Travel Technology - Battery for Lenovo X61s - what to buy

My wonderful 8-cell died suddenly (after 3 years) and needs replacing.

It's not for business use, just when I travel and when I wander around the house. But I have to say the current 60 minutes battery life is not nice.

Seeing prices from $64 to $200. Can I trust the eBay sellers from Asia?

Any idea what to buy and where? All input appreciated. Thank you.

No Lenovo experience but my Sony VAIO SZ270P battery died after 6 months. Sony Replaced it. Second one died after another 6 months. Sony would not replace it. Sonystyle.com was out of them. Best Buy sold Sony SZ but not the batteries. My local Batteries+ sold them but was out. They offered to FedEx it for next day delivery at no charge for the shipping and they did. It was Rayovac brand but recognized by the notebook and has lasted 1 yr 10 months so far.

Seeing prices from $64 to $200. Can I trust the eBay sellers from Asia? I did not have good luck with them trying to get a battery for my X40 (though this was 3 years ago).

Both sellers sent me batteries that my laptop wouldn't charge. I was able to get all my money and shipping charges back, but it was a pain.

I bought a long life battery for my HP on Ebay a few years ago. I asked the seller specificaly if it was made in Japan. They assured me it was.
When I got the battery, the package said: Made in China. I tried it and it didn't work. It just wouldn't hold a charge. When I complained to the seller, they said "the cells" were made in Japan, but the battery was assembled in China. I was able to return it for a refund, but I lost shipping charges both ways.
I ended up buying an HP 8 hour battery at CompUSA for about $50 more than I paid for the Chinese one.
Bottom line: Don't buy batteries on Ebay. Of course, YMMV.:)

Matt

I am typing this on a Thinkpad whose battery came from eBay. I have bought more than a dozen batteries off eBay for myself and others. One was bad and was replaced by the seller. The replacement is still in use after a year. So I guess you could say my experience is a good one.

On eBay you can either buy IBM brand batteries, or you can buy generic batteries. If buying a generic battery, I always buy from someone who gives a warranty, has a 99% rating, and has thousands of successful sales.

I just did an eBay search. Looking quickly, you can get a genuine "IBM LENOVO THINKPAD X60 X61 8 CELL BATTERY 40Y7003" for $99.99 including shipping. and a "NW Laptop Battery for IBM Thinkpad 40Y7003 X60 X60S X61" for $48.90 + 7.90 shipping. from some place that has a 99.7% rating on 17,071 sales. The latter gives a 6 months warranty, which covers the most common complaint - a new battery that won't take a charge.

I wouldn't personally buy an eBay battery direct from Hong Kong because it would be so time consuming and expensive to return it under warranty.

As to what you should do, you should go with the choice that makes you most comfortable.

I've bought a 3rd party battery for a Toshiba that worked fine. I bought a 3rd party 3-cell battery for my HP 2133 netbook (because HP wasn't even selling them without the machine) and it gives me a very disappointing run time of about 60 mins (should be more based on reviews of the original battery).

Given all the recent battery recalls, I would be a bit worried about getting a random non-name battery with cells from who-knows-what manufacturer. No one's going to recall those, and you won't know if yours might be affected by a manufacturer problem. Granted, the chances of your laptop going up in flames are probably not higher than crashing on your next airplane ride, but I figured I'd point it out anyway.

I bought two aftermarket batteries for a Dell Inspiron several years ago, but for some reason the firmware in them caused the laptop to malfunction. The online retailer refunded my money, but it was still a hassle to diagnose what was going on. The battery in my current Lenovo is two years old, so when it comes time for a replacement, I think I’ll stick to OEM stuff.

I've gotten 3rd party batteries for my camcorder, etc. My experience is that, while they will work, they don't work as well as OEM batteries.

I had to buy a new extended battery for my unusual voltage Toshiba laptop.

I paid a few bucks more for one from a CA seller on ebay with a decent warranty. The service and quality was fabulous!

The seller was monsterpowerpro

I suspect that ebay listing 390036017299 is the correct battery from this seller.

He also sells through www.titannotebook.com at higher prices.

BTW, the quality of this aftermarket battery is MUCH better than the original Toshiba battery.

Thanks, everybody.

I was just about to pull the plug on Roberto99's eBay seller, but then checked Amazon and (duh) the Lenovo site. The eBay battery would probably be fine, but it's slightly lower capacity than the OEM. (4400 mAh compared to 5500 mAh).

Lenovo has a 20% discount on accessories for St. Patrick's Day (coupon code USPSTPATSSALE) and free shipping :p which brings the price down quite a bit, so I just ordered from there.

Next question: 90% of the time I use the computer plugged in, with the battery on 100% charge. I am thinking this is wrong and causing early death. What should I be doing to conserve battery life as long as possible?

[QUOTE=lili;11414691...Next question: 90% of the time I use the computer plugged in, with the battery on 100% charge. I am thinking this is wrong and causing early death. What should I be doing to conserve battery life as long as possible?[/QUOTE]

I had a Lenovo T43 plugged in 95% of days on my desk. Just before it was turned in for a new one, with 2.25 years of heavy use, the original battery was still like new.

I think that Lenovo laptop batteries require no special treatment.

If you keep your laptop updated using Lenovo's System Update utility it should have downloaded the newest Thinkvantage Power Manager Suite which has setting to keep the battery in its best condition. I have found the Power Manager Suite has done an excellent job in keep my batteries in their best conditon.

Dan

I have mine set to start charging when the battery level gets down to 45% of capacity and then charge up to 95% of capacity. That sort of setting is supposed to improve battery life.