Q: Cheaper option for A1185 battery

You can get a new third party battery fairly cheap on eBay. Every MacBook from 2006 through Mid 2009 except the Late 2008 Aluminum Unibody and the Late 2009 and 2010 White Unibodies use the same A1185 battery.

Black Batteries http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=macbook+black+battery&_sacat=0&LH_BIN=1&_sop=12 &_dmpt=Laptop_Batteries&_odkw=macbook+white+battery&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0. m 270.l1313

White Batteries http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=macbook+white+battery&_sacat=0&LH_BIN=1&_sop=12 &_dmpt=Laptop_Batteries&_odkw=macbook+black+battery&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0. m 270.l1313

Or for $129 from The Apple Store  http://store.apple.com/us/product/MA566LL/A?mco=MTY3ODQ5OTY

I've bought used MacBooks off of eBay for my family, seven of them so far over the last 5 years. I've bought 8 batteries off of eBay sellers, just going with the cheapest. Only had one with a problem, it gave out after 6 cycles. That one was replaced under the warranty by the seller. The only other batteries that have been a problem were Apple branded batteries that started bulging. I've had two of those happen.

Apple doesn’t make any batteries. They buy them from the same manufacturers that the third party sellers are buying from. The only difference is that Apple has their logo imprinted on the battery.

"Caveat Emptor" with eBay batteries.

Regarding batteries sold on eBay there are some genuine good deals and a number of almost fradulent offers and you will not know which until you have it in hand. Better to check the legitimate dealers who have a money back guarantee if it is defective. A few links below.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/Apple/Laptop/Batteries

http://store.fastmac.com/index.php?cPath=10_4

http://www.freshbattery.com/Categories.bok

http://www.ebatts.com/apple_laptop_models.aspx

I would also echo the concens of "Caveat Emptor".  I got a few batteries from Amazon and Ebay over the years, typically the batteries were very under powered with a short service life. I guess thats why they were about 1/3 the price. Specifically, the rated power capacities were much lower by about 30% and the shorter battery powered run times was VERY annoying to say the least.

I would add SafeBatteries.com  to the list of discount outlets that do a good job. They are located in the US, and the batteries have had very good power and service life.  Going on 2 years with mine still works perfectly. the price was only  little bit more then ebay or amazon but the quailty has always been spot on when I need something for personal use or work.

http://www.safebatteries.com/macbook-a1185-battery-black.html

frederic,

which battery do i need for my macbook unibody white 6.1 (late 2009 i  think)  serial number: 349461F48PW?

i've been going nuts here.

any help appreciated.

Judy

I would be very careful with any battery that you order from Amazon. I ordered two cell phone batteries from Amazon and both batteries were defective. If you are going to order a replacement battery for ANYTHING, use somewhere like Walmart where they deal direct with the manufacture. Also, try Batteries Plus. My brother has gotten batteries from them and has had much success.

You can find your battery information on the battery. Remove the battery from the MacBook (you'll need a coin for that) and look at the writing on the battery. There's a model number on it that has a letter and a four digit number.

I would just like to point out that this is probably somewhat misleading information. I was about to order a battery from them, got as far as the checkout page, when I wanted to make sure they were reliable. So i did a google search and came across a lot of people mentioning talking to a John Mazzella on the phone and saying how he's very knowledgeable about batteries and helped them out. This makes me believe John Mazzella owns/runs safebatteries.com and judging by this username he himself is advertising his site, so it technically isnt a very reliable source of information.

Also ive come across a few other places where john mazzella has pretended to be a very happy customer and recommended his website to people. Also the couple of other places where safebatteries is reccomended by people all use similar language and mention how they had to return many amazon/ebay batteries and batteries were not properly rated. Some of this language also seems more technical and more like an advertisement than a layman would use. Example recommendation for a good A1185 replacement battery for my MacBook

This leads me to think that the company has done some false advertising and are writing positive reviews for their own website. My personal view is that almost (if not all) the good reviews ive seen about them feel like theres something off about them. This is just some caution to anyone in the same situation as me. All of this is just speculation on my part and i have no idea whether their batteries, website or anything is actually fraudulent, or whether some of the positive reviews and feedback written about them is actually truly from a 3rd party source.

Just to follow up with other similar posts:

recommendation for a good A1185 replacement battery for my MacBook

In reply to Saqwerty's other post:

"Hey Saqwerty,

I also did some investigation on this safebatteries.com site* and all of the reviews (all are extremely positive) are written in the same spelling, tone and with similar information. I thought it was odd, so I kept searching to see if I could find a negative review... I haven't, with the exception of Amazon reviews.

I am suspicious to say the least!

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_p_6_9?fst=as%3Aoff&rh=n%3A172282%2Cn%3A541966% 2Ck%3Amax+capacity+battery%2Cp_6%3AA3TJS…

This forum post starts off very convincing, but ends on one recommendation...

http://www.tomsguide.com/forum/84965-35-choose-good-laptop-battery

Also, note the poor spelling featured on "Max Capacity" Website:

http://www.maxcapacity.co/buying-a-max-capacity-replacement-laptop-battery-makes -great-sense/

This is definitely a paid review:

http://batterycare.net/en/safebatteries-laptop-battery-review.html

This was the only post that seemed only slightly odd:

http://advrider.com/index.php?threads/laptop-batteries-for-hp-arcylte-vs-max-cap acity.995960/

*I made this apple account, just so I could post my shared doubt to this company's reputability; false internet advertising is so popular and easy...

Hope this helps someone also searching for reputable battery suppliers.

Joey

P.S. - That was a great observation; The time stamps above clearly show that Melissa-Mac did not wait a couple months...She posted at the same time "Allen_wrench" posted? Had she been using the battery Allen_Wrentch recommend moments earlier...for a couple months? It's nonsensical! "