What is the difference between magsafe 60w and 85w

I'm going to as s-u-me that it's ok to use the 85W adapter and that the second Apple rep who told me not to gave me incorrect information. I just want charge my MacBook without breaking it. The CYA methods used by Apple are tedious. Thanks for your help. There is no assuming required. The info from Apple at the link I provided clearly states "You can use a compatible higher wattage adapter without issue,". This may allow for longer life of the power adapter as well.

When I buy a replacement power adapter for a in MacBook pro, I always buy the larger one, because the larger one is interchangeable, and almost exactly the same price. Using a higher wattage charger is not going to hurt your MacBook. Your MacBook is going to only use the amount of power that it needs not more. If you put a power adapter that is higher wattage, it's going to relieve the stress on the adapter, it is actually going to allow the adapter to work less.

I have been using the 60w adapter from my old 13"macbook pro which was stolen a while ago for my new 15" macbook pro for about a month because I assumed that all the cables or adapters are the same from Apple since it is the case for the usb cable and I did not realize until one day it turned off itself.

Most of the time, my macbook pro was connected to the power. Now I have switched to the 85w adapter and everything works fine, thank god. Apple has added a support page to break this down.

Note that the power adapter square block is a separate from the cable on USB Macs. I'm using a 60W power adapter for my 15 MacBook Pro.

It runs fine if I'm doing light tasks, however, if I'm running an intensive application like Starcraft 2 on Bootcamp the battery will stop charging and drain very slowly. I swapped the adaptors and it works fine for both machines.

Also, the MacBook Pro using the 60 W power adaptor is charging the battery, although it is a little bit slower. Is it a good idea? Does it work? The wattage rating is matched up with your particular laptop's needs. If you use a lower rated power supply, in many circumstances it will work ok, it may just charge a little bit slower. If your laptop is powered off, it'll charge decently fast too.

However if you then boot into something less power efficient like linux or windows, you'll notice that despite being hooked up to a power supply, you are slowly losing battery life because there's simply not enough wattage to drive the whole thing and a lot of the power saving features aren't properly implemented. This also can be an issue if you have modified the hardware in your laptop, or if you try to do heavy gaming anything that gets disks and fans spinning.

If this is your situation, you can still use the lower power supply, but you're going to eventually hit a point where the transformer will overheat really bad , or you will just run out of power.

So in a perfect world, you should always have the adapter that apple intended you to have or a higher rated one. But if you have to use a lower rated one for a little while it won't be the end of the world.

I don't think this talk of "Brown out" is correct. The MacBook will always have enough power from the battery to operate without "Brown out".

It's only when the battery gets critically low that the computer may think it's getting sufficient power to operate as it's plugged in but will probably be in a reduced performance mode due to the low voltage of the battery. This will manifest as operation of the computer being sluggish. As a battery nears "empty" it will produce more heat, so despite being in low performance, this may cause the fans to spin up, even though the computer isn't doing as much.

If you're storing a laptop, make sure you charge it before hand and periodically top it up. If possible, remove the battery as this will slow the discharge. So I believe that a low wattage adapter is fine if you only use it to charge the laptop when it's sleeping or off. Puffed batteries are always a symptom of fully discharging it.

I have experience with RC batteries that have no intelligence built in. There is however some management built into the systems they're plugged into. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Ask Question. Asked 10 years, 9 months ago. But I can't find any official statement from Apple confirming that this is so.

Just curious if anyone can definitively confirm that it is indeed safe. I know the 60w and 85w Magsafe power adapters have a different form factor and that the MacBook Air can't sit flat on a surface if you use them -- I'm just curious if it's safe to use them on my MacBook Air. So long as the connector is compatible with your MacBook Air you shouldn't have any issues as the computer will not draw more than the wattage required to charge it. The standard draw of the MacBook air is a max of 45Watts and that draw only occurrs when the computers battery is very low and you are running several applications while the computer is recharging the battery,.

Your MB Air will just draw the same amount of current whichever adapter is used, as long as the minimum wattage is provided. The charger is a dual-voltage charger.

It uses It makes sense that you could use a higher wattage adapter on a lower wattage system if they were both the same voltage but the 85W adapter is I read the apple article and they say it is okay but I would like someone to explain why the voltage difference does not matter. Could it wear out your battery faster? Just for further information, the new MacBooks have the same angled connector as the MacBook Air, in 60 watts. So those are a direct fit with no angle awkwardness!

This information isn't entirely true. I have been using a 45w adapter with my new mid 15" MBP for a couple of weeks. It will charge the batteries no problem so long as you're not doing anything power intensive. I expect that it wouldn't work for gaming, but for everyday use it's fine. Show 3 more comments. Gabe gabe. With some testing, it is definitely safe for the charger if you are charging a macbook that needs more wattage.. The charger will never provide more than the rated wattage, and as such, there is no higher risk of failure.

I have read that if you let it reach zero, it'll keep on going and kill your battery as the voltage will go too low. I personally use a 60w charger with my MacBook Pro Retina which comes with an 85w charger. It charges a tad bit slower but it's perfectly fine. Here are the screenshots:. In this image, I am using my 60w charger while low use medium brightness, no CPU intensive tasks but it is charging.

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