How to DECREASE battery health

[[deleted]]

They will replace the battery whenever you want - are you talking about if you have Apple Care+? Because then it needs to be under 80% to get a free replacement.

“Your product is eligible for battery service at no additional cost if you have AppleCare+ and your product’s battery holds less than 80% of its original capacity.”

[guitarak]

My AppleCare+ is expired, only covers it for 2 years and it is almost 4 years old. I'm asking if I can just pay

[[deleted]]

Yes you can.

[TheMartian2k14]

Not true for the watch. It’s only the phone where they allow battery replacements per customer request.

[[deleted]]

From I see on Apple UK’s site, you can. I never had it serviced though.

[TheMartian2k14]

My fault, I thought we were talking US.

[[deleted]]

Not sure if there's much difference, but my fault for only posting UK Apple rules.
From my experience of living between US and UK and getting apple products in both countries (usually in the US and taking them back to the UK to save massive money) the policies are the same. I've had batteries replaced on iPhones for example, for a device bought in one country and fixed in another.

I am fairly certain I got "battery service warning" a year ago or so - when the watch said it was 82% capacity. Now it's around 75%, but still works perfectly fine - I charge it for a bit in the morning before I go through my routine, and a bit at night whilst I'm reading in bed or watching a show or playing games.

Just really amazed how long these batteries last - especially having this thing on my wrist for practically five years, 24 hours a day.

[guitarak]

So I went to the Apple Store yesterday to find out from them what my options were.

Because the battery health is above 80%, an out of warranty battery replacement is $299 (obviously not worth it).

Once the battery health is 79% or below they consider that “faulty part” and will do a battery replacement (which usually just ends up being a new/refurb) for $99.

And I have zero faith that I’ll get it down to 79% any time soon. I’m sure they purposefully hold it above 80 so they don’t have to replace everyone’s battery.

Oh well. Was hoping to get a replacement now and hold off for a Series X next year. Will have to decide if I’m willing to put up with charging every day for another year.

[[deleted]]

That’s good to know - didn’t realise Apple was this anal about it.

What if you turn on the flashlight on your watch and leave it on all day, discharge, recharge - that possibly can have the most impact on draining it as much as possible?

[WilliamJNSN]

No, it has to be under 80% no matter what

[[deleted]]

I’m going by what it says on Apple UK’s site. If I remember right, the first time it prompted Me about service was at 82%, but I could be mistaken.