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Macbook Pro battery - Apple won't replace

Jethryn Freyman

Jethryn Freyman

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Aug 9, 2007
2,329
3
Australia
Santa Rosa Macbook Pro. About two years old, now battery health is down to 18% after 150 cycles. Lasts for about 25 minutes when not on A/C power, sometiems shuts down when around 60% capacity remains, according to OS X.

I've got Applecare, but the Apple retailer I visited won't replace the battery under warranty, because they only give a 1 year warranty on batteries as they are "consumable."

No battery should fade this fast. Could I be able to get it replaced under warranty for being obviously faulty?
 
NT1440 said:
Two years old? thats out of warranty....
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Applecare is 3 years. I've got 1 year left.

So even though the battery is obviously defective, Apple won't replace it., because they only put a 1 year warranty on their batteries?

It makes sense, from a warranty point of view.
 
Jethryn Freyman said:
Applecare is 3 years. I've got 1 year left.

So even though the battery is obviously defective, Apple won't replace it., because they only put a 1 year warranty on their batteries?

It makes sense, from a warranty point of view.
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Ya I totally agree. Try using more verbal "force" at the Apple store.

Sometimes angry customers at the Apple store that distract the Apple customers get what they want. :)
 
NT1440 said:
Two years old? thats out of warranty....
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adamvk said:
Ya I totally agree. Try using more verbal "force" at the Apple store.

Sometimes angry customers at the Apple store that distract the Apple customers get what they want. :)
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while i agree with NT1440 (two years old and you only have 150 cycles you must have left it plugged into the ac charger a lot), i would definitely try what adamvk is suggesting. i mean what have you got to loose.
 
Nope, batteries are covered for the term of AppleCare if you have it. Definitely try to call AppleCare again and see what happens, they should swap with you no problem.
 
Well you need to prove that the battery has a manufacture defect as stated:
Your one-year warranty includes replacement coverage for a defective battery. You can extend your replacement coverage for a defective battery to three years from the date of your notebook purchase with the AppleCare Protection Plan. However, the AppleCare Protection Plan for notebook computers does not cover batteries that have failed or are exhibiting diminished capacity except when the failure or diminished capacity is the result of a manufacturing defect.
Click to expand...
 
I think people need to EXPECT to buy replacement batteries. The battery is just like gas, or an oil change, and is not included as a long term guarantee item.

What I really don't understand is why people don't check their battery right before is one year old and replace then if problematic. I think a two year old battery is expected to fail, and I wouldn't complain one bit if I had to replace a two year old battery on my own dime.

People expect too much. Really, check it before one year, or it's on you.
 
did you leave the battery out of the laptop with no charge for extended periods of time? How did you manage to reduce the battery's health so low!

Apple should definately replace the battery as it's covered under applecare. Ask to have them show you where in applecare it says batteries, or even consumables are excluded. then ask the guy if he used to sell cars :D.
 
miles01110 said:
No they aren't. They're covered for 1 year, 300 cycles, or if the battery's charge capacity falls below 80%- whichever comes first.
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You're correct, batteries aren't covered. As stated in the TOS of what's NOT covered: "Consumable parts, such as batteries, except in respect of battery coverage under APP for iPod or unless failure has occurred due to a defect in materials and workmanship."

I'm not sure where this 1 year/300 cycles comes from, because I've seen that before. I think that's GENERALLY the rule the Genius's and Service Centers use to determine if they will replace the battery or not, but AFAIK they're not even held to that since the whole 1 year/300 cycles rule is nowhere to be found in the TOS. So unless you can prove it's a "defect in materials and workmanship", I think the OP doesn't have much ground to stand on. I recently tried to fight the same battle, as I have a bad battery with only 61 cycles on it, although it was a replacement from my original battery. The bottom line is, there are a lot of crappy MB/MBP batteries out there.
 
they used to have a MBP 15" battery recall page on the apple site, some batteries were recalled and repair centers/apple stores should have a list of affected serial number ranges, if you are in the range and have issues with a battery with less than 300 cycles and are out of warranty you should still be able to get a new battery.
but the big if is IF you are in the serial range, my MBP's battery only had 36 cycles and out of warranty and would shut down less than 5 min after being unplugged from AC with no warning, obviously a bunk battery, but I wasn't in the 'defective' serial range so I was basically told tough luck.
I bought a new battery a few days ago after being tethered to AC for over a year(a DR. Battery version, it was $20 cheaper than apple's but still had the apple branding and same length warranty).
 
Mac4Obama said:
did you leave the battery out of the laptop with no charge for extended periods of time? How did you manage to reduce the battery's health so low!
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No, nothing like that.

miles01110 said:
No they aren't. They're covered for 1 year, 300 cycles, or if the battery's charge capacity falls below 80%- whichever comes first.
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I've had mine for 2 years, it's had 150 charge cycles, and it's at 18% charge capacity.

If Apple thinks this is acceptable, I feel a little sorry for the people who have picked have the new Macbook Pros with built in batteries.

Anyway, I'll call up AppleCare and see what they have to say.



(iStat Pro gives me the same stats)
 
miles01110 said:
No they aren't. They're covered for 1 year, 300 cycles, or if the battery's charge capacity falls below 80%- whichever comes first.
Click to expand...

Batteries are covered for the AppleCare term if there is only a defect and not through consumption. If you don't have AppleCare, then regardless if it's a defect or if it's consumed, it won't be replaced.

What's going to happen is if you call AppleCare, you're going to give them your battery information (Charge Capacity, Cycles, etc.) and the computer will tell you if it's consumer or not. Clearly from your information, it's only been through 148 cycles and has a capacity of 1029. If it's consumed, the computer will flag it as consumed which at that point you will be notified to purchase a new one. Like Reanimaion stated, worse case is that your health should be around the 80-90 range not 18 percent which would occur if you were over say 350+ cycles.
 
iLog.Genius said:
Batteries are covered for the AppleCare term if there is only a defect and not through consumption.
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Right, but if it falls below 80% within 300 cycles or 1 year, it's considered a defect and you'll get a replacement.

If you don't have AppleCare, then regardless if it's a defect or if it's consumed, it won't be replaced.
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Depends. If your battery starts bulging and you call up Apple Tech Support they'll send you a replacement as well as a box to ship the defective one back in. If your computer no longer recognizes the battery, you'll probably be out of luck if you're outside of the standard 1-year Applecare window.
 
Genius bar does everything based on there current mood, what jerk you get or nice guy you get.

When it comes to Apple Care over the phone. They are ALWAYS in help mode, since that is there only function. They usually will look up the problem in there "known issues" database and try to find something that matches your issue as closely as possible.

They'll then schedule a time for you to go to an Apple Store with the notes from your conversation and they will always take the cue from those notes at the Apple Store. So if they said over the phone they'll do something, at the Apple Store it will be done, ie replace battery.

My battery just exploded and that's exactly how it went down for me.
 
iLog.Genius said:
CoconutBattery does that. It's a known problem but isn't significant.
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What does CoconutBattery do that is a known issue? I have it installed, but only run it on occasion. I also have iStatMenus and Battery Health Monitor as well. The only one of the three that is generally running is iStatMenus. It would seem to me that a small utility app that isn't even running most of the time would have very little effect on a battery, so I'd really like to know what the deal is so I can get rid of CoconutBattery if it's toxic.
 
pdxflint said:
What does CoconutBattery do that is a known issue? I have it installed, but only run it on occasion. I also have iStatMenus and Battery Health Monitor as well. The only one of the three that is generally running is iStatMenus. It would seem to me that a small utility app that isn't even running most of the time would have very little effect on a battery, so I'd really like to know what the deal is so I can get rid of CoconutBattery if it's toxic.
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It's not something that harms the computer in anyway but in tends to give inaccurate readings of the age of your Mac. When I first got the unibody, it said the age of it was 200+ months. I found it weird and did a little search and many people were experiencing the same thing. One poster in another forum said it was a problem (not a big one) when he got a reply back from the developer.
 
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