Re: [Thinkpad] Battery Purchase Site - Thinkpad T-24

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Ray asked:

"Would appreciate any suggestions for where to go quickly for a decent
battery... whether online or eBay... Just as long as it is a reliable
battery for a year... IBM or
AfterMarket."

At the bottom I am appending a post you yourself wrote last June, in
case you don't have your own copy of it...

Around that time I bought a battery on eBay for my X30 from sib-usa.com;
they had a very nice price on batteries made by a Chinese company called
FLT. (Bruce once wrote that he'd had good experiences with an FLT
battery.) The first one was a dud, they replaced it without complaint
and the second has been great except that it is not correctly recognized
by the TP power utillities (even with downgraded embedded controller).
I recommend the company for fast shipping and good value, though the
battery recognition thing is mildly irritating.

David

----- Original Message -----
From: "RayBay" <canyonlands@gmail.com>
To: "Bob Meizlik" <bob@squakmt.com>
Cc: "Thinkpad Mailing List" <thinkpad@stderr.org>
Sent: Sunday, June 11, 2006 11:57 AM
Subject: Re: [Thinkpad] cheap battery woes

> We have found over and over that for hours of reliable usage, the IBM
> batteries are the best value, despite their high cost. I know others
> mileage will vary.
>
> However, we also find that organizations such as
> www.laptopbatteries.com and www.intelligentbatteries.com, each of
> which has a one year warranty, offer more reliable choices at low
> prices, than do any of the sites on eBay. We have not been able to
> consistently duplicate the success of some others on this list.
>
> Interestingly, www.DuracellDirect.com, a relatively new purveyor of
> laptop batteries which sells batteries for nearly every laptop made,
> charges significantly more (25 to 30 percent) than the OEMs, and they
> do not last as long.
>
> I don't think there is any supplier which has been without complaint
> over a long period, such as two or three years... it is just a tough
> business.
>
> It is still a matter of luck. A person on this list may have good luck
> once or twice, but when you supply a lot of batteries for a lot of
> clients over several years, there simply is no consistency in the
> industry. This inability for any company to service the huge
> marketplace in laptop batteries is quite an astonishing failure.
>
> There have been 364 brand names of laptops using batteries world wide.
> When you look at the number of models each of these brand names has
> produced, the numbers are astonishing.
>
> Yet only 25 brand models have been produced which have used batteries
> with long life, safety, and reliability. IBM Thinkpads are one of
> these brands with models in this high reliability list... but IBM also
> has produced some real losers.
>
> It is a mystery why one company has not been able to engineer a line
> of LiON batteries so good that laptop manufacturers would want to use
> that particular design and shape. Until you relize that this is part
> of the laptop marketing. The companies probably make more pure profit
> off the battery than they do the laptop. They don't want them to
> last. There is no economic reason to make a super reliable, long
> lasting battery... only the need to outlast the competition just a
> bit.
>
> They make batteries to sell. Not to use. IBM Thinkpads, Dell
> Latitudes, and a few Gateway and HP laptops have outstanding batteries
> with true value for the dollar. Any other laptop, or manufacturer of
> batteries is just a compromise, in my opinion. You cannot win, at
> least not with confidence.
>
> RayBay
>
>
>
>
> On 6/11/06, Bob Meizlik <bob@squakmt.com> wrote:
> > Can anyone recommend a reliable seller of after market laptop
batteries ?
> > If not, it's well worth it to me to spend the additional $100 next
time
> > to get a branded (IBM, Lenovo, BTI) battery.
> >
> > ------
> >
> > I bought a battery on eBay for my R40.
> > It was non-branded, and apparently from
> > It didn't fit totally in the battery bay, even though the latch
engaged
> > when I pressed it down.
> > It was a really tight fit, and it stuck out the bottom about 1/2
millimeter.
> > But, it seemed to be working; so, what the heck ?
> >
> > .....mistake.....
> >
> > After a few weeks my machine is mysteriously powering down at random
> > times when undocked.
> > Sometimes, when I undock it.
> > Sometimes, when I put it down on a conference room table.
> > Sometimes, when I am carrying it.
> > Sometimes, flexing the case a little will power it down.
> >
> > After a bunch of debugging, I find that the metal contacts on the
> > battery are not always making contact with the motherboard. So, I
bent
> > them a little with a couple of small screwdrivers, and my power
problems
> > went away. It's been a week now, and not one power down yet.
> >
> > I decided to have my original IBM battery refilled at
batteryrefill.com .
> >
> > Conclusions ? It seems this might have been a case of "you get what
you
> > pay for",
> > and saving a few bucks on eBay didn't work out well.
> >
> > -----
> >
> > The battery (right now, after a few months of heavy use) has this
data
> > in the system information:
> > Status: No activity
> > Remaining percentage: 98 %
> > Remaining capacity: 70.14 Wh
> > Full charge capacity: 71.28 Wh
> > Temperature: 23 C
> > Cycle count: 2
> > Manufacturer name: OBT
> > Manufacture date: 2005-08-20
> > Serial number: 2152
> > Bar-coding number: 1Z56B2BEOSN
> > Battery name (FRU part number): IBM-COMPATIBLE
> > Device chemistry: Li-Ion
> > Design capacity: 71.28 Wh
> > Design voltage: 14.80 V
> > .......
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Thinkpad mailing list
> > Thinkpad@stderr.org
> > http://stderr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/thinkpad
> >
>
>
> --
>
> Sweet is the memory of past troubles.
>
> Cicero, 43 BC
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>
>

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Received on Fri Oct 13 16:59:36 2006