Anyone got a good source for replacement batteries?

[Charles Kozierok]

The battery on my son's Dell notebook is toast. There are tons of third-party options but many battery suppliers use cheap junk. The "real" Dell replacement battery is overpriced and still has a lot of bad reviews suggesting that it is also rather junky.

Any suggestions welcomed. Thanks.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

What is your son's laptop?

I just googled Dell Replacement Batteries and this came up, relatively cheap...

 

[Charles Kozierok]

It's an XPS 17.

Appreciate the link, but that battery really isn't very cheap and still has 42 1-star reviews. That's my conundrum, and why I need to find a reliable source.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

It's an XPS 17.

Appreciate the link, but that battery really isn't very cheap and still has 42 1-star reviews. That's my conundrum, and why I need to find a reliable source.

The battery I just linked was more of a test. And its expensive? Its 16 dollars.

Could always check FS/FT or craigslist.

 

[podspi]

The issue I find with buying batteries for older laptops is that the batteries themselves are often old. Old batteries will have low capacity, even if they are unused.

The real question is, does anybody know a good place to get batteries repacked? That can be expensive though...

 

[Charles Kozierok]

The battery I just linked was more of a test. And its expensive? Its 16 dollars.

Could always check FS/FT or craigslist.

Oops, I misread it as $116 because of the other numbers near it.

Craigslist.. yeah, no gamble there.

 

[pm]

Based on my experiences messing with lithium batteries, as a minimum levelset, expect to pay at least $3 per cell minimum- because this is what large quantity orders of decent lithium ion cells cost. So a 6 cell battery should cost at a bare minimum $18. If you are paying less than that, then there's something wrong with it - they are buying old cells, they are using super cheap cells, they are using 3 cells and calling it 6 cells... something fishy is going on. Good high-end lithium ion 18650's go for over $4/cell for the "good stuff" even in reasonable quantities ( http://www.batteryspace.com/18650seriesli-ioncells--oemfromjapankorea.aspx ) so when you see a 6-cell pack for less than $20, then there's something weird going on.

I am curious if anyone can recommend a reliable battery merchant for laptop batteries - my experiences with Ebay and Amazon have been pretty terrible in the past.

 

[Charles Kozierok]

I found a place with decent reviews. I'll give it a shot and report back here.

 

[Ksyder]

I have to assume that no one out there does high quality replacement batteries. I buy them from ebay, and assume that they come with the cheapest li-ion cells.

I tore open my asus battery after it went bad and it has Samsung cells in it, fwiw. Who knows whats in the replacement that I got from ebay. I think the only way to get the best one is to buy the oem one.