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Comment by Reason077 | Hacker News Reader

Of course. All we're asking for is an optional "limit charge to 80%" feature. And, just like macOS has, you can have a very easily accessible "charge to full now" option for those times when you know you're going to need a full charge.

Don't forget, "100%" isn't really 100% any more after a year or two of charging to 100% all the time. You've probably lost 20% or so of your battery's capacity and it will be charging slower due to increased internal resistance.

> "Where does this 80% come from? Would it be even better if I stopped charging at 60%?"

Yes, but only marginally better since there's diminishing returns. 80% is generally considered to be the sweet spot that best balances practicality with battery health.

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Absolutely agree.

But my response was to the parent comment (emphasis mine):

> Noone should ever charge to more than 80%. That is short sighted and environmentally moronic. After less than two years a device will have more capacity at 80% than the same battery will have at 100% if it was charged to 100%.

My point is that I find there are legitimate uses cases for sometimes charging to 100%. And, indeed, those cases are much better served if most of the time I only charge less. In my case, this could be much less (50% of my iphone's battery is more than enough 360 days a year – and I know beforehand when it's going to be one of those 5 remaining days)

> just like macOS has

Can you please direct me to where this is possible in MacOS? I can't see any option to configure a charging cap except some "smart" option which has been on this whole time but always charges to 100%.

It's not possible to set a hard limit in macOS without third party utility like AlDente [1].

I was referring to the built-in "Optimised battery charging" feature. When this is active and has decided it will cap charging at 80% [2], you get a "charge to full now" option in the battery menu.

[1] https://apphousekitchen.com

[2] I do agree that this feature sucks and rarely actually works, unless you have a very predictable charging schedule.

I leave my laptop plugged in 95% of the time so in practice this caps it at 80% (helpful).

I suspect quite a few people do that so it probably is net-good overall, but agree it doesn’t work well if you’re moving around a lot.

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