During the lifespan of a laptop, the battery usually needs replacing once or twice. If your laptop has a detachable battery, like the HP 15 ac series for example, then you could simply order one online and replace it yourself. But the majority of laptops nowadays need to be disassembled by professionals in order to get to the battery and replace it. 

Depending on the complexity of the disassembly of your laptop, as well as the battery brand, the cost can vary widely. Some of these batteries can either be tucked away deep under other components, or in some scenarios glued to the case, making them difficult to remove. Our computer repair technicians will always perform an internal laptop cleaning as well when replacing the battery, at no extra cost. 

Average Cost of a Laptop Battery Replacement 

The cost to replace an internal laptop battery varies based on the complexity of disassembly, capacity, as well as the brand of the battery. Truth is, regardless of how many articles you read online, you will never get a cost that’s nearly close to reality, without inputting some sort of data, of which the most important is the make and model of your laptop. 

The only cost that can easily be estimated, is the labour cost, which typically should not exceed one hour for the majority of laptops. Apple laptops are different since their batteries are glued to the casing and they require special tools and procedures to be removed. These are more labour-intensive and are typically completed within a two-hour timeframe. 

Factors That Influence Laptop Battery Pricing 

Here are some of the common factors to keep in mind that will influence the final price of replacing your laptop battery.

Brand

One of the main factors that impact the price of the battery is the manufacturer. OEM batteries are produced by actual laptop manufacturers like HP or Dell, while OEM-compatible or simply compatible batteries are manufactured by third-party companies. OEM batteries will typically cost 2 to 3 times more than a compatible one, but they also go through higher quality control standards. That doesn’t necessarily mean an OEM cannot fail prematurely, it just means that as a buyer, you do not have to research the seller to find out if it’s trusted and if their products are of high quality. 

Battery Technology

We find three types of batteries in laptops sold today, nickel-cadmium (NiCad), nickel metal hydride (NiMH), and lithium-ion (Li-ion), with Li-ion being the most common in newer laptops. They all use different processes to produce a charge and have different characteristics that impact their prices. NiMH production price for instance is approximately 50% lower than the production price for a Li-ion battery. 

Number of Cells

It is almost obvious that the more cells a battery uses the better. But how? A bigger number of cells means a longer run time for your laptop while on battery, due to the increased mAh (milliampere/hour). This in turn means the laptop will require less frequent charging cycles, leading to a longer battery lifespan as well. So to conclude, more cells mean not only a longer run time for your laptop between charges, but also means a longer-lasting battery overall, which is why the more cells, the higher the price of the battery. Since some laptops can be fitted with batteries containing more or fewer cells, you should always try to purchase the ones with a higher number of cells. 

Milliamp Hours (mAh), Voltage (V) and Watt Hour (Whr)

These values are interconnected and they represent the overall power of a laptop battery.

As mentioned above, a higher mAh means a longer run period for your laptop. While Li-ion technology is newer than NiMH, NiMH batteries are more energy dense leading to a higher mAh value than the Li-ion ones. NiMH is averaging 2200 mAh compared to 1500 mAh found in Li-ion batteries. 

When it comes to voltage, you want to get a battery that has the same voltage as the OEM one. A lower voltage can cause the laptop not to charge, while a higher voltage can cause it to produce unnecessary heat, due to the excess voltage being dropped over the regulator and turned into heat. 

Whr is a value that can help you easily determine the amount of time your laptop can run on battery and is calculated using the previously explained metrics, using the formula mAh * V = Whr. So a 3600mAh * 14.8V = 53Wh battery would have a 30W-consuming laptop run for a total of 1 hour and 46 minutes before discharging.

What Is the Average Lifespan of a Laptop Battery?  

The average lifespan of a battery is determined by the number of hours a laptop can run during a single charging cycle, multiplied by the number of charging cycles it was designed for. This should be easy to calculate, armed with the information provided so far. 

Capacity (milliampere/hour) = discharge (milliampere) x discharging time (hour). As an example, if we take a 4800 mAh laptop battery and insert it into a laptop that discharges at a rate of 100 mAh per hour, that will give you a theoretical 48 hours of usage per cycle. That multiplied by 500 cycles (this is the average cycle count advertised by battery manufacturers, but you should check your own battery specs) will give you 24000 hours of theoretical usage.

Signs Your Laptop Battery Needs to Be Replaced

The most common sign of a failing battery is a shorter run time during a single charging cycle, while some laptops will warn you during the boot-up time. Having to keep your laptop plugged in at all times is as obvious as it gets, while an overheating laptop or a casing swell is less common or noticeable by user symptoms.  

Failing to Charge

If your laptop battery is failing to charge, then it could be the case that it actually needs replacing. However, before jumping to conclusions, we need to eliminate a few other factors that could lead to this. While usually, a lack of charge points to a failing battery, it is not a rare occurrence that the charging port, the charger itself or even worse the charging circuitry on the board had gone bad. The easiest way to tell if it is indeed the battery would be to run an actual battery report and inspect it. You can run a report by opening a command prompt and typing in the next command, which will save a file to your root directory. 

powercfg /batteryreport /output “C:\battery-report.html

Go through this report and scroll down to ‘Battery capacity history’ and compare the ‘FULL CHARGE CAPACITY’ column with the ‘DESIGN CAPACITY’ one. If your battery was designed for 45,000 mWh and only shows a 20,000 mWh full charge capacity, then it is probably time to change it. 

Battery Replacement Warnings

There are mainly two types of warnings you may get about your battery. One, would be at boot-up time detected by the BIOS, the other while logged into Windows detected by the operating system and based on the report we explained above. 

For Mac computers, you can always check the power information under the hardware section of your system information panel. Compare the ‘cycle count’ displayed in this section to the cycle count advertised for your MacBook, and you should be able to tell how many cycles you have left out of your battery. Here is a full list of Apple designed capacities based on device models.

Short Run Times

It is absolutely normal for your battery to start slowly degrading as soon as you start using your laptop, and keeping your laptop plugged in at all times will not change that. The degradation happens slowly, however, when the run times become very low, it is time to replace your dying battery. Running a battery report in Windows or checking power information on MacBooks, as explained above can further confirm you are dealing with a degraded battery. 

Swollen Case

Not replacing your battery on time can cause it to expand in some instances, causing excessive pressure on the laptop casing or palmrest. You may also notice that your trackpad or keyboard is malfunctioning in these instances, due to the pressure caused by the swollen battery. The swelling is a result of gasses forming inside the battery when the chemical reactions that produce power no longer complete fully. This should be addressed immediately to avoid further damage to your laptop.

Overheating

You may notice your laptop is overheating, even though you performed a thorough internal cleaning and also replaced the thermal paste on your GPU and CPU. You may have monitored the temperatures that show fine on all components and you’re wondering why your laptop runs so hot still. This can indicate a battery that requires continuous charging. Tools like CPUID HWmonitor can help you diagnose this issue. It will show you internal temperatures, as well as battery wear level.

Key Takeaways

Most laptops nowadays will experience battery failure throughout their lifetime. The symptoms may vary and we described them all above. Running reports or using specific tools can help you confirm this issue. Should you need your battery replaced, we recommend having it done so by a professional in order to avoid damage to your laptop. 

EezIT can send a computer repair professional right to your house or office to replace your laptop battery on the spot, within an hour or two, avoiding days or weeks of disruption that you would experience by dropping off your laptop at a service center. Contact us to set up an appointment or complete our easy-to-use online booking form.