My secret to long (battery) life and happiness!

Shortly before landing in San Francisco the other day, the MacBook Pro-using guy in the seat next to me leaned over and asked, “how did you manage to use your Mac all the way across the country? Is that some special battery you have?”

For a minute, I was tempted to make something up, as in “yes, it’s an experimental fuel cell that runs on bovine methane!” Or maybe claim that the new $5 Tornado intake in my car gets me 50 mpg, 7 hours of battery life, and makes me more attractive.

But I’m a good guy. So I admitted the truth – that I bought a spare battery for the MacBook Pro, so I never run out of juice. I’ve done this with all of my laptops for years, and I wonder why more people don’t do it. Extra Apple batteries are just $130 (on sale at Amazon for $110 now) and this is a small price to pay for go-anywhere juice! Batteries used to be much more expensive, but prices have fallen.

This post is part of my series focused on the MacBook Pro.

• Don’t Be Jealous Of The New MacBook Pros!
• Upgraded! 320 GB in a MacBook Pro!
• SanDisk ExpressCard Flash Media Adapter: Nifty MacBook Pro Accessory!
• How I Get 7 Hours of MacBook Pro Battery Life
• Panic! Green Light and MacBook Pro Keyboard is Half Dead!
• Low-Power USB Ports Haunt My MacBook Pro

If you’re thinking of buying an extra battery, here is some advice:

1. Buy the original equipment battery, not some knock-off. I’ve had terrible luck with off-brand batteries and they’re never more than a few dollars cheaper!
2. Buy from an approved vendor so you get a full warranty (I got mine at the Apple store)
3. Don’t waste your time looking for super bargains – they rarely go on sale for more than 10% off. That Amazon sale is the cheapest I’ve ever seen.
4. Make sure you buy exactly the right battery for your machine – I match the part number on the battery that came with it. Manufacturers vary batteries over time, and although another machine’s battery may fit it might not be compatible with your computer.
5. Don’t buy lithium-ion laptop batteries that have sat on the shelf for a long time. They lose their life whether they are used or not!
6. Don’t pay much for used batteries. They probably don’t have much life left in them.
7. Dispose of old batteries carefully – they contain toxic chemicals! You can bring old rechargeable batteries to Staples, Best Buy, Home Depot, Lowe’s, and other stores for free recycling.

So that’s my secret to long (battery) life and happiness!

Note: Some of these links include affiliate codes that help pay for this blog. For example, buying an Amazon Kindle with this link sends a few bucks my way! But I don't write this blog to make money, and am happy to link to sites and stores that don't pay anything. I like Amazon and buy tons from them, but you're free to buy whatever and wherever you want.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | How I Get 7 Hours of MacBook Pro Battery Life
This post was categorized as Apple, Personal, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

It turns out that you have to pay to ditch. I called around, and no one wanted an old PC. Not even the Gweeps! Some companies wanted me to pay up to $25 a pop for the privilege of hauling the junk away.

But it turns out that Staples just instituted a new recycling program that rescued me: They’ll take any PC or monitor for $10 each.

What did I toss? Some old favorites:

1. Compaq Desqpro 386 SX25 with EISA, a proprietary bus CD-ROM, and about 50 256K SIMMs
2. A Biostar motherboard with an AMD 5×85-133 CPU – the most powerful 486 ever made
3. Two old workstations from god knows where
4. A 17″ CRT that worked fine – but who needs it in this era of LCDs?
5. A NEC MultiSync 3D – the God Monitor for us alternative computer guys, but mine gave up the ghost

Rest in peace, old gear…

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2007. | Goodbye, old hardware
This post was categorized as Computer History, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.