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Third Party Batteries?

M

MOKHAN

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 19, 2011
341
9
Toronto, Canada
It seems to me, from searching, that most people tend to stick to the Apple branded ones

Does anyone have experience with the ~$30 ones off of ebay? How are they?
 
Honestly, (this is from what I read) It is not worth it. There are too many things that can go wrong. I would get a genuine battery but get fake cables. Anything power related makes me nervous.
 
MOKHAN said:
It seems to me, from searching, that most people tend to stick to the Apple branded ones

Does anyone have experience with the ~$30 ones off of ebay? How are they?
Click to expand...


I bought a battery from focalprice.com and after doing the suggested calibration by apple, the battery's capacity dropped to 89% - 90% after fully charging it with only 2 load cycles on the clock! Focalprice was willing to take it back and they would pay for most of the shipping charge by issuing a $10 store coupon code once they've confirmed shipment back of the battery. I haven't returned it yet because I got busy with other things so I don't know if this was a fluke with this battery or they're all like that. The other thing to note is that the color does not mach the macbook. The 3rd party replacement battery is much whiter. Build quality is of course less than what you would expect from apple as the undercover of the battery is sealed with glue rather than having both glue and screws. The entire battery does feel lighter than the original and I wouldn't expect it to last 490 cycles like the original battery but for $40 and finding one that has a charge capacity at 100% it's not a bad deal.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

Maybe look at my "MacBook caught fire!" thread and ask yourself if it's worth the uncertainty.

I'm 99% sure my battery is/was a genuine Apple one, but unlicensed batteries seem a very bad idea now I've seen up close what can happen when batteries go wrong.. Who knows what quality checks 3rd parties go through with their products? :/
 
yea, i don't think it's worth it. They lose they're life much more quickly and like someone above said too many things could go wrong. It could decided to light on fire and I'm sure the battery maker wouldn't reimburse you
 
mixel said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

Maybe look at my "MacBook caught fire!" thread and ask yourself if it's worth the uncertainty.

I'm 99% sure my battery is/was a genuine Apple one, but unlicensed batteries seem a very bad idea now I've seen up close what can happen when batteries go wrong.. Who knows what quality checks 3rd parties go through with their products? :/
Click to expand...

I read that thread and wasn't that an OEM apple battery? So really if that's the case then it's still a gamble because of manufacturer defects that could have gone unnoticed and don't forget that most likely the same components are used in these knockoff.
 
Based on what I've heard so far, I'll stick to Apple

But, besides OWC, anybody have a third party battery (like the ebay ones)? I would like to hear some first hand experience. I'm pretty sure the guy whos Macbook caught fire had an OEM battery
 
I have bought many third party batteries off Ebay for Apple macbooks without one issue (all have worked great). On the other hand, I have bought many third party chargers off Ebay and 90 percent of them don't last more than two months before dying.
 
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