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Is it worth getting a new battery?

F

fwebeb

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 9, 2014
8
0
UK
I have a Macbook White late 2009 (A1342) and am getting "service battery" warning (OS X Mavericks), which is understandable as the battery life is down to about 3.5 - 4 hours (from its original 7 hours), and sometimes it doesn't like charging to 100% (will get to about 95% and stops charging).

I was considering replacing the battery, but was unsure whether the current battery life would be improved upon if i bought a generic replacement, or whether the new battery would be able to deliver the 7 hours battery life that this macbook shipped with.

Another question would be if i were to buy a new battery, where can i get a reliable generic replacement from (I live in the UK)?



EDIT: just checked status on iStat Pro - 63% health, only 487 cycles??
 
Last edited:
J

J.Dean

macrumors newbie
Nov 28, 2007
27
0
I've replaced my black Macbook (late 2007 model) battery with a generic one for about $20, which I found on Amazon. It's been around 9 months and the charge drops from 100% to 60% in about an hour, and at around 50% it just shuts down. It doesn't bother me much because I leave my computer at my desk and it's usually plugged it, but if you carry yours around and can't always have the charger attached, I think you'd be better off investing in an Apple-certified replacement.

The cost of continuously replacing the generic one in the long run would probably be higher than just buying one from Apple.
 
macunwired

macunwired

macrumors member
Aug 12, 2008
38
1
Los Angeles
I agree with J.Dean. In my experience the generics are no good. One out of every 30-40 is a good battery, the rest are pretty bad. Getting the battery from Apple is worth it if you need more power. If you are ok with the amount of battery life your computer has, you can just keep using the one you have. As long as you don't notice any swelling at the bottom of the laptop (under the trackpad), there is no reason to replace the battery.
 
F

fwebeb

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 9, 2014
8
0
UK
hmm... I agree with you both, but unfortunately Apple do not actually stock the battery on their website, because "You're not supposed to replace it yourself" due to it being a unibody model MacBook.

I was wondering whether Apple do battery replacements at Apple stores, and if so, how much would it cost?
 
keysersoze

keysersoze

macrumors 68000
Jan 6, 2004
1,596
11
NH
fwebeb said:
hmm... I agree with you both, but unfortunately Apple do not actually stock the battery on their website, because "You're not supposed to replace it yourself" due to it being a unibody model MacBook.

I was wondering whether Apple do battery replacements at Apple stores, and if so, how much would it cost?
Click to expand...

You probably already figured this out, but here's the link that answers your questions...

http://support.apple.com/kb/index?page=servicefaq&geo=United_States&product=Macnotebooks

Looks like £109 inc. VAT
 
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