New Laptop Battery

A week or so ago, my wife seemed rather distraught. We have a number of projects going on in the house and I worried that maybe we had a plumbing leak. For some reason, plumbing problems appear most in my adult nightmares. She said that wasn't the issue but that her laptop computer wasn't holding a charge. I breathed a huge sigh of relief. She changed out chargers as we have a number of different chargers for various Mac computers and that fixed the problem temporarily. Once she pulled her laptop off the charger, she only had about an hour before the battery drained completely. I immediately knew the problem: she needed a new laptop battery.

My wife has a MacBook Air that I picked up about 7 years ago. Knowing that she is reaching the end of life for her computer, I asked if she wants a new one but she doesn't see the point. Her current computer is working flawlessly for her and so I went to the website IFixIt and did a search for "MacBook Air Battery." I found the information for an Early 2015 with a 13-inch monitor and looked at ordering a new battery. I also reviewed the instructional video to see what tools I would need.

Replacing a MacBook Air battery is a simple task that anyone who has ever used a screwdriver can accomplish. You just have to have the right screwdrivers. My wife's required a Pentalobe 5, which looks like a 5-pointed star to remove the case and a Torx 5, which looks like a 6-pointed star to remove the battery. I made sure to order the screwdrivers from IFixIt as they were only $6 each. Interestingly I did not need to order the high-quality ones as I was sent the screwdriver bits with a universal handle because of my battery order. Now I have 2 of each.

I placed my order and it arrived the next day. I had a break in my work schedule and asked my wife to bring me her laptop. I grabbed some reading glasses and went to work. The first thing I noticed is how tiny those laptop screws really are. I carefully placed them nearby for when it came time to reassemble everything. The old battery came out quickly and the new one went in just as fast.

Any time you replace a laptop battery, you also want to calibrate the battery. Instructions came in the package and so we charged the battery to full and then kept it on the charger for a few hours. Then my wife started using the laptop running only on battery power until the computer turned itself off. After using it for about a week, today the MacBook Air finally shut down. I asked my wife how much time she actually got out of the battery and she estimates about 7 hours of real use. She is happy with that.

Apple makes a great computer that lasts for many years. My wife is gentle with her laptop and so I expect it to continue working for several more years before needing to be replaced. That makes replacing a battery much more cost effective than getting a new machine. It wouldn't surprise me if we get a total of 10 years out of it now.