Aftermarket Laptop battery.

[AdamZ]

My Orginal Dell Inspiron 6000s battery really lost charge a couple of years ago So I purchased a used Dell Battery and its not all that hot at holding charge. My orignial battery holds a charge for perhaps 40 min and the used one for perhaps1:15.

New Dell Batteries are like $135 or $155 for 6 or 9 cell. On Ebay I see that they now sell after market batteries for dells in the range of $30-$40. Now I know the adage you get what you pay for but I can get a few aftermarket brands for the price of one Dell.

Any reason I should not be considering the Aftermarket Batteries?

 

[wsuffa]

There have been some cases of overheating on aftermarket stuff.

I'll have to look for it, but I've bought (branded) HP batteries for a huge discount from retail from an online parts supplier - much cheaper than Ebay.

 

[RJM62]

Batteries from eBay sellers have a very, very high rate of counterfeits and used batteries being sold as new. Most times all this means is that you may get a battery that doesn't last long, but it's also possible that you'll get one that damages your laptop.

This applies to other kinds of batteries, too. Recently I bought a "new," "genuine motorola," extended life battery for a cell phone, and it didn't even last as long as the standard-life battery. It was obviously either counterfeit or used. It didn't do any damage, and I was only out ten bucks; but still, it wasn't what the seller claimed it was.

There are some good companies that make aftermarket batteries, but eBay is pretty much a caveat emptor marketplace. Check the seller's feedback carefully, and if they're long-established with consistently excellent feedback, maybe you want to risk it. Otherwise, stick with either OEM or known-good aftermarket sources.

I've had good luck with this one: http://www.laptopbatteryexpress.com/

-Rich

 

[bbchien]

The question is, do you want to spend $100 on a 5 year old laptop. Win 7.0 is so much slicker....and for this computer, you start buying win 7, max memory (2gigs IIRC) and you're HD limited, then you spend.....

....well, you get it.

 

[tparsons]

Well, you could buy a new battery from dell or an oem supplier, then put Linux on it. Dell is putting Ubuntu Linux on its newer computers by request. It's free too if you download it from Ubuntu.com. You won't need an antivirus program either.

Just be aware that while there are compatible programs such as Open Office, Firefox, Thunderbird or Evolution mail, and others, you will probably NOT be able to run Windows specific programs. There is a program, Wine, which will enable you to run SOME windows programs, but there are no guarantees.

If the computer is in good condition and satisfies your needs, get a battery from dell.

 

[ScottM]

There have been some cases of overheating on aftermarket stuff.

That's an understatement

There have also been some issue of OEM stuff also over heating too. But generally it is always safer to go with the OEM. There is quality control behind it and generally safety mechanism installed to help prevent catastrophic failure.

This explosion and fire is not a fake.

It was a co-worker of mine. This was on all the news station a couple of years back. Now it happened with an OEM battery, but Dell paid damages for the failure to our company.

My company had some difficulties a few years prior with people making after market batteries for our devices. One of them exploded while a person had the device close to his face. Since that time we have added security to the devices and batteries to help prevent aftermarket battery use, we test our batteries a lot too!!!! A lot of what you are paying for is that added safety.

So please factor that in when making you choice.

A lesson I learned a long time ago when I survived a serious motorcycle accident because I had spent $150 on a helmet. My roomate had made fun of me because I spent so much, he would laugh and tell me about his $40 helmet form K-Mart. I always said to him if you have a $0 head then a $40 helmet is good enough. After my accident he bought a $150 helmet.

You get what you pay for.

Just my $.02 on eBay batteies. The OEM ones are usually rejected ones from the OEM or ones that also no longer keep a charge. You tried the cheap way already and failed, why throw more money away on aftermarket junk?

 

[gismo]

I've had good luck with this one: http://www.laptopbatteryexpress.com/

-Rich

Their batteries are not OEM (to be fair they don't claim otherwise) and their price comparisons are a bit misleading. For example the "replacement" battery for my Dell shows a "list price" of $196 and a sale price of $86 for a $110 saving but the original battery directly from Dell is actually $136. Still a substantial difference but less than half the claimed saving.

 

[kgruber]

I have had great success purchasing brand new high capacity non-OEM batteries from vendors on eBay. Just pick one with a high feedback Some have thousands of satisfied customers.

Like this vendor, with over 14,500 happy customers:
http://tinyurl.com/375gfsm