Single best place for replacement batteries?

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Team Obi Juan

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I have an otherwise trustworthy Dell Vostro 1500 with a horrible battery in it. Like 20 minutes bad. Is there a "Newegg" of batteries? What's the best place? Looking to not spend a bunch, but I don't want a fire hazard or complete POS either.
 
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Just for reference sake. How long have you had it and how often do you charge it?
 
Sly said:
Just for reference sake. How long have you had it and how often do you charge it?
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2.5 years. NOW, it is practically always plugged in. When I first got it, for the first year, I would unplug it and let the battery go all the way down and then plug it in again. I did my best to not let it be plugged in all the time. I slowly stopped doing that since it really is just a living room laptop and can be plugged in most of the time. But I hate taking the laptop to a different room and have it die in 15-20 minutes.
 
Well, with Lithium-Ion batteries is it highly recommended that even if you keep it plugged in (aka "topped off") the majority of the time, you should take it off the AC adapter/charger at least once every 30 days and run it down to oh, say 20% left and then plug it back in. While Li-Ion batteries do last longer, and hold their original capacity longer, they're not meant to be permanently topped off and never actually used as power sources.

Letting it run completely down isn't recommended; that's only used for total recalibration purposes and very rarely necessary.

If you don't ever intend to use the laptop solely on battery power, charge it and take it out of the laptop completely, or do the once a month 20% depletion cycle. That'll ensure the battery does get used, and has a chance to reset itself (a level of recalibration) and continue being a decent source of power.

Neglect it, leave it plugged in 24/7 and never actually use it, and well... you end up getting a new battery sooner than you'd like.

Just for the record: I've been buying replacement batteries off eBay for nearly a decade myself, but I only buy from US sellers (even if they are shipping from Japan, etc) and they've got to have extremely high levels of feedback (not only in percentage but sheer numbers, like in the thousands) AND they must offer a return or replacement guarantee within 30 days; anything less and I just move on to the next seller. I grab actual OEM batteries if they're available, if not then I find the highest capacity of a given laptop model I can and go for it. In maybe 50+ purchases (not just for myself but for client machines as well) I've only had 1 that was "bad" - the seller replaced it with a far better one without issues.
 
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