Battery Life of 9 cell & ultrabay over 6 cell?

[aphex]

I know everyones system will be a bit different... But how big of a gain is there using the 9-cell over the 6-cell? What about the ultrabay battery?

I have an old 6-cell on mt T41 and wanted to get a new battery. Used to get 4-5 hours, now i get about 1.5 (battery is almost 2 years old).

[christopher_wolf]

I think there is a significant gain when going from the 6-Cell Battery to the 9-Cell; my system originally came with a 6-Cell battery that would get me very good battery life. I did, however, opt for the 9-Cell (I actually have 2 9-Cells, the original 6-Cell, and an Ultrabay Slim Battery) for almost all mobile applications because it provides a good balance of system life and mobility. Most everybody I know that uses a Thinkpad usually gets the 9-Cell battery.


As for the Ultrabay, it gives you that little edge of time in which to complete your work. It didn't give me too much of an increase over the 6-Cell; but it was substantial enough. HTH

[kuma]

How much more time than with the 6 cell alone? I'm thinking of buying one of the ultrabay batteries to use. 2 hours would be great.
I just bought my computer so my current 6 cell gets around 3:30 hours.

[christopher_wolf]

I can stretch it to 2 hours if I have to...The functional increase in lifespan for me has been around 1:30 hours to 1:45 hours.

[kuma]

Are you still at Cal? I graduated in 2000, I love the place. I'm in Med school now. Enjoy your college life while you can.

[christopher_wolf]

Yup, still at Cal; Senior doing some Research and Grad work...Looking for Med School and Grad School as well.

[kuma]

Good stuff, live these times up. You'll never be in college again. Go the Bears Lair on the next sunny Friday, and drink in the sun and people, or one of the huge liters of beer they have. Either way it is a good time.

[aphex]

Does the 6 cell + the Ultrabay slim roughly equal the amt from a single 9-cell battery?

[Rose]

i really dont think that people should be so fixated about 6cell batt is the way to go and not the 9cell due to dimensions.

What ive read the utrabay slim battery has a quite short lifespan since your thinkpad always drains out the ultrabay first before using the main battery. and since draining a li-ion battery completely is never good and effectively shortens your batterylife and because the ultrabay bat is quite expensive, i recon its simply not worth the money.

I actually prefer the 9cell since its part sticking out the back works nicely as a handle so that you can carry your laptop around with one hand while the lid is open. A very appreciated feature that isnt possible with the 6cell.

Go for a 9 cell!

[christopher_wolf]

Well, it still depends; here is how I would setup a tree to rank the choices

---AC Adapter; get this if it is a good deal, you do not like pulling out the AC Adapter from behind the desk, you don't mind carrying an AC Adapter, and you are around AC outlets when you might need to plug in for a quick charge. Do you have time in between classes, seminars, labs, lectures, etc for a quick charge?

---6-Cell Battery; If you get this, you will then have two 6-cell batteries; are there any boundary cases you can think of that would make this awkard or otherwise inefficient? i.e. You just *need* that next 30 minutes, but you either can't do that without running down and replacing the whole battery during lecture. Do you mind, or have the space, to be carrying around 2 batteries, which you might need to switch in an awkward moment, for just 20 minutes more of battery life?

---9-Cell Battery; This will give you an extra hour+ of battery life; you also have the option of carrying it and the 6-Cell battery around with you, yet you end up carrying around antoher battery. Does the extra battery life you get justify the cost? Assuming it lasts as long as a 6-Cell, how much more use would you get out of it per unit cost?

Those are some of the questions that I would ask myself; turn it into an engineering/IEOR or cost-analysis decision and go through each of those quesitons, carefully weighing the possible outcomes. HTH

[kuma]

Can other people confirm this? As I was thinking that since it is a 4 cell, I would get at least an hour out of it. I already ordered it and has been shipped. No way I'm only getting 30 mins extra. I was looking to run 4-5 hours of battery life. I just don't like having to bring my AC charger with me, as I carry everything in my backpack.

[aphex]

I guess it would be helpful to state the reason i posed this question in the first place...

I have one 1.5 hour Trademark/Unfair Competition class in the library in which no outlets are nearby. Counting the 15-20 minutes early i get to class every day, i BARELY make it though class (and thats w/ my LCD at 50%)

Also, the added length of the 9 cell would be great, BUT my Brenthaven backpack just fits the T41 w/ the 6, no way would the 9 cell fit.

[chan_man]

If you use the Battery Maximizer set to "Super Power Saver" and still get only 1.5 hours, you definitely need a new battery. The 9 cell is good but it sticks out the back about an inch. Have you checked your battery health? if it is yellow, you can try tips to get the battery to retain more. If it is red, it is time to get a new battery. I still get 4 hours on my T41 but it is only a year old. It is good to take the battery out if you use the laptop always plugged in, try to drain the batteries out fully and then charge at least once a week.

[bill bolton]

try to drain the batteries out fully and then charge at least once a week.

This is NOT good advice for getting the best results from LiON batteries!

There are plenty of thereads on here regarding this.

Cheers,

Bill

[davidspalding]

I was going to answer about the UltraBay slim battery, but then my FAQ-o-meter reminded me that I've posted about the boost from mine on these forums AT LEAST 3-4 times in as many months....