Replacement Laptop Battery Packs

[Lakewood90712]

My 3 year old Acer netbook battery with a lot of cycles is about 1/3 of new capacity ( by run time) , I'm surprised it has any capacity at all with the use I put it through. (oem 6 aaa size cells, 14.8 volt 2500 mah total) .

OEM lists for about $ 60 not sure if even available. Functional replacements on amazon and E bay are all 3 cell 2100 mah with a large bump in the pack to hold the physically larger cells. All the brands look the same, sell for $12 -$26.

I got one of the aftermarket 2100 mah ones for $20. Was nearly discharged out of the box, no surprise. I have charged and used 2 times. The new pack doesn't seem to have much capacity. Do new Li-on battery's need to be " Trained" like ni-cads ? Do I just need to go thru several more cycles to get good capacity or do I have a dud ?

 

[Walt34]

I suspect you got a dud. If it was fully discharged when you got it that is very bad for Li-on batteries. Generally one does not want to discharge them to less than 20% capacity.

 

[Daniel J]

OEM is the way to go. Aftermarket laptop batteries tend to be poor in my experience.

 

[RobbieB]

I agree. I bought an aftermarket battery for my Cannon camera (a third the price) and guess what, it lasts about a third as long.

Garbage.

 

[ERD50]

Check the procedure for your laptop - but many will have you go through a calibration cycle. That usually means something like fully charging it, then fully discharging it until it dies, then fully charging in one full step.

I think the firmware needs to learn where the bounds are for each battery, something like that.

-ERD50

 

[NW-Bound]

If it works at all, you are lucky. See what one guy finds inside his battery pack. Skip to 2:00 if you are impatient.

 

[NW-Bound]

OEM is the way to go. Aftermarket laptop batteries tend to be poor in my experience.

Yes, OEM is good, if you can get it.

Apple recently filed a suit against counterfeiters who sold on Amazon, blatantly using Apple brand.

It hurts even more than buying aftermarket parts, if you pay the high price for genuine and get fake.

See: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...any-genuine-apple-products-on-amazon-are-fake

 

[aja8888]

I tried to buy replacement batteries for our two older iPhone 4S's not too long ago and found out that "new old stock" was manufactured about the same time as the phones (dates on batteries). Then we found lots of imitation batteries which won't hold a charge for very long, but were cheap.

Seems like once a unit is superseded by a newer model, OEM replacement batteries are not made for very long afterwards.

We bought the NOS battery and it was not nearly as good at holding a charge than the original was. This must all be part of planned obsolescence by manufacturers.

 

[NW-Bound]

Lithium-ion batteries have a shelf life. They do not age like fine wine, but slowly go bad even when unused. So, NOS batteries are no good, unlike NOS vacuum tubes.

Makes you yearn for the old days, when things were simpler. No?

 

[aja8888]

Lithium-ion batteries have a shelf life. They do not age like fine wine, but slowly go bad even when unused. So, NOS batteries are no good, unlike NOS vacuum tubes.

Makes you yearn for the old days, when things were simpler. No?

Yes, simpler is better and less frustrating. Now that we are flooded with junk from China, I miss my old Japanese transistor radio.

 

[NW-Bound]

No problem. Let me fix you up with a AM/FM radio kit that you can build yourself. Still have that soldering iron with a small coil of solder?

It's of course Chinese instead of being Japanese, but should work the same. Look. It's Paeansonic! It's $8.

 

[NW-Bound]

If you want vacuum tube, they've got them too, but it's gonna cost more. It's $177 and does not even include the chassis or enclosure. Hey, nostalgia isn't cheap.

 

[aja8888]

I miss my Heathkits too. Where did you find those radio kits?

 

[GrayHare]

OEM is the way to go. Aftermarket laptop batteries tend to be poor in my experience.

+1

 

[Lakewood90712]

Found it ( too late) for $39 on the Acer website. Its a 4 cell, not 6 cell. Sometimes you do get what you you pay for

( The cheap ass that I am )

 

[NW-Bound]

I have had really lousy battery packs for my cameras.

But again, just because you pay OEM prices does not mean you get OEM batteries. What you get for the higher price may simply be a counterfeit label and shipping box. Even buying on Amazon instead of eBay may not mean much, as the recent Apple lawsuit shows.

PS. I never thought of buying from the Web site of the laptop or camera makers. If they themselves sell fake stuff, then the world is coming to an end.

I miss my Heathkits too. Where did you find those radio kits?

Just search the Web for them. They are on eBay, a Chinese site called Banggood, several others, and even Amazon.

However, don't expect them to be as good, or of the more sophistication level as Heathkits.

 

[RobbieB]

If you are into vacuum tube kits and audio, check out the Bottlehead site. I have 3 of their products and the sound is amazing.

 

[NW-Bound]

Well, they look nice, but I am a solid-state guy myself, although I still have some vacuum tubes up in the attic somewhere.

But looking at that $177 kit that requires you to make your own dial, man, that's a lot of work. One can buy an old set and resurrect it, and the result would be better.

 

[gauss]

I buy the generic ones from ebay for about $10 shipped. They work well enough for at least a year. I buy two at a time so I can immediately spot a single DUD (we have 2 identical laptops).

-gauss

 

[timo2]

I went to batteries plus bulbs and bought a duracell for my ancient toshiba laptop. I wasn't going to replace the battery, but then I put LXLE Linux on it and it runs like new. I got a duracell because I was afraid the cheapo ones might explode. https://msayson.wordpress.com/2016/05/15/reviving-a-dead-laptop-with-linux/