I'm looking for a new battery for this A1278 MacBook, and I'm not sure where exactly to look. Is there any reputable third-party battery brand out there or is it basically just buying whatever's available and hoping that it works out?
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Best battery for Unibody 2008 MacBook?
- Thread starter retta283
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To my knowledge, none makes new batteries for the Unibody MB anymore. As you said, buying whatever you can find is the only option. I would stick to highly-rated eBay sellers if possible.
My 2-power battery seems to be of a reasonable quality and still has a decent performance after 4 years.
I can only add from my own experience, that... somebody would become very, very rich if they could offer a service were you could send your old mac-batteries in for cell-replacement on existing batteries. Especially in Europe. I have stopped counting on how many china-batteries i have bought on ebay = garbage. The sellers are very aware of this, so you can ask them two, three times for another one and keep the one that was broken (they are all more or less broken).
it's' a real lottery if you find something that works, let the forum know
Thanks for the input, it sure seems like it's a whole bunch of crap and nothing good. I feared this would be the case, it's why I've largely steered clear of laptops in recent years (not that I was ever really a laptop guy anyway) is because keeping them running has become costly. It wouldn't be as bad if the CPU didn't downclock when there's no battery.
Thanks. 2-power is a fairly expensive brand akin to the Newertech in US so there was some expectation of quality. What I don't seem to understand is why most aftermarket batteries seem to "fudge" the design capacity number. The technical specs usually list 5000 mAh, yet Coconut Battery reports 5400 mAh. I noticed that the actual capacity settled around 4020 mAh after a few years which is more closer to the original Apple battery capacity of 4100-4300 mAh.
The bigger issue with the old unibody MacBooks is that there seems to be no way to limit charging via software solution. It is very easy to do on Mid 2012 MBP but my Late 2008 have to sit at 100% charge while in a clamshell mode.
Hello,
I owned a 2008 Unibody MacBook (the Aluminum one) and only recently got rid of it.
I bought batteries for it at OWC here...
Battery Replacements for Apple MacBook (2006-2010)
Easily replace the battery of any 2006-2010 Apple MacBook and get up to 23% more capacity vs the original battery. Includes a 1-year NewerTech warranty.
...and they worked great and were excellent quality.
They have every style, for the plastic and the Aluminum model.
It is very easy to get a good quality battery, you just cannot expect to get a cheap piece of crap off of Ebay and expect it to work, you have to spend the money to get a good one.
And, no, OWC batteries are not crap. I've bought them for many laptops for many years and they always worked great for me...no issues. Of course there is a chance that ANY battery can be a dud, even Apple batteries are this way occasionally. However please don't believe any fear mongers who try and tell you the OWC batteries are garbage, that simply isn't true.
Interesting. I thought OWC discontinued these around 5 years ago but I guess I was totally off the mark... I'd be curious to see if anyone else is using these and has good experiences. The battery costs almost as much as the computer did, these days I could buy probably 2 used laptops for that price. Would be a major investment indeed. Though, if it works, peace of mind.Hello,
I owned a 2008 Unibody MacBook (the Aluminum one) and only recently got rid of it.
I bought batteries for it at OWC here...
Battery Replacements for Apple MacBook (2006-2010)
Easily replace the battery of any 2006-2010 Apple MacBook and get up to 23% more capacity vs the original battery. Includes a 1-year NewerTech warranty.eshop.macsales.com
...and they worked great and were excellent quality.
They have every style, for the plastic and the Aluminum model.
It is very easy to get a good quality battery, you just cannot expect to get a cheap piece of crap off of Ebay and expect it to work, you have to spend the money to get a good one.
And, no, OWC batteries are not crap. I've bought them for many laptops for many years and they always worked great for me...no issues. Of course there is a chance that ANY battery can be a dud, even Apple batteries are this way occasionally. However please don't believe any fear mongers who try and tell you the OWC batteries are garbage, that simply isn't true.
OWC (newertech) are "nice if you can get them" and they are good for about 2 more years of work, in general which is fine. Not every fear monger/reader of this forum are an american though. Where i live, one of those are at least 108 USD at the only scandinavian OWC Premium Reseller. When they have stock they fly from the shelves, i should add...Hello,
I owned a 2008 Unibody MacBook (the Aluminum one) and only recently got rid of it.
I bought batteries for it at OWC here...
Battery Replacements for Apple MacBook (2006-2010)
Easily replace the battery of any 2006-2010 Apple MacBook and get up to 23% more capacity vs the original battery. Includes a 1-year NewerTech warranty.
...and they worked great and were excellent quality.
They have every style, for the plastic and the Aluminum model.
It is very easy to get a good quality battery, you just cannot expect to get a cheap piece of crap off of Ebay and expect it to work, you have to spend the money to get a good one.
And, no, OWC batteries are not crap. I've bought them for many laptops for many years and they always worked great for me...no issues. Of course there is a chance that ANY battery can be a dud, even Apple batteries are this way occasionally. However please don't believe any fear mongers who try and tell you the OWC batteries are garbage, that simply isn't true.
Oh, and i tried to order one direct from the u.s/intl OWC-shop once: Battery: 60 USD. Shipping 59 USD. TOTAL 119 USD...
But, it's nice that they still are available
And... it's not that we are irritated at the crap-quality of those Ebay-batteries, no, the the irritating thing is that there are many of the more well established "green" battery companies that sell their garbage "charge one time then broken" batteries at about 75% of the price of OWC (in Euros).
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What you have as an additional option there, which North Americans (Canadian here) do not, is the Duracell Direct replacement.
From people I’ve listened to who’ve used Duracell’s laptop batteries, they have found the quality to be, generally and overall, positive (pun not intended). I would be delighted to have that option, to be able to shop it against OWC/Newertech here, but in Canada, options for virtually everything tend to be fewer relative to the juggernaut to our south.
Yikes! $81 before shipping + taxes. I wish they'd let me see a total without needing to make an account, I hate that...
It does make me feel a little funny buying a battery that will cost more than the computer itself did, but that's a me problem I guess.
Edit: Never mind, I found a way to calculate, not sure how I missed it... $117 total for this battery in Canadian dollars. US only pays $71 USD which is about $95 Canadian, we are being ripped off.
It does make me feel a little funny buying a battery that will cost more than the computer itself did, but that's a me problem I guess.
Edit: Never mind, I found a way to calculate, not sure how I missed it... $117 total for this battery in Canadian dollars. US only pays $71 USD which is about $95 Canadian, we are being ripped off.
It's too much for me, the US option seems most more cost-effective so I could in theory have it delivered to my nephew for future collection, but $71 USD is still a lot for a battery which is apparently praised for lasting only 2 years.Whew! Spendy.
Yah, I’m not very encouraged.
But then again, in the the two years and three cheap batteries since beginning to use my 2008 17-inch MBP again, i’m probably already spent more than that anyway.
I have a couple of these (a late 08 unibody mb and a mid 09 mbp), one upstairs and one downstairs. I replaced the OEM battery in the 08 with a cheap SMP $20 battery off ebay a couple years ago when it started to bulge. This cheapo seems to be working pretty well. I've had the mb since new and I dont ever recall it getting much over 3hrs unplugged anyways. I get around 2.5-3 now depending on what I'm doing which the vast majority of that is basic DD stuff like old computer forums or YT. The mbp I get closer to 4 hours (with the battery it came to me with) which shoulders additional photography duty from time to time as well.
The late 09 macbookpros were cool as those touted impressive 2009 battery life in excess of 8 hours, so with that model if you needed to maximize unplugged time (I don't) I think it could make sense to pay up for a name brand replacement battery like newertech as they tout 8% improved capacity and limited 1yr warranty which is a nice touch.
For my needs, cheap SMP batteries from Ebay have served these machines and their mostly lap warmer lazyboy arm chair surfing role well.
The late 09 macbookpros were cool as those touted impressive 2009 battery life in excess of 8 hours, so with that model if you needed to maximize unplugged time (I don't) I think it could make sense to pay up for a name brand replacement battery like newertech as they tout 8% improved capacity and limited 1yr warranty which is a nice touch.
For my needs, cheap SMP batteries from Ebay have served these machines and their mostly lap warmer lazyboy arm chair surfing role well.
I suggest getting an original Apple battery whatever the cost is because they are reliable no matter how old they get. Here is the 13 years old battery on my MacBook late 2009:
You see even after 13 years and 723 cycles it's still in good condition.
Have you tried the Charge Limiter.app? It enables you to set the max charge percentage.
You see even after 13 years and 723 cycles it's still in good condition.
Have you tried the Charge Limiter.app? It enables you to set the max charge percentage.
The fun part is that I also got a "Success dialog" message but it proved to be meaningless as it seems that it only relates to "successfully run terminal command" even though the desired outcome of running a command is not achieved.
Late 2008 and 2009 MacBooks have an identical hardware so I am not sure why 2008 MacBook is being so stubborn with regards to the setting a charge limit.
Well, in my MB late-2009 it works without an issue. I've just tried it by unplugging the power chord and wait until the percentage dropped %90 I've plugged in the power chord and the charging LED went red for a second or two then green meaning the power adapter doesn't charge the battery, as it is intended. Here is a screenshot showing everything in action. The version of Charge Limiter.app I use is 1.5