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ChaosAngel

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 29, 2005
91
15
UK
I have an old 15" MacBook Pro (Rev E). It uses "A1175" battery, which unfortunately is known to be notoriously bad at retaining charge.

My battery has been 100% dead for some time and need replacing. Although Apple would like to charge me £99 for the pleasure.

However, I have found plenty of compatible third party batteries on ebay (see below). The specification and feedback looks good and they are a fraction of the price Apple are charging (just £29).

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Battery-Apple...pBatteries&hash=item3f05b46fc2#ht_5054wt_1135

Does anyone have any experience with these third party batteries? Are they safe? Do they do the job?
 

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,537
940
It's your choice, but I would never trust a battery that didn't come from Apple. Others may be fine, but I don't want to risk my MBP for the sake saving a few dollars on a battery.
 

ChaosAngel

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 29, 2005
91
15
UK
It's your choice, but I would never trust a battery that didn't come from Apple. Others may be fine, but I don't want to risk my MBP for the sake saving a few dollars on a battery.

I would normally totally agree with you. To be honest this is actually for my secondary MacBook Pro, not my main machine. I realise that shouldn't matter, but it's one of the reasons why I don't want to spend a small fortune.

Also, from what I have read (and my experience) the A1175 Battery from Apple is actually really bad, with reports of the health falling below 40% after just 100 cycles!

I guess I was thinking, how much worse can the third party batteries be?
 

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,537
940
Also, from what I have read (and my experience) the A1175 Battery from Apple is actually really bad, with reports of the health falling below 40% after just 100 cycles!
I think it has more to do with how the battery is used and cared for, such as calibrating properly and regularly, and cycling the battery on a regular basis.

This should answer most, if not all, of your battery questions: Apple Notebook Battery FAQ
 

al2o3cr

macrumors regular
Oct 14, 2009
210
0
I guess I was thinking, how much worse can the third party batteries be?

Given that flaky Li-ion batteries have been known to CATCH FIRE, I'd say pretty bad. I can't speak to the particular battery you've linked to, but £70 seems like a pretty small amount to risk disaster over. If this was, say, a not-liable-to-catch-fire part of the machine it might be a little different...
 

JFreak

macrumors 68040
Jul 11, 2003
3,151
9
Tampere, Finland
Also, from what I have read (and my experience) the A1175 Battery from Apple is actually really bad, with reports of the health falling below 40% after just 100 cycles!

Full Charge Capacity: 3284 mAh @73cycles

Twice.

Next time I'm going to try a 3rd party battery, and I will, because this laptop is not ready to be scrapped yet (still it's not usable as a laptop since it cannot hold its charge for an hour)

I think it has more to do with how the battery is used and cared for, such as calibrating properly and regularly, and cycling the battery on a regular basis.

Nope.

I have used two such Apple-original batteries in accordance to Apple instructions, and they both have failed before 100 cycles. This must be due to bad design or some other kind of hardware fault, because no other model has behaved like this before.

And now I'm afraid of buying a new MBP because they do not use user-replaceable batteries :eek:
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Wingscofounder

macrumors member
Jul 30, 2005
32
1
NY
Great price. Just £43, including international shipping. However is this product official Apple? Or is it just the same that I am looking at on ebay?

It is not an apple branded battery from what I can tell, however, owc is a very reputable company (IMHO). They do not give the "major" brand's name either. I have never bought this type of battery from them, just happened to see it. So this is just something I noticed after reading your thread.
Cheers,
Warren
P.S. Happy New Year to all:D
 
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