What's up with my battery? [pics]

[Tsuchiya]

Can someone help explain what might have happened with this battery?

- Brought new from an Apple store about two years back for my 2007 pre-Unibody MacBook Pro.

- Never overcharged (machine was semi retired), and probably has less than 50 cycles.

- Unused for months, I only noticed it was this swollen when I turned the machine on and was told to "replace battery now". Prior to this it was fine.

 

[Gav2k]

It's expanded. If I had to guess you either stored it fully charged (bad practice) or it was indeed faulty. But 300 cycle batteries like the one you have there need to be used more often than the new 1000 cycle batteries.

 

[thundersteele]

Have you ever looked at the reviews for the replacement batteries in the Apple online store? They average to two stars. Unfortunately they are not more reliable than the cheap knock-off batteries everyone keeps warning us about.

What you have to keep in mind is that those batteries are not being produced on a weekly basis, but probably have spent months to years on some storage shelf before you bought it in 2007.

All you can do is buy another one. It is very bad that these batteries actually break instead of just loosing capacity, like normal batteries tend to do.

 

[GGJstudios]

It is not uncommon for a battery to swell near the end of its useful life. Some do so due to being defective, but many do so as a natural byproduct of the battery dying a normal death. Even if left unused for a period of time, the battery can still die. They are consumable items, and not designed to last forever. Just replace the battery. If you plan on storing a battery unused for 6 months or more, do so with a 50% charge on the battery. Also, if you're leaving a MacBook Pro with a removable battery unused for months, be sure to remove the battery from the notebook, so that possible swelling cannot damage your notebook.

The link below should answer most, if not all, of your battery/charging questions. If you haven't already done so, I highly recommend you take the time to read it.

Apple Notebook Battery FAQ​

 

[Tsuchiya]

Thanks for the replies, didn't realise that the battery could be so temperamental. It's likely I stored it after a charge but can't be sure.


Time to finally put this laptop to bed then I think.

 

[Tsuchiya]

Bump.

So I dug my first battery out of storage and saw that it was crazy swollen. The casing was warped and it's about 3" thick.

Surely there must be some kind of defect here? My first battery reached the end of it's life but wasn't swollen at the time. It was dead and wouldn't hold a charge so I just stored it away intended to dispose of it.

Also the replacement battery I posted about has gotten worse despite just sitting in a draw.