MacBook Pro - expanded battery

GinaBeana wrote:

1. Hello,

I had planned to trade in my working-perfectly MacBook Pro 2014 ($480) toward my new Mac Mini.

I connect the laptop to my monitor. Haven't moved the laptop since COVID.

When I pulled it out to get help from a store Genius, I noticed that the battery had expanded, under the touchpad. Meaning, it doesn't close tightly.

Questions:

Should I even bother with trade-in now? The store said probably not.

2. I see now that many MacBook Pros of that era had a recall, for faulty battery. Mine just missed the cut-off, it seems. But it definitely has had problems. I replaced the battery in about 2018, for the same issue. But it didn't get as far as it has this time.

Call Customer Support (800) MY–APPLE (800–692–7753)

Outside the USA—Contact Apple for support and service by phone

See a list of Apple phone numbers around the world.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201232

https://www.apple.com/shop/trade-in

Don’t bother contacting Apple to replace your out-of-warranty battery free of charge. Apple’s official policy is that they will not replace a battery because it is swollen. Period. No exceptions. They will continue replacing the batteries, in a few specific devices, including MacBooks, only when they themselves determine the devices to be a serious safety risk.

At about the same time Samsung was getting hammered in the press for their phones catching fire, Apple products catching fire got much less attention.

To this day, the kind of batteries used in most mobile devices (not just Apple’s or Samsung’s) are at risk of swelling or even catching fire in some cases. The problem is so serious, it’s illegal in the US to ship that kind of battery by air. In addition, shipping any product containing such a battery requires a special warning label affixed to the package.

Batteries in mobile devices are less of a problem nowadays because special circuitry detects overheating and shuts them down. The batteries themselves aren’t safer than past ones. Without getting too technical, there is so much chemical energy inside such batteries, when charged, that it’s kind of like having a little bit of dynamite packed in them. Dynamite is actually rather safe, unless it catches fire. The same goes for mobile devices.