T400 Ultrabay Battery!

i currently have a T400 and a 4cell battery, i was thinking of buying and extra 9cell to be more portable. i found this Advanced Ultrabay Battery II 3-cell battery offered by lenovo and i tohught it's be an amazing idea to get. i hardly use the dvd drive and extra battery life would be great especially in a compact size!

i have some questions tho:

1. are there any dis-advantages to the ultrabay battery?
2. how heavy will it make my T400
3. how much more battery life will i get?
4. where's the best place to buy it?

thanks guys!

 

One disadvantage that I know of is the ultrabay battery is used before your main battery. This causes the ultra bay bat to lose it's charge because lith-ion batteries don't like to be fully discharged

 

yep..i was about to say the same thing. in the beginning i had the exact same thought as the OP. i didnt want anything except a 4cell battery cuz i dont like the aesthetic of a battery sticking out of the laptop. i thought the ultrabay battery would be perfect in that case but then i read other people's comments on it and..yea.. supposedly the ultrabay dies fast because it's fully discharged before the main battery is used

if you are going to buy one, however, i recommend ebay you can get a new one for cheap. also, microsoft live is doing a 30% off ebay auctions i believe. google around for more details =)

 

anymore info on this?

btw lenovo quotes 13hours of battery life with the ultrabay+9cell, and around 9.6hours with just the 9 cell, so its around 3.4 hours extra with the 3 cell ultrabay under the best circumstances...

 

I had the bay battery for my R60. It was at less than 50% of capacity after four months. I bought the nine cell in January, which is at 90% of capacity.

 

how do you check battery capacity?

btw..i think i'm better off buing a 9cell..time to search ebay.

 

Yea i'd recommend just getting a 9cell rather than carrying multiple batteries.
Heres a guide that mentions something about checking capacity, but says its not so accurate. Anyways, i think it has all you need to know.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=91846

 

I got the bay battery for my t43 and was fairly disappointed. It only seemed to add an hour or so, and after a little while of not using it, i stuck it in and got an error message, and it never worked after that. Not really sure what happened, and maybe I did something wrong, but in the end I would go with another main battery if I did it again.

Battery capacity can be checked in the power manager.

 

I bought a T400 (4-cell battery) with the ultrabay 2 battery, and I have mixed opinions of it. First of all, I too am disappointed that it is fully discharged before starting on the main battery - this is an easy software fix Lenovo!

After realizing this discharge problem, I could have started taking better care of it, such as watching until it was around 20% and then pulling it out. But that's a pain in my ***, so I just abuse the hell out of it. I completely discharge it once every day, and it's actually held up pretty well. I've had it for about 6 weeks, and it has lost 4% of its original charge. I figure if Lenovo is stupid enough not to add a software fix, I will abuse their warranty on the battery if it comes to that.

Using just the 4-cell I get about 2.5hrs of battery life with my normal use. Using the ultrabay with it nets about 4.5hrs (results will vary of course, I don't feel like listing my precise specs or habits). That should give a good relative estimate compared with the 4-cell.

A fringe benefit of this setup that should be mentioned is that my 4-cell hardly ever gets below 30% during my day since it is 2nd to discharge, so it has been through fewer cycles and still has 100% charge.

 

I am probably going to get the 4 cell and ultrabay also, that will give me about 9 hours form the main, and 5 hours for the combo, 14 hours together just carrying an extra 9 cell and having a flush 4cell in the notebook....

It would be really good if someone were to code an application that would let you set the thresholds for the ultrabay, any takers?

edit:
here are some more spec on the batteries
4 cell 14.4 V dc, 2.6 Ah
http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/...-category-id=40320E4BA86742C5B4CCF58B2BC147AA

6 cell 10.8 V dc, 5.2 Ah
http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/...-category-id=40320E4BA86742C5B4CCF58B2BC147AA

9 cell 10.8 V dc, 7.8 Ah
http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/...-category-id=40320E4BA86742C5B4CCF58B2BC147AA

Ultrabay II unknown V, 2.7 Ah
http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/...-category-id=4364BD0F20B94413B5AD6E684D2848E9

hope this helps someone!!! anybody know why the 4 cell has a higher voltage? And from all the reviews/users I am observing about 1Ah= 1hour~

 

You're thinking a 4-cell, ultrabay battery, and a 9-cell will last 14 hours? Being realistic, I think it would be more around 10 hours.

 

There's a nice thread comparing battery sizes and runtimes for T400/T500 notebooks over at Lenovo forums. I opted myself for 7-cell which in my view offers the best balance between capacity and size/weight.

 

I have a t61 14" with nvida and a 4 cell that lasts about 2 hours. I simply love my additional 3 cell bay battery. I hardly notice any additional weight, but the extra 1.5 battery time makes a big difference. I think I paid about 90.00 at newegg with 3.00 shipping.

 

Battery tab in Power Manager.

 

does that include battery wear?

 

yes, it shows the original max capacity and the current max capacity, as well as the number of disharges and a bunch of other stuff. i thought you had a t400...?

 

Hey cspyr0

I'm looking to buy a bay battery for my new T400. What's the model number of yours? Lenovo's site is crap for detailing compatibilities. Theres Ultrabay Advanced 2 and then theres Ultrabay Slim, etc.

Could you let me know the model number of yours? So I can be sure whatever I get works with the T400.

Thanks.

 

Why doesn't anyone use the main battery and pop in the ultrabay battery ONLY WHEN the main batt. runs out?
should happen less often than the 3 hr batt. running low

 

I bought an Ultrabay Advanced 2. Any battery that works in the T61's drive bay will also work in the T400's (optical drives will NOT, however).

To Receph: Pulling the battery in/out is an option to preserve its health, but it's more of an inconvenience than one might think, especially when you consider how easy it would be for Lenovo to fix.

 

...because it's silly to have to manually keep tabs on the battery. Why bother having battery management software at all then?