MacBook Air battery exploding/expanding

I sure am happy to find this thread because I came home from vacation to find the mystery of my 2012 Macbook Pro being all bent out of shape on the bottom with a screw having popped out. When I removed the bottom I was astonished to see this:

Now at least I know what happened. Thanks to all!

Your first line of contact should probably be the nearest Apple Store, if you have that luxury. At least then you have a physical appraisal of the situation for which Apple to make comment.

I would ask what could you, as a user, reasonably done to avoid the issue. Either they will have an answer to that question, or not. If the have no reasonable prior course for action on your part, then it strengthens your case in asking for some relief in the cost of repair.

I hope you will maintian this thread with information as you progress to resolution. I absolutely love my MBA, but I worry about your situation, because it doesn't seem isolated.

Can you update the post with how you got on? My MBA has just done the same thing. I would be keen to see if it was a free replacement.

I had the exact same issue like MacAir22. I went to the Apple store with my 1st gen 2008 Macbook Air and they were very good about it. I was surprised they did not even charge me and are fixing it. It will take 5 - 7 days though.

Good Luck.

Here on this site you'll find contact numbers & addresses. I'd suggest that you contact customer support in the US. Apple's European branches seem to be much more autocratic - we can't help you - than here in the US.

Did you press the representative for outlining a scenario for which the user could have possibly contributed to the battery's demise?

Or, was it pointed out to you that there is any documented directive from Apple that a prophylactic replacement of the battery should be implemented at a given interval?

I fount eh following article regarding lithium batteries, and possible causes for swelling, and I though the article was particularly relevant. http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/charging_lithium_ion_batteries

It would seem that a possible explanation of a cause is overcharging. If indeed true, then the only apparent safeguard against this would be a working functional SMC. Unless the battery itself has a safeguard, which could have failed as well. Presuming that the SMC is reset with the installation of a new battery, such evidence of it's cause would then be moot, as a reset would likely resume normal operation.

Just food for thought.

Apple's silence on the cause and effect here is probably the biggest problem. As they are in a far better position to nail down the cause, and an effective prevention remedy.

I have the same issue showing up on one of the MacBook Air's we have.

This expansion is not a new thing in the Apple world and we have already seen atleast 20-30 of our MacBook Pro's show the same issue. (All Except unibody Model's so far) and all Apple says is it's expected and we cannot replace batteries. (This was also the case with systems still under warranty) eventually we had to buy batteries for those 😟

Fortunately or Unfortunately, we have to use Mac's at our work place, but realistically, this is a problem and Apple should address it. In my 15+ years of experience in the industry, i have hardly seen maybe 1-2 PC's that may have depicted this kind of a problem.

My main concern is that with the Unibody systems, this is a major issue, and i wont be surprised if the iPads also start showing this problem in the coming time. That would be bad!

I had the same thing happen to my 1st gen Macbook air. I was told that it is not the users fault but that it happens occationally when the battery has exceeded its life expectancy. It is not normal.

I had the issue on a MacBook Pro and my local Apple Store replaced the battery, no questions asked. The machine was under Applecare.

That said, there is an expected end of life for a battery and I suppose it might have been different if the battery had been past its expected end of life in term of cycles (mine wasn't) since my first generation unibody was the last with a replacable battery.

Same thing just happened to mine. I will push this as far as I can with Apple in sweden.

Same here guys. Went to the genius bar yesterday and they were charging me $130 to change the battery. I would understand the battery going dead sooner or later. But not this bulging/expanding effect on the body itself. Right now by MBA is fully working considering theirs an awkward bulge on the keyboard.

Something like this should be considered as a manufacturing defect and we should at least get a free fix. And a recall for all the first gen macbook air. I love my MBA I just hope it doesn't blow up in my face as I'm writing this post!

Let's keep this post rollin.