battery explosion

thanks for letting us know. could you type the exact model of the battery and let us know if there is some official flight company reports on this incident or perhaps those could be requested? apple needs to be put on its *** regarding this problem.

ok same as me.

mine: http://share.ovi.com/album/lkraav.mbpbatterybulge

upload your pictures to picasa, flickr or wherever, put a copy of your forum post there and lets see if we can get TUAW or some other bigger mac blog to pick up and publish the story.

By all means, tell Apple about the incident. If you find no link, telephone them. Perhaps they'll give you a new battery!

Hi,
The expanding / exploding battery issue is well known to Apple and affected quite a number of machines for a while, and there was a battery replacement program as a result. You should take your battery to an Apple Store for replacement. I took my sisters battery in today ( from MacBook Pro 2.16GHz 17" which had been working perfectly for years and was well out of warranty) to the store in Glasgow and they gave me a new one off the shelf immediately.

Hope this is helpful,

Niall

While now on holiday in Brittany, France and working here, I had the battery taken off the MacBook Pro. A few days later, I discovered the battery on one edge open and developing like a popcorn.
I will see Apple after I'm back in Germany and ask for a replacement.
The battery has the model number: A1189 10.8V 68Wh

Do not, under any circumstances, believe any apple rep who says that they:
1) can't replace it
2) won't replace it
3) asks you to pay for replacement

Contact apple direct, be patient and nice (you get more bees with honey than you do vinegar - unless those bees are makin' hooch or something) - and you should get a replacement - above all, don't be rude or impatient; i know it's hard and frustrating, but patience is the key.

Good luck!

I had the same thing happen, my MacBook Pro battery puffed up like Jiffy Pop, but it also fried my Firewire port. Our local Apple dealer can't/won't replace the battery. We don't have an Apple Store in the area to plead our case to. Apple "Customer Service" claims the two issues are not related, refused to replace the battery nor assist with the $450 + repair bill to the laptop. I've always bought the Applecare 3 year warranty, but of course, it recently expired. I work for a school district and have very little equipment repair budget. My main concern, though, is that we have dozens of Mac laptops in schools with our children. Just hoping an exploding battery doesn't cause a fire or burn a child. Does anyone know if there was ever a recall on these hazards? I still use Apple products, but when they don't acknowledge an oft-reported safety issue, I wonder...Is Mac set to go the way of Toyota - once a giant of quality reputation, but today...? Frustrating!

they aren't acknowledging jack anymore. it's the same story as it was with the bad nvidia chips in 2007+ macbook pro's, it will take something drastic to have a pro-customer solution to this. based on the reports in the forums, if you're lucky enough to get a good customer service person, you will get your popcorn exchanged no questions asked. it is amazing that this problem has been going on for years and they stopped the short *** recall program they had up until 2009. in the meanwhile, these popcorn batteries keep on appearing all around.

Not exactly sure what it is you people expect. Apple doesn't make these batteries, they just contract with someone to make them. I think it's still Sony, but I don't know for sure. There aren't exactly a lot of companies out there to choose from. I think there's like maybe 6 in the world who make these kinds of batteries.

Besides, it's what you get when you keep demanding products be cheaper, better performing, and to hit the market sooner. Something's going to have to give sooner or later. Companies can't go on forever swallowing losses on manufacturing of products just to make you happy because you saved 10 cents. If they lose 10 cents on every system they sell, and they sell say a million systems worldwide, that's a lot of money to lose.

You want this sort of thing to stop, you have to be willing to pay more and wait longer for them to come to market. It's as simple as that. This whole Walmart-ization of the world has finally started to come back and bite the consumer, we're just too arrogant to recognize it right now. And at this rate, it'll be far far too late by the time we do.

Last night my battery swelled up enough so that the MBP won't sit flat on the desk anymore. the metal on the outside has come unglued from about half of the case. The MBP was just plugged in charging overnight, nothing unusual to cause this.

I am lucky that this did not happen in the sky, I'm flying to Asia next week and an exploding battery on the plane would be a nightmare.

I'm going to the apple store later and will report back on how it goes. my extended warranty just expired about 10 days ago.

scott, i'm not sure at all how your piece of writing applies considering apple's premium pricing for pretty much everything they sell. do you know how much cash apple has sitting in the bank (google material)?

for $2500 i myself got a big lemon instead of a 17" power user laptop, see signature for details. recalls and exchange programs depend on the type of faults that the products were sold with. i for one expect defective-by-design graphics chips and exploding batteries get exchanged no questions asked at no cost at least within 3 years of purchase. it took 1+ year for them to get on the ball with the graphics, i don't see this widespread battery problem being any different.

to follow up on my previous post:
I took the MBP with the exploding battery to the local Apple store at lunchtime and they replaced the battery with one they had in stock, no questions asked. Quick and easy.

I'm assuming your battery was the original unit that it came with?

This is the sort of service we all hope for.

I must say that it is our responsibility to be aware of the state of our hardware as far as possible. This includes checking battery condition in System Profiler at least. Apple's stated aim in the newer portables is to get 5 yrs use out of a battery before replacement. This could be less when it is run on battery all day every day as their standard is 1000 charge cycles while retaining 80% or better capacity.

As we have no way to check for swelling of the battery it should be a 'lifetime' warranty in this respect along with consequential damage should we be unlucky enough to have this happen - regardless of formal warranties. My guess is that Apple claim from the actual manufacturer for faulty batteries they replace.

If however we have exceeded Apple's claims for battery service then we must be doubly alert for any sign of problem and be prepared to pay for a new battery. That's what we would with our car, our refrigerator, TV, etc. And with a car you won't find any sympathetic dealers if you get a blowout with a bald tyre! Nor will the police be very kind to you!

Neville