What to expect from refurbished laptop battery?

Battery degrades with time and usage. The older your laptop is, the worse off your battery.

If the laptop you are buying is not older than 1 year, you should not expect problems. Of course it all depends on how the computer was used. Frequent charging, discharging to zero, charging while the computer is under heavy load (i.e. in warm conditions), charging always 100% – all these factors are causing faster degradation.

Some sellers replace the old battery if there are a lot of recharge cycles or or the battery is dead.

If you are worried about the battery you should try to get info from the seller about its condition. On some business-class laptops there is a health status which shows the number of cycles and remaining capacity.

Changing the battery is not something difficult.

You also have the option of refurbishing it. We recommend refurbishing instead of buying a non-original replacement. Refurbishing a battery usually involves replacing the old cells with new ones. Where we live, the cost for refurbishing a battery is similar to buying a new non-original one. If this is the case for you, definitely go with refurbishing.

Hint: If your new laptop gives you the option, set the battery to stop charging at 90%. This will prolong its life.