Customer Reviews

iRecharge Universal Rechargeable Battery for Laptops

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I had given this battery 4 stars in my original review. However, after 2 months of actual use (about 20 recharges), this battery seems to be deteriorating quickly, Where I used to get about 2 hours on a charge, I now get about one. It also quickly looses its charge even when not connected to a laptop. Typical self-discharge for lithium ion batteries is 5-10% a month. This one is self discharging at about 10% a day meaning that I have to leave in on a charger all of the time until I am are ready to use it.

ORIGINAL REVIEW

The Good: This battery typically gives me about 2 extra hours of battery operation on my 15" laptop.

The Bad: The power adapter, where it plugs into the laptop, is big giving it a lot of leverage. You have to be very careful not to accidentally bump or pull on it in the wrong way or it could seriously damage the power connector on your laptop. If that happens you might not be able to recharge your laptop at all and require professional repair of your laptop. It would have been better for all laptops had iRecharge used regular sized power connectors on a short dongle instead of a large adapter on the end of an already large plug.

That said, the trick in getting the longest extra battery time is to make absolutely sure that your laptop's own battery is 100% charged. Your laptop runs first from the iRecharge and when it is depleted, the laptop's battery kicks in. If you start out with a drained laptop battery, then the iRecharge first recharges the laptop battery and you will get little if any extra running time. And that is normal.

This is a very good item for traveling. I first heard of it when I bought my son an iRecharge for his PSP at a Computer Store. Searching the company's web page, I found the laptop charger. Both chargers, for the PSP and laptop, simulate AC power. They plug into the power adapter and last for a certain amount of time and when they drain, the internal battery takes over. Very simple, yet ingenious concept. I bought the laptop charger after I booked a baseball based bus tour with my son and knew we would need some extended battery life for the bus. It did not fail. Lasted well. Even charged a fellow's touree's dead iPod via my USB port for awhile without too much impact to my laptop use in terms of charger life. It comes with a bunch of adapters for different laptop brands

The iRecharge has worked well for me, on older T40 class Thinkpad laptops for the past 4 months. Battery life seems to be consistent and it increases my run time from almost 2 hours to over 3.5 hours attaching the iRecharge with a fully charged battery.

For the price, my experience until this week was ****. It is unfortunate that there are many laptops now available that do not have the correct power adapter to use the iRecharge. I just got a Thinkpad T400 and there is no adapter for the newer, 20V Thinkpad power connector. So I've downgraded this to *** as the company could have offered a broader range of power tips as an accessory and ongoing business.

Given the wide variation in experiences, I'd purchase this ONLY from a vendor with a good replacement policy AND if the laptop power supply connector/voltage is explicitly referenced in the iRecharge supported device list.

Do not buy this battery, or anything else from cellboost. I have called and emailed cellboost a number of times to try to get a replacement cable, but there is no response, so my >$100 investment is now useless. I'd give them 0 stars if I could

As mentioned in other reviews, this product definitely works best when it first arrives. After a few months of use though, I am finding that it does lose its charge rather quickly, even if I'm not using it. When I first got it, it added ~2 hours to my running time. Now it's more like 1.5 hours. Maybe less.

I wanted to repeat something that another reviewer said, because this took me a while to figure out as well..."The trick in getting the longest extra battery time is to make absolutely sure that your laptop's own battery is 100% charged." It works SO much better this way, and there are no directions that tell you this. Charge the laptop, and before you even turn it on, plug in the iRecharge so that it starts out using up that battery, and then once the iRecharge loses its charge, you can unplug it, and be ready to go with a fully charged laptop battery.

I use this product with my laptop so I can watch DVD's on long (cross country) plane trips. Watching DVD's is about the biggest drain you can put on a laptop battery. It adds just over 2 hours of viewing time before I have to use the internal battery. It's smaller, easier to use, and more convenient then bringing a seperate DVD player along.

Customer support for this product is non existent. Purchased because it was supposed to be a universal rechargeable battery for laptops. It isn't. Unable to contact Cellboost, the manufacturer vis phone or email. Save your money.

Couldn't get the unit to work with my Toshiba laptop. Customer service is horrible. They have not answer any of my emails and they do not answer their phone. Save your money.

Weak. All excited for a trip to Japan with this extra battery which says fits 1000s of laptops and all IBM/Lenovo. Well guess what, get home after making the 30 minute drive to Fry's and great, no plug for a T60 which isn't new at all. Thanks for nothing.

Customer service from cellboost doesn't exist for this product. TD said they bought from some other company but that company wasn't any help either. Tiger Direct doesn't refund shipping and this is not stated online. The product was defective. It didn't power my laptop for any length of time. The charge indicator lights lit up when button was pressed. In fact the lights depended on how hard the button is pressed. This is really suspicious. All of this may be my mistake because the input (or output) is limited to 2.5Amps (var. volt) and my laptop is 3.5A. However i am pretty sure there are few laptops with this power requirement. Also the extended list of laptop models includes many models i couldn't find on manufacturer spec lists.