98,5% while it was still plugged in but after I removed charger and kept using it went to 100% and capacity reading raised even over 4460mAh but it seems to be changing a a bit all the time and now when battery charge level has dropped below 50% also capacity reading seems to be lowering again few times crept just belief 4381mAh (which is design capacity).

Just like to make sure if mine seems OK at this point compared to others, since my new Air came with 0% battery charge out of the box and it may have done some permanent damage to battery.

Also what kind of power cable others got with their Air? My cable seems to have some kind of powdery and sticky residue or coating on it.

 

[chrfr]

Is it normal to receive brand new Air 2018 with empty battery right out of the box? I got mine today and it was empty. Bought it from authorized reseller. Seems that manufacturing date was about 5 and half months ago, so I think it is long enough for emptying battery during storage but is there any guidance from Apple how long new Macbooks are allowed to sit on store shelf before selling them?

Recently, air shipping regulations changed and it's not permitted to ship rechargeable devices at greater than 30% capacity. So, couple that with a computer that sits in inventory for a while and it's much more common to find one that's totally discharged. As long as it charges up ok and initial battery life seems normal I would not be concerned.

 

[0906742]

I understood that IATA 30% SOC limitation was just for bare battery products and did not apply to devices containing battery.

 

[0906742]

Those of you who also received brand new MacBook Air 2018 with empty battery (so that you needed to use charger to be able to even turn it on for the first time) how is your battery health doing?

Mine has definitely taken a considerable hit due to that. After 6 charge cycles battery health is fluctuating around 98% or even 97.x% at times. Normally Apple gear is able to hold even over 100% capacity for quite some time.

How common it is to receive brand new MacBook with empty battery?

Does anyone know how much in watts MacBook Air 2018 (or other MB models) consume power when they are turned off? I'm trying to figure out if it should be even possible that this small power consumption during turned off could have drained battery in 5 and half months from manufacturing date like mine was when I first got it, or did I just happen to get garbage battery in battery lottery?

 

[Howard2k]

Those of you who also received brand new MacBook Air 2018 with empty battery (so that you needed to use charger to be able to even turn it on for the first time) how is your battery health doing?

Mine has definitely taken a considerable hit due to that. After 6 charge cycles battery health is fluctuating around 98% or even 97.x% at times. Normally Apple gear is able to hold even over 100% capacity for quite some time.

How common it is to receive brand new MacBook with empty battery?

Does anyone know how much in watts MacBook Air 2018 (or other MB models) consume power when they are turned off? I'm trying to figure out if it should be even possible that this small power consumption during turned off could have drained battery in 5 and half months from manufacturing date like mine was when I first got it, or did I just happen to get garbage battery in battery lottery?

It's a 98% after 5 1/2 months? That doesn't sound like a garbage battery.

Battery degredation isn't linear, but I would expect a non-linear drop to 80% over three years. Depending how you use it.

EDIT: I see you're talking about date of manufacture.
98% over 3 weeks of use doesn't sound fantastic, but I wouldn't be too alarmed just yet. Install Coconut Battery and you can track the depletion over time.

 

[0906742]

Yes, I was talking about date of manufacture. I got mine just about 1.5 weeks ago, so battery is far from fantastic, it would not call it even decent. I guess I need to really consider if I want to keep this since these batteries can be even dangerous if they are damaged. I hate to think what could happen in case battery meltdown happens when I'm not at home.

 

[0906742]

I was wondering how much Air 2018 consume power when it is turned off. I found this Apple document (at the end of the document is listed power consumption in different modes) https://www.apple.com/environment/pdf/products/notebooks/13-inch_MacBookAir_w_Retina_PER_oct2018.pdf
Based on that it consume 0.05W power off. I'm not sure if that is calculated with power supply connected which is efficiency around 90% as which consume 0.02 - 0.01W depending on main voltage.
Anyway if I understood correctly power off consumption should one around 0.05W - 0.028W, so it should draw daily 1.2 - 0.67W. If battery is 50W and it is full from the factory it should last about 42 to 75 days from 100 to 0%.

Any ideas what am I counting wrong?
There must be some error because for example in another thread other member here said his Air 2018 had about 70% battery out of the box and his Air was manufactured about one month ago, so based on that this my math does not match because it is unlikely they even charge battery to 100% at the factory (or do they?).
But if they do charge them to 100% then based on one month after battery was about 70% would mean that it consumed 15W energy during power off for one month making it equal to about 0.5W a day.

Anyway since my Air was manufactured 5.5 month ago before I got it calculating roughly fully charged battery divided by days from manufacturing date equals to 50/165=0.3W. Meaning if Air 2018 consume even 0.3W or more a day when powered off that would drain battery completely during that time. So I guesss natural reason why I received mine with 0% battery charge must have been from long time since manufacturing date. So that sound plausible?

I mean checking sleep mode power consumption listed on the same document using the same formula as above would equal just about one week to maybe 10 days in sleep mode until battery goes from 100 to 0%. That can't be right since aren't these capable of 30 days sleep mode or what does Apple mean in there technical specs for this model where they list up to 30 days in standby mode (that can't mean power off, or does it?)?