Thinkpads Forum

Im curious as to what the going rate would be for a new old stock IBM (genuine, sealed box) R32 / R40 Battery?

I may be putting some on the market, or I may keep them, depends on the going rate for them, I opened and tested one today, after letting it charge it now reads

100 percent charge, cycle count 1, full charge capacity 59.2w, design capacity 57.6w

The problem with NOS batts is that if they were manufactured more than 12-18 months ago, they may not be any good, even if they charge to 100%
On rundown, they may quit after 50%, or sometimes almost right away.

I know that I should not ask here (should open a new thread), but it's coming automatic...

7 months ago I've bought a brand new sealed battery (not an old stock)... and I've not yet used it, even for 1 cycle.
Does it means that I should instead charge it 1 time and then put it away discharged at around 70%, to prevent possible problems in the future ?

IBM says that a battery in storage should be fully charged at least once a year.

Im currently testing this one, doing the 'conditioning' thing on it, as
once it charged the battery condition went from green to red, and the battery maximiser said the battery needed reconditioning.

Its running down now for the first time, been on about an hour and a half, its down to 42 percent now, with over a hour remaining, condition green again.

Will see how it goes after its fully run down and then charged back up again.

Are you supposed to use the machine as normal when you run a battery down, ie surfing etc, I have just been letting it sit at the desktop so far (apart from firing up the browser to type this.)

Also, is once enough, or should it be done 2 or 3 times, the rundown/recharge procedure when you get a new battery?

Probably will be tommorow before I can post some results, its pretty late over here in the UK, getting pretty tired

Battery Maximizer recommends 1-3 times, depending on the results...

After the first recondition the stats changed to

100 percent
60.37 remaining capacity
60.37 Total Capacity
57.6 Design Capacity

So the total capacity improved a bit after the first attempt.

Im a bit confused as to how to interpret 'depending on the results' , what results would require a second or third discharge/charge cycle? Do you stop when it doesn't improve, or do you stop when it has improved? Or something else?

Is it normal for the total capactity to be greater than the design capacity also? It seems to be doing pretty good so far considering the battery was made in 2004

I ended up with three of them as the batteries I kept finding on ebay were all 'clones' and I was a bit dubious of buying a clone battery, Im not that convinced about the safety aspect of them, considering the genuine batteries get subject to recalls from time to time, Im not sure the 'no name' clones would be up front and recall their batteries in the event of a fault.

So when I spotted three IBM, new but old ones, I snapped them up.. Fingers crossed they hold up, but they seem great so far.

I don't have a lot of experience with NOS batteries but I did buy one several months ago and it has worked great so far.
It's an X22 battery manufactured 4/2001, first used 4/2007. It now has around 60 cycles on it and is maintaining a full charge capacity of 37.71Wh, from a design capacity of 38.88Wh.

That's pretty good performance, IMO. If the price was right, I'd definitely take a chance on another NOS battery.