3rd party batteries

[Juo100]

Hi everyone.

I am going be ordering my second mac on Saturday next week, had my Mac Mini close to a year now and have fallen in love with OSX. Im ordering a budget Macbook (the 2.00ghz no superdrive one), being a 17 year old student who only writes Ruby code/makes websites its more than enough for my needs and doesn't break the bank, which is nice.

On to my question, has anyone ever tried a 3rd party battery in their laptop? Ive seen a few on eBay and cant decide if I should part with £50 to try one out.

I would really like a 2nd battery is just they are so darn expensive. If their any good id really rather buy two 3rd party batteries for the price of the Apple one.

Is there any dire reason that I shouldnt be messing about with 3rd party batteries? Does this void my 1 year complimentary warranty in anyway?

Thanks ever so much reading this and I look forward to reading replies.

 

[vega07]

stay away from third party batteries, ESPECIALLY for macbooks.

 

[Juo100]

I see.... Would you be able to expand on exactly why? Or have people done some serious damage with them in the past?

 

[vega07]

I have no experience personally with third party batteries for macbooks. but the situation just doesn't bode well for me.

the most important factor is that third party batteries are not guaranteed to work. especially with such an expensive piece of equipment, you want to stay away from all possibilities of your macbook exploding.

I know it's expensive but its the general consensus to avoid third party batteries.

by the way, I didn't know there are third party batteries for the macbook!

you should also analyze your current situation and needs. is a second battery purchase warranted?

 

[Juo100]

Ill have the dig out the exact one I was looking at (it costs less) anyway
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-APPLE-13-...ryZ91355QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

A similar one.

 

[skunk]

I have bought four third party batteries for G3 Powerbooks, with a 75% success rate. One was crap, the others are still going strong.

 

[jsw]

The making of batteries from cells made by one of the relatively few cell manufacturers isn't exactly rocket science. I'd suspect that a 3rd party battery would work just fine, but the Apple versions aren't all that much more expensive and are more likely to fit better. Any links to ones you're considering?

 

[Juo100]

These are the ones I was considering,

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Extended-62Wh...ryZ91355QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem

If I buy 2 of them (as opposed to official Apple kit) it will save me £72.54 (The price of yet another battery)

I have bought four third party batteries for G3 Powerbooks, with a 75% success rate. One was crap, the others are still going strong.

A success story! thats good to hear. Thankyou

 

[vega07]

one of the bids actually advertises 6-7 hours of operation. that's quite impressive.

like the above poster said, he had a 75% success rate. that isn't good enough. but if you do purchase one, good luck!

 

[Juo100]

Ill wait and see if there are any more replies or a horror story is posted.

If I do buy one ill be sure to write some feedback on how it went. There doesn't seem to be much out there.

 

[amusiccale]

I'm one for one in the 3rd party battery department. The fit was a little awkward, but the battery-ness was fine.

 

[aquajet]

I have a third party battery for my iBook and it works fine. In fact, it works better because it has higher capacity cells. The fit isn't perfect, but neither is the fit of the original Apple battery.

I don't think there's any basis to say third-party batteries should generally be avoided.

 

[MacinDoc]

Doesn't anyone remember the recent fire/melting hardware problems with recent laptop batteries? If you buy a battery from Apple, and it destroys your machine, Apple may at least take some responsibility for that and compensate you. With a 3rd party battery, forget it...

 

[aquajet]

The chances of your battery suddenly exploding into a fireball is actually pretty rare. If it's that much of a concern, you could always contact the manufacturer and ask.

In the extremely rare case the terrible happens, you could just sue the manufacturer for a million dollars. Then you could buy all the Apple batteries you could possibly want.

 

[shoulin333]

In the extremely rare case the terrible happens, you could just sue the manufacturer for a million dollars. Then you could buy all the Apple batteries you could possibly want.

seriously, if that happend, leave the firefall in you lap just long enough to scorch the hairs down south!

will give you photo proof and get your million dollars for almost making your steril

.... but realy "good" 3rd party batteries sure dont go for less than 1/3 the price unless they are not of the same quality.

--- dont get McDondald's for about a month and you have enough money for a real apple battery

 

[MacinDoc]

The chances of your battery suddenly exploding into a fireball is actually pretty rare. If it's that much of a concern, you could always contact the manufacturer and ask.

In the extremely rare case the terrible happens, you could just sue the manufacturer for a million dollars. Then you could buy all the Apple batteries you could possibly want.

You could, but that's a lenthy, costly and time-consuming process. That's why ppl sign up for class action suits. Not likely to happen with a manufacturer with limited distribution.

I agree, though, actual cases of this happening are quite rare.