u/AppleSaturnPro

Gotta love these estimated time remaining calculations.

TLDR: Had a battery with under 300 charge cycles that finally quit today. Was wonder if there are any good 3rd party batteries that will last for a while. Or have any of you had luck repairing or servicing your own batteries with new batteries keeping the original housing. Would appreciate any help, advice, and recommendations.

Hi, I wanted to ask the community about this battery. I’ve had this MacBook A1181 for almost 10 years. I had gotten it from Mac of all Trades, and the battery only had about 180 charge cycles (at least that’s what the system report stated). The battery held a charge for a good 4 hours unplugged. I had always wanted one of these and that was the reason I bought it. It was more so just to add to my collection and to take out now and then when I was feeling like Snow Leopard nostalgia.

I would try to take it out and use it at least 3-5 times a year to make sure that the battery would not get completely drained. When I would store it, I would remove the battery from the computer and it was always in a comfortable temperature. Kept it in my home office tucked away in the closet.

I took it out today, as I would do, and this time the battery was completely dead. I plugged in the MacBook and it said that I should service the battery, and it was not taking a charge. The system report said that it had 299 charge cycles on it now, or at least that’s what it had before it did not want to change anymore. I rebooted the computer and tried the SMC reset trick, but after that it change to “replace now” then ultimately it did not want to detect the battery.

I know there are 3rd party replacement batteries out there, and there are also mixed reviews on the battery, even from reputable sellers. I thought about spending some money on eBay for a genuine Apple battery to replace it, but by this point it could be 15 years old. Even if it was “new” age would have certainly not helped.

I tried to find examples for people who had tried to replace the batteries inside the unit, and keep it in the original Apple housing, but again there’s not a lot out there.

My question is: have any of you had any luck with servicing your own batteries, or are there any trusted businesses out there that would place the batteries in the original case. Or if any of you have had experience with 3rd party batteries over a long period of time. My other concerns are would it be the worst idea to keep the battery in the MacBook while I use it from time to time or could that just cause damage and create a spicy pillow situation.

Sorry for the long post, and I appreciate the thoughts and help from this community. Thanks for reading and any advice or recommendation.