iBook Battery Woes

December 18, 2007 9:10 PM

Anyone have experience with 3rd party batteries for Apple portables?

My 2.5-year-old iBook G4 (14 inch) battery is at 13% capacity, with 244 cycles to its name. Time to replace the battery!

I'm looking at my options here. It seems like I could get a battery from Apple for about $130, or I could get something like this, which claims to have better battery life and last longer. I plan on using this computer for at least another 2.5 years, if at all possible, so I'd just as soon get something that will work for a while.

My questions are -- do these really last longer and/or have better battery life? Will they cause my computer to overheat? Will they void my warranty in any way (I have another 6 months on AppleCare). I'm assuming that the answers to the last 2 are "no", but I'm not sure.

posted by rossination to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

I had a third-party battery from OWC for my PowerBook G4. It did last longer and never caused a problem.
posted by secret about box at 9:46 PM on December 18, 2007

And no, it won't void your warranty unless it causes demonstrable damage to the computer.
posted by secret about box at 9:47 PM on December 18, 2007

I use a fastmac battery with my MacBook pro. It seems to last ~15-20% longer than the kit battery.
posted by dws at 9:56 PM on December 18, 2007

I bought a new "A1045 Genuine battery for G4 15-inch Aluminum series" off eBay for $50 about 6 months ago and it's been fine. It has a bit more capacity than my OEM battery did at the start, but that's about the only difference.
posted by yerfatma at 5:18 AM on December 19, 2007

For the record, I bought the battery from this seller.
posted by yerfatma at 5:19 AM on December 19, 2007

Seconding Other World Computing/FastMac/Newer Tech (I believe they're all under one roof these days). I bought a replacement TiBook battery there years ago which provided excellent battery life.
posted by porn in the woods at 9:48 AM on December 19, 2007