Good Replacement Battery for 1xx Series?

[Scott Baret]

I saw these on eBay and was wondering if anyone had ordered from the seller before:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Battery-APPLE-PowerBook-140-145-150-160-170-180-NEW-/390194376131?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Laptop_Batteries&hash=item5ad965adc3#ht_2849wt_1123

I just got my old 180c out and restored it completely save for the battery. $30 with free shipping sounds like a pretty good deal to me, especially with a warranty for one year, but I do have a few questions for anyone who has purchased one in the past:

1. Compared to Apple's original batteries, how long do they keep a charge? Are they on-par or do they exceed the originals as many replacement batteries often do? Could they also fall short of the original Apple battery lifespans? (The 180c could never really make it to two hours on Apple's original batteries, but at least it could be unplugged while being moved and work without the AC power for short periods of time).

2. An issue for me with replacement batteries on the 1xx series has always been the plastic "door" piece. On some aftermarket models, the color and texture are different than Apple's case, which takes away from the aesthetics of the computer. What are the doors like on these batteries?

3. For the long-term users: how long do they last before they no longer hold a charge?

4. Would it be better just to re-cell the old battery (or one of my other 1xx series batteries)? If so, what would I need to do it? (I've tried searching but can't find a good tutorial on this subject).

I will say though, battery or no battery, it sure is nice to have that 180c back up and running, especially since I've retired, sold, or am going to sell all the other 68Ks I own except my Classic and a PB150 I use with students I tutor (they love it, even its black and white screen; they think trackballs are the greatest invention ever and love 1991 Math Blaster, even asking me where they can purchase it for their new computers--too bad it's both hard to find and incompatible with every recent Mac).

 

[Bunsen]

4. I would guess you'd have a hard time finding the right cells for less than $30 shipped - and it'd wanna be a lot less to make it worth the time and risk of doing a recell, IMHO. If these batteries are all they claim to be, then that seems like a bargain.

mumble grumble US/Canada shipping only grrr

 

[Paralel]

mumble grumble US/Canada shipping only grrr

With all the trouble people seem to have getting stuff sent outside the US/Canada I should start a free re-shipping service for all the established people here outside the USA.

 

[Bunsen]

Ha! Be careful what you wish for!

Meanwhile, there's a reference to these batteries over here.

 

[jwmcfarlin]

Sorry for the false hope, turns out the laptop batteries that I thought might be the same ones were BTI-brand.

Best,

John

 

[Scott Baret]

Are BTI branded batteries bad? I've never used any non-OEM batteries in any laptop and am not familiar with the aftermarket companies.

 

[jwmcfarlin]

The BTIs are solid. I was doing an endurance test with them and got bored at 75 minutes for one of them and 60 minutes for the other, and when I came back at about the 2-hour mark they were both done, so I guess an hour and a half on a PB180 with the backlight set to maximum but not a lot of HD spinning. These were used batteries, too, so I would guess better than than new.

Best,

John

 

[Scott Baret]

I went ahead and bought one tonight. It should be here within a week, just in time for me to take it on vacation with me. I may also use it in my 150 from time to time (I use that machine for tutoring).

Hard drive spinning is the key to saving battery life on any computer. I used to spin down the hard drive on my iBook G3 when its battery still worked using the option to do so on the Control Strip. With brightness turned down, I could easily get about five hours per charge, sometimes a little bit more.

I do know the 180c drained batteries more than the other laptops available at the time because of its active matrix color screen. I have an IBM hard drive under the hood, are these decent at not consuming battery life?

 

[jwmcfarlin]

I have no idea what manner of hard drives my 180s have, I ought to do a field strip sometime this weekend and get a look. By all means please let me know what you think of the BTIs, as I will probably get a set of spares. One of my batteries has got a tear in the front where it meets with the frame--maybe someone was trying to get it out and resorted to prying?

Best,

John

 

[Scott Baret]

An update on the BTI: When it first arrived, I was getting maybe 4-5 minutes per charge. I still am not getting a ton of life from the battery, but I've only had it go through a few complete cycles. How long does it take for these batteries to reach their maximum life (that is, in terms of charge cycles)?

It's nice not to lose power when the cord comes out, but I'd like to get at least an hour from this battery. I'm debating about exchanging it through the warranty program.

Any thoughts?

 

[Byrd]

Hi Scott,

you should be expecting a lot more punch from these cells, regardless if the batteries themselves are older and haven't been cycled for some time. I think you should be getting at least an hour out of them new from the box, and perhaps another 15 - 20% more with proper cycling. Take 'em back

JB

 

[jwmcfarlin]

Yeah, that's terrible. Sorry you took one for the team there.

Best,

John

 

[Unknown_K]

Even if the batteries are new , if they have been sitting around for a decade unused they will expire on the shelf.

Most of my laptops are Thinkpads except for a handful and 5 of those are Wallstreets. I have old OEM batteries that still have a decent charge (3 of the 5 Wallstreets have usable batteries), plus a whole bunch of IBM OEM batteries dating back to the later 90's that still work. But I also have much newer BTI and other 3rd party batteries that are much newer are are totally dead. 3rd party batteries seem to be junk, even if they work when new they do not seem to last as long as the original designs. Do 3rd parties use cells that are cheaper because they didn't pass OEM specs and are second tier parts (kind of like BASF paint that didn't pass OEM QC and ended up at Earl Schives paint booths)?

 

[Scott Baret]

I guess I'll contact the guys who I bought the battery from and see what can be done. If they won't take it back, I'll likely keep it. It's way too easy to knock the power cord out of the 100 series, and I think I'd rather have at least a little bit of a backup in case I do bump it (which will likely happen a lot as I plan on doing a lot of writing on this little 180c in the future). Worth $30 for that? Probably not. I'd say what I got was worth maybe $5 at the max. Still, I can at least take what John said to heart--I took one for the team here. Hopefully nobody else will be snookered into buying one of these duds.

I'll keep you folks updated on whether or not I can get a suitable battery in exchange.