Getting the right battery can be harder than you think!

By Giles Isham
•
15 Apr, 2021

We replace a lot of laptop batteries in our business. It's the one part on your laptop that the performance can be easily measured. You know exactly how long your battery lasts. It gets really annoying when you can only unplug your laptop for a few minutes before getting the infamous 10% remaining warning.

This is 2021 and it should be easy to get a replacement battery. Just open up Amazon, punch in your model number, and boom – 20 options to chose from. They all match your laptop and model number so is it that simple? It can be, but more often than not you will be returning that battery as fast as you received it.

Finding a battery should not be that hard, but it is, and there are several reasons for it.

Laptop Manufacturer Tricks
Manufacturing Tolerances
Quality of Materials
Storage Issues

First, we are going to cover manufacturer tricks, as this is a source of some troubles you will see. Manufactures do not make finding a battery easy. For example: here are 2 Lenovo batteries, direct from Lenovo. They are the same specifications, exact came part numbers, but have completely different mounting. This specific battery has 4 different variations that do not have different part numbers.

Manufacturers also have software on the computer that will detect differences in the battery installed compared to the Original Equipment Manufacturers’ (OEM) specification. Any deviation from the exact specifications and tolerances they program and it will not work.

These are all batteries for a Dell laptop. Purchased from various manufactures and an OEM battery. The OEM battery works and one of the after-market batteries work. The others are rejected by the laptop because the software sees that they do not meet the exact specifications. The OEM battery in this case is 14.8 Volts (v) and 2600 mAh (Milli-Amp/Hour), the after-market batteries are all 14.8v but 2200 mAh or 2600 mAh. So will they work?

No, In testing the 2200 mAh did not work, the replacement OEM unit, and one of the 2600 mAh units did not work. So, wait, what? That is correct, the software says the batteries are not compatible despite a perfect physical fit and rated specs identical to the OEM battery.

How can this be? Well have you ever ordered a nice 10 oz steak and had a very small piece of steak delivered to you? The ratings don’t always match the specifications the laptop is looking for and some times when they do they under perform and the laptop rejects them to protect itself. Manufacturing tolerances can allow for more variation than the software on your laptop will. This is actually a sneaky way for manufacturers to make it hard for the after-market producers.

What about the OEM Dell battery? That is a different case. This “New” battery was produced years ago and has sat in a warehouse somewhere. Note the white material on the connectors. This is a sign of the batteries age. If the battery has a defect from poor storage (high temperatures, sloppy assembly, rough handling) then it can be compatible, but defective.

So, I can’t trust the manufacturer, I can’t trust the after-market, my battery is dead, what do I do?

You can trust some of the after-market. Many manufacturers do an outstanding job of quality control and design in many cases you can’t get an OEM battery. Most manufacturers do a good job of support and product compatibility testing. But some units are harder to work with than others. We can help. We replace 100’s of batteries for customers each year. We are happy to assist and get you the right product. Our team has years of experience navigating the who makes the best battery for your specific unit.

Give us a call or stop in today and we can get you back up and running with great battery life!