that's quick, a new battery from Apple!
Last friday (August the 24th) I checked online if the battery I have in my old green iBook was up for replacement. Last year I got a new battery in there and chances were this was one of the explosive kind...
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...and indeed, even though my iBook is a G3, the combination of my serial number with the serial number of a new battery is something they accepted. So no phone-calls or such, hardly five minutes of work…
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I was expecting this to take several weeks, but this morning a UPS-truck showed up, with a new battery! When I told the driver about the battery-exchange-program and that the package probably had all the info inside on how to send back the old one, he kindly waited. When I opened the package, all the stickers and such for returning the old battery were inside and so I quickly changed the battery and put it back in the box and the UPS-guy took it with him.
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So, this exhange went pretty suave if you ask me. Now I only feel a little stupid I’ve been so careful about the battery I just send back. In one years time I only put thirty cycles on it… But well, I’m whining, I’ve got a brand new (non-explosive?) battery with one cycle right now… ^_^
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...oh, and if you’re wondering what that green sticker on my battery is. I exchanged that quickly too…
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*^_^*
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LUCKY GUY!!!!!
With a LiON battery, you’ll worry less about cycles, and more bout the age of the cells. LiON cells only have a few good years of life, so get your 300-500 cycles in while the pack still has life. A LiON pack will degrade over time, even if carefully stored with a half charge.
By the way, a charge cycle is a cycle full charge/discharge amounts, even if that is broken up into multiple uses and charges. LiON requiers you to use it different than NiMH or NiCD.
Hi Jon,
I have to disagree with you here slightly.
Of course there’s this ‘shelf life’-effect, but that doesn’t mean imho you can put cycles on there like there’s no tomorrow. If you take two 2y/o batteries, I’d rather have the one with the least cycles on it.
I know several people whose iBook/Pbook battery was heavily degraded in performance after one year of usage, with 150-200 cycles. I can tell you that the battery I just send in, with 30 cycles, still gave me 5+ hours of battery-time…
And about the difference between Li-Ion and NiMH. Indeed, it takes another approach. These Li-Ion batteries don’t mind to be filled up from 80 to 100%. Anyway, I see a lot of people using there iBook/PBook at home, first on battery and when it’s discharged, they connect it to their charger. I connect mine to the charger as soon as I get home and it’s connected also when I sit on the couch with my iBook. I disconnect it when I leave my home and that’s how I got only 30 cycles in a year… Everybody's got an opinion on these batteries, but I can recommend this to anyone...
Li-Ion on Wikipedia
I have just bought a new battery for my 12” G4 from the Swiss retail chain Manor. Strangely the box seal was broken but after assurances and being a trusting soul I put the cash down. Now I have stuffed it into my Powerbook, I have found the battery is on its 13th cycle and 45% charged.
Is this normal in “new” batteries?
Any feedback is much appreciated.
Paul