Need new battery for my wife's T40: buy original IBM/Lenovo?

[emeu1]

Hello,

I'm looking for a new battery for my wife's T40.
I've seen original IBM/Lenovo battery's offered on eBay (7200mAh capacity ones) and non-original batteries. The IBM/Lenovo batteries are about 50% more expensive than the non-original ones.

Has anyone experience with non-original batteries?
Do non original batteries work or not?
What about livetime original/non original?

[zdriver]

This is a good example of, I think, you get what you pay for...

I have never owned a non-oem thinkpad battery, but from what I have read, they tend to work well at first but deteriorate more rapidly than the genuine batteries. Also have seen some firmware problems with the thinkpad bios and aftermarket batteries causing charging problems.
Probably depends on how long you plan to keep the thinkpad as to if the cost difference is worth it.

[smidgley]

You could buy one of these. I've purchased 6 from this eBay seller. They are new, sealed IBM old stock (about two years old) but for $40 shipped, you can't really go too wrong.

I've had mixed results from aftermarket batteries but I've had enough problems that I can't recommend them.

[emeu1]

Thanks for the replies. You confirm what I was "afraid" for.
Today I found a German company offering new 7200mAh original IBM batteries for about half the price they normally cost. I bought one.
So "problem" solved.

[rye8910]

I'm running one of the non-oem batteries right now, and I figured it would just get me by for a month or two until I had enough to get an OEM battery, but it's actually outlasted the OEM battery I've used prior to this. My last battery has had around 55 charge cycles, and now it holds a measly 5.3wh maximum... This one has had 56 cycles so far, and the maximum capacity is reading at 52.38wh, and the design capacity is 44wh, so it's still working above the specification.

I also looked over it carefully as well, it appears to just be an OEM battery with new cells and a replaced label. It also has a 6-month warranty as well.

However, I consider myself lucky. Non-OEM replacements are typically known to be hit-or-miss, and I just happened to have a hit. I suppose I'm a bit unlucky though, considering how my OEM battery fared...

[HDRW]

I've had very mixed results with 3rd-party batteries - I've had phone batteries that were so badly made that they wouldn't actually fit in the phone, or pressed on the SIM so it lost contact. I've had a hand-held amateur-radio battery that wouldn't latch in place (it forms the back of the radio), so these were a complete waste of money.

But I've had Thinkpad batteries that did better than the IBM originals - so it's a lottery. You may get something that works well, but you never know.

Perhaps if people can share in here which ones they've had good luck with, it will help the rest to choose where to go for them.

Cheers,

Howard

[emeu1]

The battery finally arrived on Friday.
We charged it completely before turning on the laptop.
Yesterday evening my wife used the laptop for about 2.5-3.0 hours to surf the web, post some pictures and do some writing. The power scheme was set to maximum battery performance. After the 2.5-3.0 hours, the battery monitor reported 70% capacity left. That would mean an approx. running time of 7.5-9.0 hours. A good result I think.