Laptops How to test replacement battery for quality and health?

technomad

technomad

Disciple
Hello all!
Recently, my laptop battery died. And I have purchased a new replacement for it.
The new battery is from Amazon.
I don't want to get scammed with a low quality product, so I am curious to know how to test a battery for quality.
I want to test it to make sure it works well.
 
There should be a return timeframe. Within that period, just test it as much as you can I guess. Does it last long?

There is also a cmd command that reports battery info, powercfg /batteryreport . No idea how accurate it is though.
 
Hachune said:
There should be a return timeframe. Within that period, just test it as much as you can I guess. Does it last long?
Click to expand...
Actually, I tested it out. It used to die in 3 minutes when it hit 20%. That was unusual.
Plus the battery health degraded by 11% in just a few days.
So I just returned it.
Hachune said:
There is also a cmd command that reports battery info, powercfg /batteryreport . No idea how accurate it is though.
Click to expand...
I used this command. It was useful to check the data.
Thanks for the reply tho. I appreciate it.
 
powercfg /batteryreport.
This command is not accurate. I believe these battery sellers insert fake data for reading.
I recently bought a refurbished thinkpad T480. It's internal battery and external both were showing above 80 and 95% health respectively.
However the batter health dropped drastically within 2 months. Internal battery health is now 60% and external just stopped working. External battery was working pretty good before it died. it was giving 6hrs backup and health at 82%.

The only way to test a battery is to use it for some days.

OP, if the battery dies this way. Then it is faulty and very likely it is of very poor quality. I would return it for sure.
 
jdp861 said:
powercfg /batteryreport.
This command is not accurate. I believe these battery sellers insert fake data for reading.
I recently bought a refurbished thinkpad T480. It's internal battery and external both were showing above 80 and 95% health respectively.
However the batter health dropped drastically within 2 months. Internal battery health is now 60% and external just stopped working. External battery was working pretty good before it died. it was giving 6hrs backup and health at 82%.
Click to expand...
Similar thing happened to me. The battery degraded to 89% capacity in one day.
jdp861 said:
The only way to test a battery is to use it for some days.

OP, if the battery dies this way. Then it is faulty and very likely it is of very poor quality. I would return it for sure.
Click to expand...
Yepp. I returned it. I think it was a very bad product. It used to last 5 minutes after hitting 20-25% percent charge.
 
technomad said:
Similar thing happened to me. The battery degraded to 89% capacity in one day.

Yepp. I returned it. I think it was a very bad product. It used to last 5 minutes after hitting 20-25% percent charge.
Click to expand...
Same thing used to happen to me too. system would shut off a few minutes after reaching 20%.

If you ever find a good seller for battery and other laptop/mobile parts then do let us know too. I am on a lookout.
 
All devices suffer from this issue, when the time comes to change the battery the only vendor with high quality battery is OEM. Buying from anywhere else is a gamble.
 
jdp861 said:
Same thing used to happen to me too. system would shut off a few minutes after reaching 20%.

If you ever find a good seller for battery and other laptop/mobile parts then do let us know too. I am on a lookout.
Click to expand...
I will try to find a good battery in physical stores now. Amazon doesn't have good ones and other online stores don't have return policy for the batteries.
 
Heisen said:
All devices suffer from this issue, when the time comes to change the battery the only vendor with high quality battery is OEM. Buying from anywhere else is a gamble.
Click to expand...
My device is pretty old. 5 years old.
It's tough finding battery for it. I'll have to look it at their service centres.
 
Buying a Battery, ANY Battery, is a HUGE gamble.
That said, actual Charge to 100% - Discharge to Near Zero and then Charge Back up to 100% is important to test batteries. This battery cycling helps users understand about battery health.
Windows OS does not offer much information. However, Linux has some tools that probe the battery for information.
"Power Statistics" in Ubuntu can give a somewhat reliable idea after a Power Cycle.
 
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