Battery Rebuild?

[BenLi]

My laptop battery is dying after 20 months. I'm thinking of having it rebuilt instead of buying a new one, since it's cheaper (and claims to be better). Has anyone used this service?
http://www.batteryrebuild.com/laptops/dell/Inspiron_1501.phtml

[apomb]

considering its

Quote:

(US customers only)

id say few if anyone here has done this. I dont even think i trust a service like this. that website doesnt look to be too professional.

[Tony]

Considering that a faulty battery is extremely dangerous, to the point of setting your laptop on fire, I'd be cautious about the quality of such services.

[Vermette]

The process itself is not fraudulent; The housing and charge/discharge electronics inside are kept and the cells inside are replaced with fresh ones. There is however soldering involved and if you're not careful to use cells of the proper rating you can do some serious damage (see above). I wouldn't recommend a project like this unless you have a comfortable EE background. If you do, you probably already knew this stuff.

If you are capable of such a project, much like building your own PC there are definite cost savings to be had (~$50 for the cells as opposed to possibly $100 for a new battery from the laptop manufacturer). I don't know of any PC shops that offer this service (labour eliminates the cost savings and appeal) and I wouldn't trust the work of a site like the one listed above since inspecting their work requires undoing it. This is not the printer ink market; get your piece of mind and buy new.