Replacement Laptop Battery Comparison and Test results edited 7/24/14 Max Capacity from safebatteries.com uses Panasonic cells Arclyte Premium uses Samsung cells Aside from the cells used a quality replacement battery pack will have an advanced internal control circuit board compatible with your pc motherboard, a good fit and a recent date of manufacture. In comparison the majority of replacement battery offerings use low quality Chinese cells, have low capacity and short overall life. A cheap battery can easily brick your pc. In this comparison I'm using an HP DM4 2000 series laptop, a new ac adapter/charger and BatteryMon utility from PassMark. For reference HP supplied a standard laptop battery with these specs: HP# 593554-001, says Korean cells x 6, 10.8 vdc 55Wh 4910 mAh note: "original" HP batteries are available from Amazon however they are all outdated. Li-ion are generally good for only 3 years even if just stored correctly. Insist on getting a fresh battery. This review will be updated as the test continues. Comments on other NON-Chinese cell batteries are welcome in this thread. 1. Arclyte NO2145 Premium 6 cell for HP MU06 - $50 at Amazon - Samsung cells (Korea) - 3 year warranty - great SoCal customer service - claims 5400 mAh and "prefect fit" 100% compatible 2. Max Capacity Premium 6 cell for HP - $75 at safebatteries.com - Panasonic NCR 18650 cells http://industrial.panasonic.com/www-data/pdf2/ACI4000/ACI4000CE17.pdf - 16 month warranty - U.L. approved - claims 6000 mAh ( my BattMon utitily reports 64.2 Wh ) - looks like a top choice for heavy mobile users The plethora of cheap dangerous Chinese laptop batteries flooding the market and the search for a quality battery at a reasonable price prompts the this review. A good battery should fit correctly, have Korean or Japanese cells, have a quality internal circuit board and have an approved safety design. Li-ion are perishable lasting only 3 years even if stored. John Mazetta at Safebattery (MaxCapacity) (no affiliation) is great to work with. He responded quickly to email and is quite knowledgeable. He followed up with queries on technical details after researching them for me. The Max battery arrived in two days via free priority mail in a foam packed box and an ant-static envelope. I received a fresh battery made within the last seven weeks, June 1 2014. Max Capacity fit perfectly easily locking in to place and releasing as it should. It had 65% charge out of the box (40% is considered the norm) and began charging without any faults on the first attempt. In less than an hour it was up to 92% using a 65 watt ac adapter. PassMark reports 64.2 Wh making this perhaps the highest capacity slim 6 cell available for HP. The Arclyte premium was $8 more than their "eco series" but with a longer warranty and better cells. It arrived in one business day with Prime. Out of the box the Arclyte did not have a date of manufacture on the label. It fit a little too snug which I initially thought of as a good thing for mc use but it is fiddly to install compared to both the orig HP and the MAX Capacity. Capacity was 40% out of the box. Per the Arclyte site, users are advised to expect difficult initial charging which is an understatement to say the least. Arclyte instructs the customer that charging will stop and the battery will have to be removed and reinserted. Count on it! The HP gave fault indication by flashing its power led again and again. Aside from the power lamp fault indicator flashing the pc also hangs up on shut down and on boot-up. The power level meter on the HP was also wonky with Arclyte reporting 100% to nothing. Recalibration from Bios didn't help. about the only positive thing with Arclyte is the enticing 6 hours of wireless web browsing I got once I finally got it charged. While charging the Arclyte I heard a loud click from inside the pc which sounded like an internal mother board breaker. The Arclyte also caused an improper shut down wprobably from low battery despite the meter displaying 100% (and not moving) . Arclyte hung up a black screen booting in to windows 7 and did the same at user imitated shut-down. The next boot displayed safemode and "improper shutdown", an invitation to HDD damage not to mention lost work. Each type Arclyte caused a black screen the battery was removed. After many attempts of charging and battery removal I'm getting a RED X over the pc battery indicator and / or no battery level or the words "unknown capacity ". This is likely due to the circuit board Arclyte uses. Recalibration fattempts from bios did not resolve the issues. I ran Windows power diagnostics from the Admin Cmd box and the Arclyte battery reported as made 09/2013 or 10 months old. I installed BatterMon free utility from PassMark which offers real time consumption graphing and more. It reported a d.o.m. as 9-07-13. While the capacity of the Arclyte looks good there does seem to be issues with the Arclyte circuit board. Initially there was a call back from Arclyte but no real tech support. I was simply told to return the battery to Amazon. Since a weak adapter can be an issue I ordered the Arclyte last month. It was properly grounded and claimed to be "fully shielded, made of the highest quality components and fully certified". The Arclyte ac adapter requires the use of a supplied pin adapter at the pc. This just pops off the cord making the adapter completely useless. I tried taping the pin adapter on but it still made intermittent connection with the cord. I would not recommend this adapter. I will be updating the full review soon. In the mean time if you need a replacement lap battery and have Prime then I "might" consider the Arclyte based on its initial performance and warranty. It's too early to call but if the battery monitor issues can't be resolved then I'll be sending this back within the 30 day return period. battery contenders: (ASIN = AMZ part number) ASIN: B00IN8PQUUto $34 prime FBA, mobile parts proz - claims 5100mAh 55WH 10.8V MFG DATE 08 or 11/2013, - 12 mo warranty **Safebatteries.com Max Capacity** HPMCCQ42LH $75 but 10% cpn avail - claims 6000mAh 65Wh 11.1 vdc - Panasonic cells - 16 month warranty - UL 1642 cert - spoke with John Mazzella who was knowledgeable and helpful - I'm looking forward to reporting on this battery pack which may very well be the best of the lot and worth the small premium in price. ASIN: B00CFQNIRO Ubatteries #HPG62B44-242 FBA $33 - specific for HP DM4-2191us - claims 4400mAh 10.8V; 48Whr - 1 yr warranty - "grade a cells" (means nothing) - only one posted review ASIN: B00IVJ1GAU **Arclyte** N2145 $50 + tax - 3 yr warranty - claims 5200 mAh - sold and sh by amz ASIN: B00K4A3IM8 DTK sold by YOHOO $20/sh - "upgraded w/ Samsung cells" - claims 4400mAh/49Wh - one cust complaint juy 2014: rec'd 553 battery not the 554, not recognized by laptop ASIN: B008PAKAU2 9 cell CBD sold by powerleader $11 shipped - claims to be 554 compatible Atbatt.com AMSTRON - Lhp-91 11.1 v 5200 mAh , 58wH, 1yr 62.99 but $58 if you buy atbatt branded, 2 yr warr on atbatt branded - easy to reach U.S. call center but lacking in technical expertise Brian claims atbatt is "same" as amstron
The Max Capacity Battery with Panasonic cells from Safebatteries.com is readily accepting charging and there are no compatibility issues with the HP DM4. Even at this early stage of testing it outshines the Arclyte which by comparison requires constant removal and has locked the pc both on shutdown and boot up as well as causing the battery level meter to be useless. The perfect fit of the Max Capacity is a bonus. Just from what I see so far the small premium paid for the Max Capacity is easily worth the price for a fresh battery that outperforms the original. I'm concerned that the Arclyte might damage the pc mainboard. I hard a click from inside the pc which sounded like thermal breaker opening. edit see final notes) Edit 9/15: If you want the lightest most powerful and easiest to charge battery buy the Max Capacity (standard width). It charges readily from the lighter duty 65 watt HP adapter. If you want to save $50 and still have a great battery with extended capacity then buy the Arclyte Performance Series ( neither an "M" nor a "W" suffix. You will likely need to upgrade to the genuine HP branded 90 watt slim adapter which would be a wise move in any case. Arcylyte is the only major supplier of Sansung cell laptop battery packs that I know of which offers a 36 month free replacement battery warranty. Summary: Both Arclyte and MAX CAPACITY are performance batteries designed with the heavy user in mind. You really can't go wrong with either one. If you have little patience for battery break-in then buy either the MAX CAPACITY or the ARCLYTE O.E.M. spec grade battery.
