Refurb battery from Lenovo outlet?

I just purchased a 7-cell battery for my R61 from the Lenovo outlet. It was refurbished, but for $41 I figured it was worth the risk. Anyway, I received it today and plugged it in; it showed only 4% charge, so while it started charging up, I checked it's info, using TP's power manager app.

Full charge capacity: 68.14 Wh
Design capacity: 65.52 Wh
Cycle count: 0
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So I'm feeling pretty good. Within a couple of minutes, it goes from 4% to 18% charge, telling me it will take 4.25 hrs to get to a full charge. About 2 hrs later, it says it'll take 12 hrs to get to full charge, then down to about 3 hrs (it's charged up to 58% now).

Questions: Should I expect the power manager time estimate to be inaccurate until it gets a sense of how the new battery is behaving?
What else should I watch to test its quality?

Thx, ~john

 

Try it out for a few days, the system will take to to calibrate itself to the new battery.

 

Hi, Im probably gonna buy one of these soon, so how the performance so far? Do you know whats the difference between the 14W 7 Cell High Capacity Battery and 6 Cell Li-Ion Battery? Thanks

 

I got a scratch and dent battery from the outlet. It looked to me, but better yet, had zero cycles and a 56W charge capacity. I think I'm down to 54W now after six months, but I don't use the battery much.

 

After 4-5 days, it looks good. I've only charged it twice, actually, as it seems to be lasting pretty long. I had a 6-cell which, after 20 mos., was down to maybe 60% of its design capacity (which gave me about 2 hrs on a 95% charge).

The new-- er, refurbed--7 cell arrived with zero cycles on the clock, and the ThinkVantage meter tells me that a full charge (at least 95% which is where I have it stop charging) will carry me about 4.5-5 hrs. I don't yet trust the estimates as it's still learning my usage habits, mostly web browsing with and display about 1/2 to 2/3 brightness.

The 7-cell is only slightly heavier and ever-so-slightly thicker than the 6-cell, so it's a good choice for the increase in capacity. And the outlet's prices are a good deal. Like Zaz, I'm happy so far.

 

Refurbed battery may have all the battery cell changed, or were new stock that was left over from somewhere or a returned stock from some customers. They are just as good as new, but just not enough to go around, so the USA customers get the first pick, while oversea customers can only dream about them on most occasions.

 

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I got one (9 cell), charged it up drained it to 70% and put in my freezer for later. 4/5 of design capacity on my 6 cell after 71 cycles (9 months). You just aren't going to beat a 40 dollar battery with 0 cycles. Once they stop making parts for my X200 I will glad of my frozen battery.

I'll check on the frozen one in about a year.

 

Which gets me to thinking... how would you store the old battery? Approx 20 mos. old, 6-cell, with about 220 cycles on it... fully charged it sez it's good for about 2 hrs. Not great but a useful backup. Would you charge it up to about 60-75% and freeze it? Or, if I can't convince my wife to dedicate freezer space for an old battery, just keep it in a cool drawer?

 

man I wish I could get a 9 cell for 40$.. my T500 battery is 75watth of stock /83 after 1 year and 195 cycles (my thinkpad usually is <20% left every day) maybe I need to scower around ebay a little.


Edit: oh wait! import duties are crazy! I might as well pay 200$ for one from Lenovo.