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Is this battery I bought from Ebay no good? specs..

S

senorfrog97

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 19, 2008
113
0
Austin
I bought this battery on Ebay which is from a reputable seller and has a '3yr warranty'.

I calibrated it and I'm showing:

- says I have under 2hrs of battery life on a full charge
- Full charge capacity (mAh): 4297
- cycle count - 8
- condition good

I thought the mAh should be higher and I'd have more than 2hrs off the charger. Thanks for the input.
 
Who knows if it's good or not? It's an eBay battery. Regardless of the reputation of the seller, the quality of the battery is automatically brought into question by virtue of not being OEM.

Hours remaining isn't a reliable indicator of battery capacity anyways, as it is based on a snapshot of current usage.
 
senorfrog97 said:
I bought this battery on Ebay which is from a reputable seller and has a '3yr warranty'.

I calibrated it and I'm showing:

- says I have under 2hrs of battery life on a full charge
- Full charge capacity (mAh): 4297
- cycle count - 8
- condition good

I thought the mAh should be higher and I'd have more than 2hrs off the charger. Thanks for the input.
Click to expand...

Don't pay attention to the time, pay attention to the mAh capacity. Give it a week, see if the time gets more realistic. As to whether 2 hrs is a reasonable amount of time to expect, which laptop do you have?
 
grawk said:
Don't pay attention to the time, pay attention to the mAh capacity. Give it a week, see if the time gets more realistic. As to whether 2 hrs is a reasonable amount of time to expect, which laptop do you have?
Click to expand...

It's a A1175 - MacBookPro4,1 - 2.5ghz

It lasted maybe 45mins on the bad battery, so there's an improvement... I just thought the capacity of 4297mAh seemed low and the current estimate of under 2hrs was a bad sign... I suppose I'll give it a week of testing.
 
I recently sold my Santa Rosa MacBook Pro, which was one version before yours, however both machines use the same battery. If I remember correctly the full charge capacity of a new OEM battery was 5500mAh. I went through 3 defective batteries, all replaced by AppleCare, so the full charge capacity was something I always had my eye on.
So to answer your question, the ebay battery has a lower full charge capacity that the original OEM part, but I would think it should still last you a long time, especially considering the low cycle count. Based on my experience with a very similar machine I would guess you could get 3-4 hours of basic use out of that full charge capacity and probably 2 hours of watching a full screen movie.
 
Any battery other than ones made specifically for the computer will rarely have performance capability of the factory ones. Additionally, there is usually a higher safety-risk when using 3rd party batteries as the fail-safe mechanisms the computer has/knows/executes for the battery are no longer matched with the correct battery. Most batteries, including ones on the MBP, can result in a substantial explosion and cause fire. Lithium ion batteries can cause a violent explosion and can ignite, hence why the fail-safe mechanisms are so important as they do a few different functions designed to avoid this.
 
Looks like I'm getting under 2hrs of battery life just web browsing. May have to buy an OEM to compare.
 
It would be a good idea if you don't want your aluminum computer to turn into shrapnel.
 
I never understood the appeal of cheap eBay batteries. I've never heard a single positive comment about them. They die much faster then a real apple battery and you end up spending more money then you would have otherwise.
 
To the OP: Sorry the eBay battery doesn't seem to be working out for you, but think of it as a "band-aid" considering the savings you got for it over an OEM battery...

I once bought an eBay battery as a travel backup for my mid-2007 MBP. It was a great "deal" until I got it. Out of the box, the battery had already exploded and the battery acid/juices would have leaked all over the box if it had not been placed in a static electricity bag. I promptly got a refund from the seller (who was reputable AND located in the USA, not in China...) and decided not to take the risk with an exchange.

I then just headed over to the Apple Store to buy one off the shelf because I realized that if anything similar to the exploding battery happened to my computer with a non-OEM battery installed, my claims with Apple would be denied. But if I had ANY complications with my MBP while using the new OEM battery, I would have a more compelling case.
 
If a lithium ion battery explodes when you are on your computer, if Apple covers the damage will be the least of your worries. Their explosions, even in small laptop batteries, are violent and produce a LOT of fire which will burn the hell out of anyone using it.

This is a lithium ion exploding...not perfect science but it shows how violent it can be

They can make a lot more fire than this but IMAGINE HAVING THIS ON YOUR LAP

Lithium 'polymer (which are a type of lithium ion battery) is thought to decrease the chance of explosion/fire. Lithium polymer can and will still explode. Batteries are no joke...lithium ion hasn't made it mainstream into cars because they are MUUUUCH larger and they have the potential to cause much harm.

Bottom line: don't play around with batteries. Get one from Apple, maintain it as advised, and check it often for wear.
 
Just a follow up on this battery in case anyone else is tempted in the future and finds this thread.

One year later the battery shows Full Charge Capacity (mAh):2020
The computer tells me to 'Replace Now'
It lasts about 30mins of web browsing from a full charge. Lasted maybe 2hrs when new.

So it lasted just under a year for me. I emailed the seller because it's advertised with a 3yr warranty and he said my results were normal and nothing is wrong with the battery. Said the warranty only covers 'physical defects such as the battery cracking, or the casing opening up .'

Seller is thebatteryconnection on Ebay.
 
farmermac said:
I never understood the appeal of cheap eBay batteries. I've never heard a single positive comment about them. They die much faster then a real apple battery and you end up spending more money then you would have otherwise.
Click to expand...

I bought an eBay battery for my sister's macbook, was mine at the time. It has been about 1.5 years old, 400 cycles gets around 2.5 hours of general use on full screen brightness.I bought it because it was $30 compared to $100 for an OEM battery, I am happy with it. I think am OEM might be performing better at this point but I am glad I didn't buy OEM.
 
senorfrog97 said:
Just a follow up on this battery in case anyone else is tempted in the future and finds this thread.

One year later the battery shows Full Charge Capacity (mAh):2020
The computer tells me to 'Replace Now'
It lasts about 30mins of web browsing from a full charge. Lasted maybe 2hrs when new.
Click to expand...
I just looked at the ebay link, and the battery capacity isn't reported anywhere. The 15'' Apple batteries have about 5700 mAh I think. But the battery description only says that it replaces Apples battery, not that it has the same charge.

So it lasted just under a year for me. I emailed the seller because it's advertised with a 3yr warranty and he said my results were normal and nothing is wrong with the battery. Said the warranty only covers 'physical defects such as the battery cracking, or the casing opening up .'
Click to expand...

This is normal - even Apple considers batteries as consumables, and only replaces them free of charge when they have a defect. Fortunately, Apple considers a premature loss of capacity a defect (below 80% with less than 300 cycles).

And you saved some money after all :)
 
not surprised by the long term finding on this ebay battery. I still consider it a bad deal for $30 to have a system that doesnt sleep properly, doesnt charge properly, doesnt report the correct charge, etc.
 
senorfrog97 said:
Just a follow up on this battery in case anyone else is tempted in the future and finds this thread.

One year later the battery shows Full Charge Capacity (mAh):2020
The computer tells me to 'Replace Now'
It lasts about 30mins of web browsing from a full charge. Lasted maybe 2hrs when new.

So it lasted just under a year for me. I emailed the seller because it's advertised with a 3yr warranty and he said my results were normal and nothing is wrong with the battery. Said the warranty only covers 'physical defects such as the battery cracking, or the casing opening up .'

Seller is thebatteryconnection on Ebay.
Click to expand...

As I was reading this thread I didn't realize it was old. I was going to post something along the lines of "God luck ever getting a replacement under the warranty! The seller will claim that it doesn't cover "normal use"."
 
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