Cheap Laptop Batteries: Good Deal or Risky?
You can venture up to 50% with an aftermarket battery for your laptop – if you have it.
It was coming five years, but the battery of my ThinkPad R50 finally met its maker. On a recent trip, there was the ghost after switching the notebook for only half an hour – three hours behind what I’m used to exit it. Now refuses to ever be charged again. Sure, it’s time for a new battery.
It is a fact of life, the true sooner or later, every laptop battery age. Most do so for the 18-36 months, depending on how strong they are used. Then they slip into a slow decline and lose the ability to take a full charge.
The reason? A typical battery can be 300-500 times before starting the chemicals inside will wear too charged, with the result that a battery that once a system for three hours can now be powered for one hour or less to run. That’s when it’s time to is to replace the battery.
There are two basic types of notebook batteries: the brand-name batteries sold by the manufacturer and the aftermarket batteries, which are available from third-party retailers – often of a significantly lower price. Trading in secondary batteries is growing rapidly, perhaps as much as 30% per year, according to Don Saxman, an analyst with BCC Research in Wellesley, Massachusetts
“This is the result of the enormous popularity of notebooks,” said Saxman. “Many people buy a second battery, and the longer you a notebook, the greater the chance that he will need a new battery.”
We all want to save money, but not if it puts our notebooks in danger. The purchase of an aftermarket battery often goes against the advice of laptop manufacturers, and in some cases even void the guarantee. Is it worth to save a few dollars?
I went on a mission to find out if aftermarket replacement battery is good business, secure and reliable, or a dangerous fraud.
With the Lenovo ThinkPad R50 My sale for $ 160 – about half what the laptop itself is worth – there was certainly room to save some money. I also went in search of a new battery for my two year old MacBook Pro. Both machines have worn-out batteries, the systems for half the time or less than they could if they were new.
The battery part numbers in hand, I did a little sniffing around on the Web. I have made in several places that sell batteries for a variety of notebooks over the past 15 years, which previously introduced this year to 600th relics such as the 12-year-old Texas Instruments Extensa Many of the companies also sell AC adapters and batteries for mobile phones, digital cameras and handheld devices.
IBM ThinkPad R50 Series Laptop Battery
It turns out that many places carry replacement batteries for the ThinkPad R50, the same battery works with ThinkPad T40 Series. Only a handful of online stores had a power adapter for the MacBook Pro.
IBM ThinkPad T40 Series Laptop Battery
I was able to both batteries I at UK Top laptop battery shop had to be found in 92 base, Clydesdale Place Moss Side Employment Area Leyland Lancashire PR26 7QS United Kingdom, Ohio. But before them, I did a little research. I googled excel digital. org. uk to see if someone defective products and bad experiences had made, or if it says pending lawsuits against them.
It seemed to be legitimate businesses that have been around for several years. The products they sell contain a one year warranty and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Retailers can quickly ship from a battery in an emergency. For example, excel digital. org. Britain has its warehouse in 1992, Clydesdale Place Moss Side Employment Area Leyland Lancashire PR26 7QS United Kingdom for delivery the next day.
In the course of a month, I ordered six batteries for my two notebooks and tested them out. Two came from laptops for less, two were from Laptop Battery Express, a battery and each came from Apple Inc. and Lenovo Group Ltd., with one exception – a dead battery from Lenovo, the company quickly replaced the work – each of the new batteries perfectly and notebooks powered completely.
Without doubt, aftermarket batteries is a good way to get a flat battery without having to replace a lot of money. Despite cost $ 20 to $ 70 less proved to be the aftermarket replacement to be, how good and reliable as the originals in my tests.
All the batteries I looked fit aftermarket in order. Just engaged and the systems powered up. And the aftermarket replacement of the notebook for about the same amount per load than had powered the reseller replacement.
Other than a few minor cosmetic differences – for example, the plastic on the R50 a substitute a slightly different shade of black and not as bright as the original – I could not tell them apart from the manufacturers’ batteries.
“It is difficult to separate them,” says BCC Research Saxman. “Often made laptop battery makers buy from a third-party manufacturers, while aftermarket batteries frequently made from the same factory that come to the originals. It is puzzling to say the least.”
Often, the only things that separate the two types of batteries, whose name appears on the label and how much it costs. In fact, the MacBook Pro battery, laptop battery Express sent me was actually an Apple-branded battery with all markings, including serial number.
The company is a supplier said it had made an end of a production run for Apple left. Whether this is against agreements between the factory and Apple is fighting for their lawyers. All I know I got a battery for $ 30 less than appeared to be identical, and gave me no problems.
Sometimes aftermarket batteries are even better than the originals. Through efficiency gains, has production facilities that have developed in the time since the notebook and its first battery has been made, some replacement cells can more easily or have more capacity.
Two of the six batteries stand I saw. The MacBook Pro battery excel digital. org. uk weighs 2nd 3 ounces less than Apple’s battery provides about the same capacity but it ran only five minutes less than the replacement resellers. Then there is the R50 replacement battery sold by excel digital. org. uk, which has a higher capacity, but weighs 0th 2 ounces less, it ran for an extra 10 minutes.
Everyone was much cheaper than the manufacturer’s batteries, which, like a win-win sounds to me.
The aftermarket battery market is a fact of life and will likely grow in the coming years, but that does not mean that the notebook makers have to like it. I asked several leading laptop manufacturers, if they think aftermarket batteries are dangerous to use and when combined with a loss of the notebook guarantees. While Apple, Hewlett-Packard and Dell should not answer to my repeated requests, Lenovo and Toshiba agreed to discuss the problem.
Neither manufacturer said that aftermarket batteries are dangerous, but she stressed that its batteries were designed and manufactured specifically for their devices. A Lenovo representative said: “We do not support the use of batteries in improper Lenovo ThinkPads. ThinkPad batteries are designed and tested with ThinkPad notebooks to ensure safety, compatibility and performance.”
invalid when used as a battery aftermarket, notebook warranty in and of itself, the producers probably not a laptop repair under the warranty that was damaged by a faulty aftermarket battery, according to company representatives. In other words, a faulty aftermarket battery will void the warranty.
When Toshiba Corp. marketing executive told me: “Toshiba does not guarantee system performance, reliability and security, as they relate to aftermarket batteries.”
This is ironic, because notebook manufacturers such as Apple, Dell, Sony, Lenovo, Toshiba and others an uneven record when it comes to the batteries they sell themselves come to have. Together, they have recalled millions of faulty batteries in recent years. Some of the power packages were not up to spec, while other potential fire hazards. So it seems that no battery, regardless of who sells or makes it immune to problems.
“Most replacement batteries are perfectly safe,” said Vishal Sapru, Managing Director of Power Systems to market research firm Frost & Sullivan. “But you must be really careful.” His advice is to find a reputable dealer with a history of supplying high quality products, which offers one year warranty on the battery and a first money-back guarantee.
The reward is that you pay between 15% to 50% less than the manufacturers for the products is substantially the same battery. “In some cases, it is really the same battery,” says Sapru. But he warns that batteries for less than 50% of retailers Prize: “Among them there may be something wrong with the battery and the seller” section.
Excellent advice is clear, used batteries to control or listed on eBay. I wish I had heard this advice five years ago when I bought a battery for my Gateway laptop on eBay for $ 20, compared with Gateway Inc. ’s $ 150 product. It was as if a new battery listed in the original package, but it held only 20% of the cost, making it worthless for me.
“In other words,” said Excel Digital’s Sky “shop carefully and convenient to buy your battery. If it’s too good to be true, it seems likely, too.”
