Battery Replacement Reccomendation

[busytire01]

Please help me find the best replacement battery for my Late 2008 Macbook Pro Unibody Laptop.
Because of the issue with it running hot I prefer one similar to the original. The battery I am replacing did not have the ability to make the fan come on when it ran to hot, so I would like one that can do that. I am not very computer savvy, so the help you provide will be much appreciated.

 

[techound1]

ifixit.com is a good place to start if you want to learn about replacing it yourself. When you've got the case open, you can also blow out the 10 years of dust that has accumulated in the case (helping the fan run easier).

 

[prisstratton]

Finding the best battery is a bit subjective. I was on a search for the last year for a good replacement. I would obviously have preferred to obtain an Apple replacement, but my equipment is obsolete so I had to settle for third party. I ended up with a NewerTech NuPower battery for my MBP. At the moment I am only a couple of weeks into using this so I reserve my judgement on that for the moment. Not that I could really do any type of direct comparison with the battery you need for your Mac.

From everything I have looked at…….eBay is a crap shoot, anything on Amazon has mixed reviews at best. I do not recommend or advocate in any way (at the moment) the NewerTech batteries, but from what I have seen and read they seem to be in the “okay to good” category, kind of a middle ground, if you will.

Do not buy a battery from iFixit, from what I have seen in my searches so far they are not very good.

You did not specify your model exactly, but please look here:

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/apple_laptop/batteries/MacBook_Pro_15_Unibody

I hope this helps

Good luck

Sorry if this is a bit long winded, but finding a “good” replacement is not simple.

 

[Willo34]

I can tell you, if possible where you are, to buy an LMP battery. They are of the same quality as Apple batteries but without the limited loading cycles.....my guess is this is your MacBook? Then this is the battery you should be looking for: http://www.ikfix.nl/accu-macbook-unibody-15-inch-2008/nl/product/1544/?CPI=0

Good luck.

 

[nigelbb]

If it’s a 2008 it’s not a unibody. If it’s a unibody it’s not a 2008.

 

[prisstratton]

...

 

[LarryJoe33]

I second the NuPower NewTech batteries. I actually have all the experiences @prisstratton mentioned.

- Amazon, bought one of the middle of the road options with good reviews. Lasted a year.
- iFixit - issues on arrival/installation - battery would drop from 65% to 7% every time from the first charge on. Battery % of original design dropped to 85% on day two, Upon inspection of the battery before returning, it was identical to the a $30 option on Amazon
- ebay OEM Apple battery: yup if was OEM with a 2015 manufacture date!
- NuPower Newer Tech, I am on week 6 with this battery. So far so good. Went through
B&H vs OWC. Cheaper and no tax.

 

[prisstratton]

I also purchased from BHPhoto and the cost delivered to me in Canada was $30 cheaper than if I had gone through OWC.

My experience so far with my NewerTech battery has been very good. Please note that I am only two weeks into using this battery and how it holds up over time will be a better reflection of how good they are. I am going to post back more details at the 3 month point on another thread that I had already been interacting with, here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/battery-for-2011-macbook-pro.2065562/#post-25970507

But, so far.......if I drain it down completely (this is NOT how I use my MBP, I just wanted to test it), it will last me 4 hours and 35 minutes with the battery at 9 % remaining. So, I would estimate a total usage at approximately 4 hours and 45 minutes. Of course, this all depends on how you are using your Mac.

 

[Resist]

Last year I finally got around to replacing the original battery in my Mid 2010 13" MacBook Pro, with a NewerTech battery from OWC. It barely lasted over a year, and therefore outside of the warranty. Wouldn't hold a charge long and my trackpad stopped clicking when pressed, ended up that the battery was bulging. I bought another NewerTech battery from OWC, thanks to them for giving me great discount. They said these batteries should last 2-3 years, so I will keep a closer eye on this new battery.

 

[prisstratton]

Hi Everyone,

As I mentioned above I was posting my experience with the NuPower battery on another thread, but I felt it would also fit here.

When I received the battery in April it had one charge cycle on it and it’s manufacture date was August 14, 2017, in other words it was 8 months old when I received it.

Full charge capacity reported as being: 9008 mAh, with a design capacity of: 8800 mAh.

I performed a calibration and this added another charge cycle.

I wanted to see how long it would last and I ran it down to 9 % charge remaining, at which point I was at a total of 4 hours and 35 minutes of use. I therefore estimated a total usage of 4 hours and 45 minutes (this time was further validated by the data I collected over 3 months). This of course added another charge cycle and also dropped the capacity slightly, down to 9007 mAh.

Please note: I do not use my Mac like this on a regular basis. I use it when I need to and otherwise have it plugged in.

At the beginning of May I used it to 27 % charge remaining and for whatever reason it dropped the capacity to 8995 mAh, I was hoping that this was not going to be a continuing downward trend in total battery capacity. But, a couple of weeks after that I ran it down to 5 % charge remaining, which added another charge cycle, but the capacity increased to 9002 mAh.

Since then things seemed to have settled down and there have no more fluctuations in total capacity. Currently I am sitting at a total of 4 charge cycles with a charge capacity of 9002 mAh. This has not changed since May and everything just seems to be rock solid at this point.

Testing: I tracked my usage time versus battery consumed throughout every day for 3 months. I averaged the data for the 3 month test period and it worked out to 4.77 hours or 4 hours 46 minutes total battery time. This fits bang on with my observed actual usage. Of course, this will fluctuate on a day to day basis depending on how you are using your Mac.

Is this as good as a genuine Apple battery - NO.

It is a GOOD battery and at the 6 month point it is behaving very solidly, let us hope this continues.

I hope you find this useful.

Edit: Saturday October 13, 2018. There has been a drastic change in battery performance over the last two weeks, my MBP was using 42 % of the battery in one hour. I performed SMC and NVRAM/PRAM reset and another battery calibration. This fixed the issue and battery performance is now improved, in the first hour of use after the calibration it used 16 % of the battery.

 

[MattOKC]

It bothers me that OWC won't divulge basic specs like number of cells or mAh rating for the Nupower batteries they sell. I asked them; they declined to disclose the cell number, and sent me to another website where the mAh could be estimated by entering voltage and Wh into a calculation app, instead of just listing the cells and mAh on the specs like a normal battery seller would do. Why on earth would a battery seller be dodgy about sharing that basic information?