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iPod 3G Battery

N

neoelectronaut

Cancelled
Original poster
Dec 3, 2003
3,417
2,093
As mentioned in two previous posts (One pertaining to earbuds and one pertaining to scratches) today I picked up a used 3G iPod for $100.

Now, I'm seriously wondering on the quality of the battery in the thing. It felt like it took a good 6 hours to charge fully...

Now, if I do need to get a new battery, how much would it be, and how difficult is it to install?
 
Yes, I do know that Apple has a battery replacement service, but it seems a bit pricey, and it seems like it'd be something simple enough that I could do myself. Any third party solutions?
 
I have not personally replaced the battery but I know people who have used batteries from www.otherworldcomputing.com and they have worked. The site also has some installation videos which I found helpful when I was installing some more RAM in my computer. check em out, they might have what you are looking for!
 
hi, batteries are cheap as chips (£10 max) and you should get 2 blue tools to open them and some instructions.

It will take no more than 5 mins to change the battery in a 3G ipod, although it takes me about 30 seconds!!

It is easy to change them, all you have to be careful of is not to rip the headphone jack plug.

http://newertech.com/support

has handy videos and PDFs for you to look at!

Good luck:)
 
Okay I just bought a Newer Technology battery for my 3G 20gb iPod from eshop.macsales.com for $25.99. Newer Tech claims it has 30% greater capacity than the original battery, which makes it a better buy than Apple's $59 replacement battery program. However:rolleyes: it is by no means "easy" to install. In fact, it was a royal pain to get the iPod open without scratching it. The included nylon "no-scratch" tools were completely useless, I broke both before I was able to get the iPod open. I reverted to using a small metal screwdriver to complete the job. Newer Tech's included instructions were a complete joke, printed on a tiny sheet of paper measuring maybe 5"x2" with about 2-point font and tiny black and white pictures. But after all was said and done, I'm happy with the result and the damn thing lasts a lot longer on a charge than it ever did, and it was cheaper than sending it to Apple.
 
FWIW, I wouldn't rely on the apparent time it took to charge the iPod as a way to decide if it needs a new battery. I also would not rely on the number of bars showing on the display when you take it off the charger. I don't know if this is true with other generation iPods, but my 3G often initially show very little charge when I remove it from the dock, even after the on-screen charging animation show a full charge. You won't see the real charge state until you've taken the iPod off the charger and run it for awhile. It goes up!

So I would suggest allowing the iPod to run for however many hours it takes to flatten the battery, or it gets down to one bar at least. If it's less than 3-4 hours, then you can probably use a new battery. If not, save your money. ;)
 
IJ Reilly said:
FWIW, I wouldn't rely on the apparent time it took to charge the iPod as a way to decide if it needs a new battery. I also would not rely on the number of bars showing on the display when you take it off the charger. I don't know if this is true with other generation iPods, but my 3G often initially show very little charge when I remove it from the dock, even after the on-screen charging animation show a full charge. You won't see the real charge state until you've taken the iPod off the charger and run it for awhile. It goes up!

So I would suggest allowing the iPod to run for however many hours it takes to flatten the battery, or it gets down to one bar at least. If it's less than 3-4 hours, then you can probably use a new battery. If not, save your money. ;)
Click to expand...

Well it's like this. Generally the iPod takes 8 hours to charge, and today it probably lasted a grand total of 3 hours. It lasted the trip to work (30 min) my lunch break (roughly 45 min) and the trip home from work (30 min) Plus any intermittant times in there that I played it or it turned on accidently. When I got home tonight the battery meter was empty.
 
Alrighty, just ordered the battery, hopefully I don't ruin the iPod upon installation. (So nervous...)

Second quick question maybe someone can answer. I saw the feature on cleaning up scratches using brasso--would this be safe to use on the touch buttons/wheel areas or are they over-sensitive and shouldn't be messed with?
 
neoelectronaut said:
Alrighty, just ordered the battery, hopefully I don't ruin the iPod upon installation. (So nervous...)

Second quick question maybe someone can answer. I saw the feature on cleaning up scratches using brasso--would this be safe to use on the touch buttons/wheel areas or are they over-sensitive and shouldn't be messed with?
Click to expand...

I've personally never heard of any problem, but I would always be careful about putting any petroleum-based product on plastic.
 
i replaced the battery in my 3g ipod with newertechs battery. For me it was a nobrainer, when you have apple replace your battery they will give you a different refurbished ipod, not necessarily your ipod, which means you will lose your entire library. If you replace the battery for yourself you retain everything on your ipod.

good luck...
 
3g replacement batteries - quality?

noob question - i've seen two kinds of batteries online - the $25-30 variety (newertech, etc) that seem to come from a real business of sorts, and then the sub $10 variety sold on fleaBay. Are the ones on ebay duds, or are they of equivalent quality, does anyone have any experience with this?

(I bought a replacement phone battery once, Li-ion, and it didn't hold charge worth a #@%!)

:confused:

TIA
cow2215
 
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