Laptop battery replacement

[Adrian]

My laptop, a Samsung Q430, is now suffering from a failing battery (AA-PB9NC6B).
This type of battery still seems to be available from various suppliers at various, widely different (!) prices.

My Qs. is: does higher price indicate a better quality product?

It would be very helpful if some knowledgeable colleague would recommend.

Thank you

Adrian

[Dorsetmike]

I always by cheaper batteries, have done for years, laptop, camera, camcorder etc, not had any problems so far; you only hear about the disasters, never the thousands that have no problems. The original manufacturers will always charge way over the odds for their own replacement items, the same happens no matter if it's batteries, printer cartridges or any other "consumable".

Buying branded goods when there are perfectly good unbranded  ones available is a waste of money, probably some of the worst offenders are medicines, compare the price of supermarkets "own brand" paracetamol and Ibuprofen with the identical branded versions.

[Sprintex]

I bought a cheap replacement battery as a spare for my DV camera, same ref numbers as the original and seemed to work OK. Then about the 4th or 5th time I charged it I thought "that's taking a long time?". Checked the camera and it was VERY hot! Battery had bulged with heat and took me 20 minutes to dig the thing out, luckily with no damage to the camera. Bought another fairly cheap but GENUINE battery from Ebay and been fine ever since

Ask yourself this: if that cheapo battery kills your laptop are you fine with that and can afford to replace it?

As t'other Paul said - buy cheap, buy twice (and hope you don't completely knacker the device in the process )


Paul

[rhysapthomas]

Hi 

I would steer clear of very cheap batteries

We use mdsbattery.co.uk for our UPS batteries

[davidinyork]

I look after a few dozen laptops (all Dell) and I buy the cheapo batteries off ebay. Quite simply, by the time they need a new battery they are getting on a bit in age, and it just isn't worth the considerable cost of the genuine ones. The cheapo ones often don't last as long, but given that they are only a fraction of the price I can live with that!

[PLD]

My Qs. is: does higher price indicate a better quality product?

Adrian

A lower priced battery could also be a lower capacity...

I'd always go for the largest capacity the laptop can handle, and certainly not less than the original.

[davidinyork]

My Qs. is: does higher price indicate a better quality product?

Adrian

A lower priced battery could also be a lower capacity...

I'd always go for the largest capacity the laptop can handle, and certainly not less than the original.

But be aware that some of the higher capacity ones stick out the back of the laptop - might not be a problem  but if you put it in a slip case this might mean it no longer fits!

[EtchedPixels]

Be very very careful even with apparently reputable sources

Also try and figure out the real fault. Unless the laptop is very old the battery shouldn't be a problem. Things like corrosion or breakdown of components (or even crap software installs) can ruin your laptop battery life, so it's not a bad idea to check if the battery is at fault.

If your battery goes 100%, 99%, 98%, 97%, 96%,... 90% or so then suddenly goes splat then its likely a real battery fault. if it just drops rapidly and steadily look elsewhere first to be sure.



is my thinkpad after it had a battery explosion. That involved flaming battery cells being blasted around the room, the fire brigade, insurers and I'm really glad it was on a wooden shelf not my lap when it went off.

Lithium batteries in laptops pack energy densities not dissimilar to a hand grenade.

Alan

[DELETED]

Like the old bread advert "you don't get 'owt for 'nowt".  Just remember if you pay half for something most likely it will NOT be the same.  I've had really cheap AEM batteries and chargers blow before so I'm kind of careful now, particularly if it's LiPoly or high capacity.  AEM often doesn't give the same functionality*, but if you don't need it then fair enough.  I've happily bought AEM batteries etc, but I don't buy the cheapest.  Something middle of the range is probably about right for me -I usually always check it's CE marked though.

*e.g. I bought some AEM batteries for my Nikon DSLR, they don't provide feedback to the camera on some things like remaining capacity, but doesn't worry me too much as I have a spare and don't shoot 2,000 shots in one go like a pro might.

[Newportnobby]

I replaced my laptop battery (Toshiba) with a larger capacity version from The 7 Day shop and have had no trouble for the last 6 months. That's not to say it won't conk, but the larger capacity certainly has improved recharging if nothing else.
As with any rechargeable battery it pays to run them down to virtually nothing before recharging.

[NeMo]

I can only speak from personal experience. But having got my MacBook Pro repaired after some water damage, the repair guy also swapped the old (original) battery for a surprisingly cheap new one from a company called Floureon. Cost me £30. While it sort of worked for a while, within a few weeks it was down to barely an hour.

(Because of the water damage, even though the laptop works 100% normally, Apple won't install their own battery, which costs about £100, without replacing the motherboard as well, which pushes the total cost to nearer £500.)

Anyway, I've since replaced it with a NuPower one that works a lot better. More expensive, a bit over £80, but I'm getting back the original "all day" usage my MacBook Pro had originally, over 6 hours if I'm careful.

At the end of the day the reason I went with NuPower was that it was a well known brand and if the battery under-performed, I'd be able to contact them and expect a replacement. The no-name batteries sold on eBay might be cheap and are probably perfectly safe in the sense of not blowing up, but battery life may well turn out to be much less good than you'd hoped.

Caveat emptor.

Cheers, NeMo