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2014 MBP starting to bulge. Replace battery or recycle?

Fishrrman said:
199 to have Apple replace the battery is NOT "gouging".
Quite the contrary, it's a bargain.

For your money, you get:
- A new APPLE-BRANDED battery
- Installation
- A short warranty.

Can't beat that.
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It's clearly popular or Apple wouldn't offer the service. They provide service to 2013-2015 models and models this old would normally lose Apple service eligibility by now. I do think that Apple sold a ton of these models and a lot of customers think that they are still good systems. I was in WalMart this week and looked at the laptops that they offered. Most were around $200 with Celerons, 4-8 GB of RAM and very small SSDs. I do think that the Retina MacBook Pro 15s would outperform those systems by a wide margin, even today.
 
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Resist said:
Well, a battery replacement took me like 15 minutes, it was too easy. OWC has how to videos on their site and they will help you out if you have problems.
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Don't assume it's always a 15 minutes job that anyone could do just because that was your case.

I have changed the battery on my late 2013 MBP and it took way more than 15 minutes (and I have plenty of experience of opening Macs and changing components). The battery was heavily glued to the inside of the case and it took a lot of time to get it loose. Also it was a third party battery of unknown quality. So I can clearly see why some people prefer to pay more to have Apple change it and get an Apple battery.
 
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justashooter said:
Replacing the battery in a 2014 MBP is not the same as replacing one on a 2010 MBP. The 2014 is not a "remove the bottom cover, remove two screws holding the battery and unplug it" change of battery. The 2014 is glued to the inside of the case and basically the glue has to be "cut through" to remove the battery. Not done in 15 minutes for sure. I'm cheap as hell :) and I don't think I would do it.
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I was unaware of this, now I have been schooled. It really pisses me off though how Apple has made it impossible for us to upgrade and fix our own computers now. I really like Apple products but absolutely hate this aspect of their business model. Not everyone can afford to spend $1,000 or more every few years to buy a new MacBook.
 
Resist said:
I was unaware of this, now I have been schooled. It really pisses me off though how Apple has made it impossible for us to upgrade and fix our own computers now. I really like Apple products but absolutely hate this aspect of their business model. Not everyone can afford to spend $1,000 or more every few years to buy a new MacBook.
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I get ten years out of my Apple gear. Just configure it correctly for planned requirements.
 
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pshufd said:
I get ten years out of my Apple gear. Just configure it correctly for planned requirements.
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I got 11 years out of my 2010 MacBook Pro only because I could easily upgrade it myself and it still works great, granted its life is limited now due to the lack of being able to run the latest OS and soon enough it wouldn't be able to get the latest security patches.

But it can be hard to configure correctly when they're just so expensive. I wanted 16GB's of RAM and a 2TB SSD for this M1 MacBook Pro, just couldn't afford it and only got this one because it was on sale at Costco. It becomes a dilemma, spend a ton of money for the high end models or get the low end models and replace it in a few years. Have to wonder which way costs less in the long run.
 
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Resist said:
I got 11 years out of my 2010 MacBook Pro only because I could easily upgrade it myself and it still works great, granted its life is limited now due to the lack of being able to run the latest OS and soon enough it wouldn't be able to get the latest security patches.

But it can be hard to configure correctly when they're just so expensive. I wanted 16GB's of RAM and a 2TB SSD for this M1 MacBook Pro, just couldn't afford it and only got this one because it was on sale at Costco. It becomes a dilemma, spend a ton of money for the high end models or get the low end models and replace it in a few years. Have to wonder which way costs less in the long run.
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I've found that upgrading more frequently costs more. As far as storage goes, I set up a NAS and make greater use of the cloud so I don't need large amounts of storage directly on my Macs.

I bought a Mac M1 mini as a test and potential throwaway but I've been pretty impressed with what it can do.
 
That's my big gripe with Apple. I have 4 PC's that I can upgrade hardware anytime without issue (I have a music studio), but once I buy a Mac, that's pretty much it.

I too grabbed an M1 mini (8 GB) and I like it so far. I just need to find a permanent place to set up besides my dining table.
 
dukebound85 said:
200 is not really much money at all
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Not by itself, but it adds up when you have other expenses.
pshufd said:
I've found that upgrading more frequently costs more. As far as storage goes, I set up a NAS and make greater use of the cloud so I don't need large amounts of storage directly on my Macs.

I bought a Mac M1 mini as a test and potential throwaway but I've been pretty impressed with what it can do.
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Maybe it costs more to upgrade more frequently however, you get newer technology with a new warranty. So that adds value. It's great that you can use the cloud easily, there are still a lot of people that can't because of slow internet and outages.
 
Resist said:
Not by itself, but it adds up when you have other expenses.

Maybe it costs more to upgrade more frequently however, you get newer technology with a new warranty. So that adds value. It's great that you can use the cloud easily, there are still a lot of people that can't because of slow internet and outages.
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There are a lot of places in my state with 1.5 - 3.0 mbps DSL service. We could theoretically buy 2 gbps service from Comcast. Quality of service varies widely. We're at home most of the time with the pandemic so the NAS is local - just have to set it up on the LAN and it has made life a lot easier so that we don't have to copy files around.

I have an old HP computer that I bought around 1976 or 1977 and I still use it a few times a week. HP was known for quality products back then.
 
justashooter said:
Replacing the battery in a 2014 MBP is not the same as replacing one on a 2010 MBP. The 2014 is not a "remove the bottom cover, remove two screws holding the battery and unplug it" change of battery. The 2014 is glued to the inside of the case and basically the glue has to be "cut through" to remove the battery. Not done in 15 minutes for sure. I'm cheap as hell :) and I don't think I would do it.
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www.ifixit.com

MacBook Pro 13" Retina Display Mid 2014 Battery Replacement

Use this guide to remove the glued-in battery from your MacBook Pro. This is best done with the help of an iFixit battery replacement kit; the...
www.ifixit.com www.ifixit.com

Yes, it's more detailed than replacing the battery in my old 2010, but for me it would still be worth doing. But honestly, I love the look and feel of my new M1 MacBook Pro that if the 2014 was mine I'd just buy a new one. The battery run time is just amazing on my new machine!
 
Khaetra said:
I am. It's in the shop and I should have it back by next week :).
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Hey Khaetra, I spent my entire summer looking for a battery replacement for my mid2014 MBP 15" in the south of France and had no results. From Apple stores to 3rd party computer shops, they kept telling me the battery was obsolete. Were you at an official apple store? Could you maybe give me the store's contact so that I could possibly reach out to them or something? Thank you very much.
 
Resist said:
So apparently everyone here is made of money.
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Not everyone but Apple makes premium products and these products don't even run the majority of software programs out there very well. You need a moderate amount of disposable income to buy and maintain Apple products. You can go into WalMart and buy a new laptop for $200. Cheapest that Apple has is $999.
 
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Resist said:
So apparently everyone here is made of money.
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When I replace things, I like to replace them with quality warranted products with the hope and assumption that they last longer.

No one is saying $200 has more or less worth, they're saying $200 is a reasonable price to replace something that's 7 years old and has presumably outlived it's expected life.

Imagine brakes on your car lasting 7 years (they did on my 2011 Jetta). Wouldn't you absolutely replace them with the genuine VW brakes installed and warranted by VW, hoping that they'd last another 7 years so you wouldn't have to shell out sooner?
 
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macsound1 said:
When I replace things, I like to replace them with quality warranted products with the hope and assumption that they last longer.

No one is saying $200 has more or less worth, they're saying $200 is a reasonable price to replace something that's 7 years old and has presumably outlived it's expected life.

Imagine brakes on your car lasting 7 years (they did on my 2011 Jetta). Wouldn't you absolutely replace them with the genuine VW brakes installed and warranted by VW, hoping that they'd last another 7 years so you wouldn't have to shell out sooner?
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I used to drive Audis and one of the guys in the shop replaced some parts with VW branded parts. Audis back then were basically VWs. The Audi branded part was about 2.5 times the price of the VW-branded part but they were the same part. But that's specialized knowledge. I get all of my auto work at the dealer and do whatever they recommend. Yes, I could save some money by going to a local shop but I'd rather have the company that designed and built the car also maintain it.
 
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pshufd said:
I used to drive Audis and one of the guys in the shop replaced some parts with VW branded parts. Audis back then were basically VWs. The Audi branded part was about 2.5 times the price of the VW-branded part but they were the same part. But that's specialized knowledge. I get all of my auto work at the dealer and do whatever they recommend. Yes, I could save some money by going to a local shop but I'd rather have the company that designed and built the car also maintain it.
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Audi is still part of the VW family of companies. When you get parts from the dealer, they say “Porsche - Audi - VW - Seat - Skoda”. I like the idea that my GTI has parts from the Skoda forbidden fruit on it.
 
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I think the issue too is what do we want to spend our limited funds on? In my book, it’s housing, transportation, food, clothing, education, and computing in that order. So yeah when I buy a computer, I’ll put out some serious money, but I’m not doing it every year, any more than I buy a house or a car every year. Different strokes, I suppose. I need my next Mac to be quite impressive and available when I have access to sufficient cash.
 
profcutter said:
Audi is still part of the VW family of companies. When you get parts from the dealer, they say “Porsche - Audi - VW - Seat - Skoda”. I like the idea that my GTI has parts from the Skoda forbidden fruit on it.
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This was back in the 1980s. But the Audi 4000 had the same engine as the VW Rabbit/Scirroco/Jetta and there was VW branding on a lot of the components. There were Bosch parts which I assume were common too.
 
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profcutter said:
I think the issue too is what do we want to spend our limited funds on? In my book, it’s housing, transportation, food, clothing, education, and computing in that order. So yeah when I buy a computer, I’ll put out some serious money, but I’m not doing it every year, any more than I buy a house or a car every year. Different strokes, I suppose. I need my next Mac to be quite impressive and available when I have access to sufficient cash.
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The calculus is different if you make your living from your computers.
 
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