Question New Battery for Thinkpad T430 laptop?

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whm1974

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I brought a refurbished Lenovo Thinkpad T430 last year for under $200 and my main problem is I only get 4 hours max of battery life depending on usage, and usually less then that. I'm running Linux Mint 18.3 now, and before that I was using Manjaro Linux with the same amount of battery life.

Do I need a new battery? Would replacing the 5400rpm HDD with an SSD help? I'm planning doing a SDD and memory upgrade, but if I have to replace the battery as well, then I am now thinking that should have saved my money up and purchased a Linux laptop from System76 instead.

Is there a problem with the battery? What about buying an aftermarket one?
 
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whm1974

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whm1974

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What are your opinions on buying aftermarket 9-cell batteries? I don't want to get some El-Cheapo that could catch fire or with a short lifespan.
 
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whm1974

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Last edited:
corkyg

corkyg

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If I were battery dependent, I would opt for the 9 cell. Presently, I rarely use my Thinkpad's battery - it lives on A/C with battery removed unless I am on travel. Your choices at the Egg vary a lot with price. My tendency would go to the #2 selection - the most expensive. That would be if I were really battery dependent. The way I use it now, I would select the cheapest.
 
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whm1974

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corkyg said:
If I were battery dependent, I would opt for the 9 cell. Presently, I rarely use my Thinkpad's battery - it lives on A/C with battery removed unless I am on travel. Your choices at the Egg vary a lot with price. My tendency would go to the #2 selection - the most expensive. That would be if I were really battery dependent. The way I use it now, I would select the cheapest.
Click to expand...
Thanks again, I'm now looking at this now as it is one of the best sellers:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...nkpad_t430_battery-_-9SIA7VS2RB3418-_-Product
At 8400 mAh it should be a big improvement over what I got now.

By the way I'm considering going back to school.
 
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C1

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Man-O-man, batteries can be tricky. Many ways to get shafted.

The T430 uses a chipped battery. You need to purchase a fully legitimate official Lenovo battery that is fresh (ie, has not been sitting in inventory for several years).

The company that Newegg is using (ie, DS Miller) has a dismal user experience rating so I wouldnt mess with them.

Fortunately in town there is Datel which specializes in Lenovo and they know where to obtain OEM quality Lenovo parts.

http://datelsys.com/
 
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whm1974

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Jul 24, 2016
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C1 said:
Man-O-man, batteries can be tricky. Many ways to get shafted.

The T430 uses a chipped battery. You need to purchase a fully legitimate official Lenovo battery that is fresh (ie, has not been sitting in inventory for several years).

The company that Newegg is using (ie, DS Miller) has a dismal user experience rating so I wouldnt mess with them.

Fortunately in town there is Datel which specializes in Lenovo and they know where to obtain OEM quality Lenovo parts.

http://datelsys.com/
Click to expand...
Thank you very much.
Edit: They don't have a web store for products for sale. They sound like they only serve businesses.
 
Last edited:
corkyg

corkyg

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I suspected this, but was uncertain. I always use Lenovo batteries.
 
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whm1974

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I'm not sure if this should be in a new thread or not, but why don't we have official standards for laptop batteries? Why not setup laptop classes such as netbook, notebook, portable workstation, and etc, with standard battery sizes and chargers? Seriously why should it be this difficult to find proper replacements for these parts?

What is even worse is having to discard still usable equipment due to not be able to find such parts.
 
thecoolnessrune

thecoolnessrune

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Jun 8, 2005
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whm1974 said:
I'm not sure if this should be in a new thread or not, but why don't we have official standards for laptop batteries? Why not setup laptop classes such as netbook, notebook, portable workstation, and etc, with standard battery sizes and chargers? Seriously why should it be this difficult to find proper replacements for these parts?

What is even worse is having to discard still usable equipment due to not be able to find such parts.
Click to expand...

Because laptop form factors vary wildly, and the battery takes up the most space aside from the monitor on most ultrabooks (heck, look at something like the MacBook who's base is pretty much just battery packs). It wouldn't be productive to have standard sized batteries as it would severely limit the design freedom of a laptop. As for chargers, that's slowly converging on USB-C for laptops that can fit within a 90 - 95 Watt power envelope, which is the vast majority of the laptop market, so expect that to get better with time.

Even if you buy a reputable cheap battery, most of the time the cells in them are either harvested, or grade B from the factory. I only buy factory batteries for my laptop not. Really except for iFixit and MacBook batteries, pretty much any alternative is taking a gamble. $170 is not much for the years of service it gives you.

I can't blame the manufacturer for the state of batteries and chargers nowadays. People hated when Dell and others started putting pins in their chargers to identify themselves to the laptop, but what choice did they have. People were going around by $20 batteries, $10 chargers, plugging it all in, then complaining back to the manufacturer when things got damaged. While the batteries are expensive, for the cost of something they can't carry a huge overstock of (lithium ion self-degrades over time), but have to have custom manufactured, the price isn't all that bad, and it's only something you should expect to do every couple of years (if you use it a lot and want to keep capacity at max). If it happens in less than a year, it's warrantied for exactly that reason.
 
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whm1974

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OK how long should a laptop battery last if I took care off it properly? A 9-Cell that is, no sense doing anything half-arsed and I want longer usage without having to recharge anyway.
 
thecoolnessrune

thecoolnessrune

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whm1974 said:
OK how long should a laptop battery last if I took care off it properly? A 9-Cell that is, no sense doing anything half-arsed and I want longer usage without having to recharge anyway.
Click to expand...

It's a massive variation, which makes it hard to say. The *minimum* it should last is 1 year, as that's what all the manufacturers warranty the battery for. From there, it all depends on how many charge / discharge cycles you put the battery through, and how high the battery charges (the more a battery deviates from about 40% charged, the shorter the theoretical life of the battery. After 2 years from manufacture, lithium ion battery packs begin self-deteriorating, further detracting from its life. That stated, as long as it's charged responsibly, and it doesn't take harsh impacts, save for dropping a battery cell, a battery pack should give you "acceptable" battery life for several years.

One questions is you never mentioned what OS you are running. It it's Windows 7, you should have Lenovo Power Manager installed. If it's Windows 10, Lenovo Vantage should be installed from the Windows Store. In both cases, they can tell you about the health of your battery, and what sort of charge limitations are in place in the battery firmware (Lenovo automatically lowers charge capacity over time to maximize the life of the battery, but this can be overridden with the aforementioned apps.)
 
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whm1974

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thecoolnessrune said:
It's a massive variation, which makes it hard to say. The *minimum* it should last is 1 year, as that's what all the manufacturers warranty the battery for. From there, it all depends on how many charge / discharge cycles you put the battery through, and how high the battery charges (the more a battery deviates from about 40% charged, the shorter the theoretical life of the battery. After 2 years from manufacture, lithium ion battery packs begin self-deteriorating, further detracting from its life. That stated, as long as it's charged responsibly, and it doesn't take harsh impacts, save for dropping a battery cell, a battery pack should give you "acceptable" battery life for several years.

One questions is you never mentioned what OS you are running. It it's Windows 7, you should have Lenovo Power Manager installed. If it's Windows 10, Lenovo Vantage should be installed from the Windows Store. In both cases, they can tell you about the health of your battery, and what sort of charge limitations are in place in the battery firmware (Lenovo automatically lowers charge capacity over time to maximize the life of the battery, but this can be overridden with the aforementioned apps.)
Click to expand...
Thanks, I just installed Linux Mint on, and before that it was Manjaro Linux.
 
thecoolnessrune

thecoolnessrune

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whm1974 said:
Thanks, I just installed Linux Mint on, and before that it was Manjaro Linux.
Click to expand...

Ah, I see that now. That's really not too bad on Linux, given power management on those linux distros is generally much poorer than the optimizations put onto Windows systems. Your battery might not even be that degraded. Might just be the Linux tax. If you Google your laptop running Linux, I bet you'll find lots of people hitting right around your runtime. We had T430 / T530 units at our workplace for a while, and that sounds right in line with some of our Engineers who insisted on running Linux.
 
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whm1974

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Jul 24, 2016
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thecoolnessrune said:
Ah, I see that now. That's really not too bad on Linux, given power management on those linux distros is generally much poorer than the optimizations put onto Windows systems. Your battery might not even be that degraded. Might just be the Linux tax. If you Google your laptop running Linux, I bet you'll find lots of people hitting right around your runtime. We had T430 / T530 units at our workplace for a while, and that sounds right in line with some of our Engineers who insisted on running Linux.
Click to expand...
Would replacing the current 6-cell battery with a 9-cell one improve matters by very much?
 
C

C1

Platinum Member
Feb 21, 2008
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91
Man-O-man, batteries can be tricky. Many ways to get shafted.

The T430 uses a chipped battery. You need to purchase a fully legitimate official Lenovo battery that is fresh (ie, has not been sitting in inventory for several years).

The company that Newegg is using (ie, DS Miller) has a dismal user experience rating so I wouldnt mess with them.

Fortunately in town there is Datel which specializes in Lenovo and they know where to obtain OEM quality Lenovo parts.

http://datelsys.com/
 
C

C1

Platinum Member
Feb 21, 2008
2,316
77
91
Effective longevity of a Li-on battery depends on treatment & duty cycle.

A legitimate (ie, fresh OEM Li-on) should last decently for maybe four years.

However, if you get a unit that has been in inventory for a couple years then it could last as little as two years and might be unsatisfactory even after one year.

One of the issues Ive encountered with non-OEM batteries is use of incorrect cell types. Laptops should use an 18650 type cell. Some non-OEM batteries will use a standard Li-on substitution the advantage being that the battery replacement sale price can be significantly less. You can sure tell the difference. My OEM L:enovo batteries sitting in an used laptop for even a month leak down maybe only a few percent. However, Ive got a Fujitsu laptop that I oredered a new battery for and that contains the less expensive cell types and that battery runs down 5% overnight (laptop unplugged). (An old OEM battery for that laptop that I have will retain its charge for months when left out of the laptop.)

So besides cost, there's age and cell type (and maybe chip) to consider when purchasing batteries (along with the reputation of the supplier). The battery cost & availability needs to be considered when selecting a laptop to purchase as, particularly with a used laptop, the battery may coast nearly as much as the laptop itself.

On possibility is to purchase/use an external battery or power pack.

https://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&k...d=kwd-325343102554&ref=pd_sl_73r7a5ek21_e_p38
 
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whm1974

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Jul 24, 2016
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Looking at Amazon they have the Lenovo T430 9-Cell battery I want for $65, Along with an SSD, 4GB RAM, and 240GB SSD, that would under ~$200. I am also getting a carrying bag as well.
 
fire400

fire400

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Nov 21, 2005
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4 hours is pretty good for a Thinkpad T430.
The T430s gets a bit less on an average life battery, generally.
You can always opt in for an ultrabay battery as well, giving it an extra two hours if you don't find much use for the optical drive or ultrabay expansion.
T450 can be had for less than $300 easily and is just as capable.

+$50 for a battery replace on a T430 seems overkill. I'd just get a used, 'healthy' bargain OEM battery and call it a day.
 
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