A recent trip to the dumpster netted me a couple of old laptops (from around 2012). The batteries are completely flat and will not take a charge. I plan on using them as beater computers around the house, so battery life doesn’t really matter but would be nice to have. The cheapest no-name batteries available for them are about $15 each. A used OEM battery with about 75% health is a dollar more.
For those who bought the cheapest aftermarket battery, was it worth it? Were the batteries surprisingly good or am I better off with a used but original one?
Not laptop but I resuscitated a digital camera of 2008 (canon sd1000 / ixus 70). I had lost the charger long ago, so I bought a new one with an extra battery sporting 1300mah (the original was 860mah). Well the original still holds twice as long as this supposedly recent battery… I didn’t buy the cheapest, went for the one with most stars
For a laptop that old it’s not worth the money. Anything “good” is going to be at least 10 years old just sitting in a box rotting.
Extended family “IT Guy” here. Have replaced 30ish laptops batteries. The cheap ones on Amazon/eBay you have a ~30% chance of them being DOA, and 99% chance of them being dead within a year.
“Brands” like Duracell GreenCell I’ve had better luck with but I’ve been sent batteries from GreenCell which only lasted a year because they were sitting on a shelf for 3 years before they were sent to me.
OEM batteries tend to last longer than the originals as most BIOSs from Dell, Lenovo etc. now include battery optimisation which extends the life of cells.
It all come down to what you need, and how much you value your time compared to money. My personal stuff I always go OEM as I rarely replace my laptops. Current one from 2015 is still going strong. If you are willing to put up with returns and rapid replacements a £20 cheapie can look good when the OEM is £100
EDIT: Sorry just re-read your question. The OEM at 75% health is dead already. The cheap no-name ones are probably just random used cells thrown together.
You’d probably be better off with the no-name but for this use case just get the cheapest thing with a 1year warranty and cross your fingers.
Yes, they generally work fine.
I’m always wary of aftermarket stuff just because poor quality cells can sometimes catch fire for no reason at all.
I’ve replaced the battery on my laptop twice. Didn’t recognize the brand (might have been Dentsing or something like that) but it outperformed the stock battery in it’s flattening state and maybe even when it was new! I watched it pretty closely for a while though and I’d NEVER buy a battery off temu.
What sort of batteries does it use? If it’s just Li-Ion cells like 18650s, it should be fairly easy to DIY. If it’s a proprietary Li-Poly, probably going to be more problematic.
18650s, but the laptops refuse to charge the batteries, so the BMS might be toast already.
Ah! That’s unfortunate. If adventurous, maybe hunt down a used battery that partially charges and swap cells?
I’ve used some non-OEM expanded cell batteries back in the netbook days and they worked okay for about two years before drastically losing their ability to hold a charge. I’d recommend just sticking to OEM parts with proper electrical certifications just to help lower the chance of thermal runaways or things like that.
