Picking up used battery, which one is better?

T

TheSponge

macrumors member
Picking up a used battery for a 13" MBP 2011.

Need a battery quick and can't wait currently for shipping etc so I am wondering between these two batteries which one's a better choice?

One battery is out of a 09 MBP while the other is a 2010.

2009 - 198 cycles
2010 - 360 cycles

2009 - charage remaining 5219mah, charge cap 5246 mah
2010 - charge remaining 4843mah, charge capacity 4913 mah

Basically both batteries are same cost..
 
Well, the numbers say it all. Even though it is a little bit older, I would still go with the 2009 one. The difference is probably going to be marginal in practice, but considering they are both out of warranty anyway, go for fewer cycles.
 
Yea thats what I was leaning towards actually. the full charge capacity of the 2009 looks better compared to the 2010. Closer to the full capacity of the battery at 5500 - 5800
 
how much of a price difference is it really, going towards a new battery.

A new macbook battery is about $100 right?
 
AXs said:
how much of a price difference is it really, going towards a new battery.

A new macbook battery is about $100 right?
Click to expand...

Well ifixit has it at $120 plus $30 for shipping. I am in Canada so im going to get dinged duties from Fedex using iFixit.

While this option I got here its $40 and its a OEM battery also.
 
ahh okay. I see. makes sense that way.

Still, if you could find a way to get a new battery in canada for about $100. I recommend you to definitely get it.

Unless you get some proof on battery health of course...

But yea, between the 2 the 2009 one does seem better. Hope it's legitimate Apple product and not a knockoff though... while some cases it will work, it might ruin your laptop.

Not sure if you have applecare till 2014 or not, but basically it's a risk either way.
good luck
 
TheSponge said:
Picking up a used battery for a 13" MBP 2011.

Need a battery quick and can't wait currently for shipping etc so I am wondering between these two batteries which one's a better choice?

One battery is out of a 09 MBP while the other is a 2010.

2009 - 198 cycles
2010 - 360 cycles

2009 - charage remaining 5219mah, charge cap 5246 mah
2010 - charge remaining 4843mah, charge capacity 4913 mah

Basically both batteries are same cost..
Click to expand...

Same model MBP as you. I'm at 208 cycles, 4500mAh though. :( With my work habits that's about 3.5 hours tops. For a 2 year-old laptop I suppose that's ok but I can't help but think I got a lemon.

I ordered a new OEM battery from iFixit the other day. Wouldn't consider used. Not sure if your motivation for buying used is to just get a few more months out of your machine though.
 
Interstella5555 said:
Neither, buy a new one. It's like saving on buying used tires, it's going to catch up with you pretty quickly.
Click to expand...

Sure, but don't quite agree with you. I've bought used tires that treated me exceptionally well and after the fact sold them to someone else as used again. But that's beyond the point. Thanks for the input tho and if the funds currently allowed I'd opt for a brand new battery just I know by the time this is said and done the battery from iFixit would cost me $200.. and all other places I have a hard time trusting if their OEM or not (ebay etc..)

Krazy Bill said:
Same model MBP as you. I'm at 208 cycles, 4500mAh though. :( With my work habits that's about 3.5 hours tops. For a 2 year-old laptop I suppose that's ok but I can't help but think I got a lemon.

I ordered a new OEM battery from iFixit the other day. Wouldn't consider used. Not sure if your motivation for buying used is to just get a few more months out of your machine though.
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3.5hours is not bad like you say for a 2 year old laptop. Lol consider yourself lucky its not a Toshiba :)

What do you mean by get a few more months out of your machine though?

Here is the thing tho, I picked this laptop up the other day, used. It needs a few things cosmetically - one of the things with it was the battery was kaput had 500+ cycles on it and was swollen. I've since removed it and inspected the macbook internally. Macbook however ran and I cleaned it out last night internally, no liquid damage. Everything checks out. Before I invest into a $100 battery I hoped to make sure it was 100% operational and not buy a new battery only to realize there is some underlining issues here that I don't see.
 
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I don't know buy I would probably go for the 2010 battery, since batteries don't age well, and the 2009 model will be 5 years old.

That being said, I don't remember when they switched the "target age" from 300 cycles to 1000 cycles. If that was after 2010, then I wouldn't take any of those batteries.
 
thundersteele said:
I don't know buy I would probably go for the 2010 battery, since batteries don't age well, and the 2009 model will be 5 years old.

That being said, I don't remember when they switched the "target age" from 300 cycles to 1000 cycles. If that was after 2010, then I wouldn't take any of those batteries.
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Basically the 1000 cycles is for both of those batteries listed. lol

Started in mid 2009 for the MBP's

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1519
 
I would only buy brand new but looking at these costs, you would have to buy 3 used oem batteries at $40 each before you came close to the cost of buying one new one at around $130. Seems like a no brainer. Go for the 09 with less cycles and higher capacity.
 
TheSponge said:
3.5hours is not bad like you say for a 2 year old laptop. Lol consider yourself lucky its not a Toshiba :)
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Yes I know. :) HP, Dell, Toshiba... used 'em all. I was spoiled with 5-6 hours though.

What do you mean by get a few more months out of your machine though?
Click to expand...
Considering the imminent Haswell refresh, I didn't know if you were just trying to keep your machine going for just a few more months before buying new.

Before I invest into a $100 battery I hoped to make sure it was 100% operational and not buy a new battery only to realize there is some underlining issues here that I don't see.
Click to expand...
Understood.
 
TheSponge said:
Yea thats what I was leaning towards actually. the full charge capacity of the 2009 looks better compared to the 2010. Closer to the full capacity of the battery at 5500 - 5800
Click to expand...

Where can you look up what full capacities for different models are supposed to be?
 
BenTrovato said:
I would only buy brand new but looking at these costs, you would have to buy 3 used oem batteries at $40 each before you came close to the cost of buying one new one at around $130. Seems like a no brainer. Go for the 09 with less cycles and higher capacity.
Click to expand...

Yah that's what I did. Put it in and powered right up, battery health shows at 95% on coconut battery. Says 3.5hours with everything turned on, max brightness, bluetooth etc. Going to have to format the machine my way and optimize stuff. That's what I am on currently is the MBP.

We'll see how this battery goes. Plus, the guy had a few spare MBPs kicking around so I picked up a few lower case screws that I needed and a rubber leg. Much better than me having to order all that stuff online.

Krazy Bill said:
Yes I know. :) HP, Dell, Toshiba... used 'em all. I was spoiled with 5-6 hours though.

Considering the imminent Haswell refresh, I didn't know if you were just trying to keep your machine going for just a few more months before buying new.

Understood.
Click to expand...

Nah I plan on keeping this one for a couple of years if it checks out well. I'll sell my late 09 Macbook and keep the 2011 MBP.

The MBP came with a SSD and 8gb of ram :)

esskay said:
Where can you look up what full capacities for different models are supposed to be?
Click to expand...

Well ifixit has them and mid '09 to '12 are all interchangeable and show between 5500-5800mah. The range is due to design error and some were 60wHr while some were 63.5wHr.

The laptop when I picked it up was running slow, deadly - beach ball etc. I suspected the machine degraded itself cause it was purely running on the AC adapter and I've read that if you do remove the battery the machines don't run at their full spec. Also after further investigation I noticed buddy when he installed the SSD omitted to put the little peg screws back in that secure the HDD properly so I fixed that up tonight also. Now the machine runs A1.

Will report back how I find the battery next week, going to cycle it down a couple of times and do a PRAM/SMC reset.
 
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