Laptop batteries

[steve wilson]

Hi,
I've never had a laptop battery fail on me before, but now I have 2 fail at once... one on my cousins Laptop and one on my father in laws.

One is a Dell and it's going to cost £98 from Dell, but I have found one for around £50 off google which is not an official Dell battery. The other one is a Toshiba and I haven't looked at the pricing yet.

Should I buy the one from Dell/Toshiba or is it OK to buy one of these half price ones from a random online website off google?

 

[NutBucket]

How old are the laptops in question? This is the deciding factor for me. If they're mid-life or slightly past its probably not worth it to spend top dollar for the OEM replacement.

 

[corkyg]

The useful life of a laptop battery used in a variety of average conditions is about three to four years. Since these were different machines, etc., you may just be the victim of coincidence.

3rd party batteries can give decent service. I think they are worth a shot.

 

[zephyrprime]

I buy from ebay. Don't pay ridiculous prices from the oem.

 

[steve wilson]

Thanks for the advice, I'll buy the cheaper ones... They are both only about 18-24 months old, which is what surprised me. I would expect at least 3 years of use... Having said that they do treat them like desktops and leave them on over night downloading sometimes. So they have been hammered a bit.

 

[corkyg]

... Having said that they do treat them like desktops and leave them on over night downloading sometimes. So they have been hammered a bit.

Definitely not good. If that is the way they like to run, suggest they remove the batteries and run solely on A/C power.

 

[steve wilson]

Definitely not good. If that is the way they like to run, suggest they remove the batteries and run solely on A/C power.

I agree... they don't take them anywhere, just use them in their Living rooms as they watch TV. But they still want a battery.

 

[jumpncrash]

I agree... they don't take them anywhere, just use them in their Living rooms as they watch TV. But they still want a battery.

In that case they are gonna have to deal with buying new batteries.

 

[dolbark]

Replacements are a good option, but I would recommend only buying the ones say they use the same high quality cells like the ones found in your OEM equipment. Example Samsung/Sanyo/Panasonic/Sony/and LG are makers of the li-ion cells found in your original battery from the factory If the replacement battery reseller is selling a battery that uses good cells they are going to state it. If they don't then you don't want that battery period!

Also, once you find a someone that is selling a battery that uses quality cells, you need to know what the capacity rating mean. Here is how I translate the capacity numbers into something meaningful that most understand.

4400mAh 6 cell batteries = older technology/ low capacity...but inexpensive! Expect about 1-2 years of service life with about the same battery runtimes as you previously had from your original battery. (Most current laptops still have batteries that are rated at 4400mAh - to 4850mAh)

5200 mAh Batteries = Used by many OEM's and last about 2 years. Capacity is good, meaning you should be able to run a decent amount time unplugged as well.

5600/5800 mAh Batteries = State of the art advanced Li-Ion as of 2011. Capacity is very high and so is service life. Expect 2-3 years between replacements and extra power that you never had before to run unplugged longer! As an example here is the one I bought for myself recently http://www.safebatteries.com/dell-312-0814-black-5800mah.html

Hope this helps,

Oh, one last thing If the only thing stated about the cells being used are that they are "Grade A" then LEAVE FAST! This is a pet peeve of mine. Stating the term "Grade A" is a misleading term for consumers. "Grade A" is an actual term, but it is relative to each and every manufacture and does not imply anything about performance or quality to the consumer. Example, some no-name factory is selling "Grade A" cell at x price. That same "Grade A" cell may be considered "Grade C" or worse by Panasonic or Samsung! It just means they are the best cells that a particular factory can make.