So I picked up a new laptop battery for my wife's Dell Inspiron E1505 and I read the directions. Yea XP!

USAGE
Pls discharge the battery to 2% and then fully charge to 100%
at the first cycle after purchasing.
Do not discharge the battery pack to 0% as that will damage
the battery pack and shorten it's life.


Kind of like watching paint dry...

You are probably already aware, but you you don't "have" to have a battery in a laptop...unless there is no outlet around. If you leave the battery in after it already has 100% charge, and it is also running on AC power, ...it degrades the battery. If you want a battery to last a very long time, take it out, and only put it in when you need it for mobile use. Running current through a fully charged battery ruins it. Phones are the same...except that you can not take a battery out of a phone to use it, but you can be very cautious to charge it, and take it off the charger the moment it is fully charged, don't leave it plugged in to AC power.

:-)

Yep...however the old laptop battery was over 12 years old.

Dean, did you get the battery from Dell?

Reason I ask: I needed a battery for a Dell, same age as yours. Dell does not show it available on their website.

On the global web thingie, everybody and their cousin wants to sell me the exact battery. They even all have the same Dell factory labels and logos plastered all over them.

I am confused. If Dell supposedly no longer makes batteries for older laptops, then where are all these Dell batteries coming from??? They can't all be old stock, can they?

Jim
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Bringing back old threads [sorry] in a secure undisclosed location.

Batteries Plus.

Here is the link for Dell laptop batteries.

Dean,
Thanks for the tip. I just checked them out, and they have battery packs that look legit [no questionable "Dell" logos]. I will be purchasing from them.

Anybody reading this thread who needs to buy a lithium battery pack for any device would be well advised to be skeptical of absurdly inexpensive packs. If you google "Dell U4873" battery, you will get a zillion hits from unknown vendors offering to sell you a "Dell" branded battery pack for about the price of a large pizza!!! Are they rebuilt packs, you ask? Most don't specify, but even if they are, that is simply too cheap to be trusted. Do yourself a favor and only buy lithium batteries from a reputable supplier.

I realize that I probably sound like my usual paranoid self, but when things go wrong with lithium batteries it can get really ugly. Just sayin'...

Thanks again!

Jim
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Speaking from a secure undisclosed location.