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I need to replace a battery for my Macbook Air 13" mid-2011. There is no Apple's own repair service where I live, and I'm fairly savvy with electronics to do my own repairs.

How can I identify batteries for sale that are either genuine Apple parts or determine if alternative replacement batteries they are at least equal, but preferably better than, the original MacBook Air battery I have.

By "equal or better" I mean that it lasts at least as many cycles. I.e. after equal number of charges, it keeps Macbook running roughly as long as the genuine battery on a single charge, given the equal load.

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  • @IanC. I asked before posting, and there was no reasons given for not going. – yurkennis Jun 11 '14 at 16:48
  • This is a completely different question from what you probed about in that meta question. – Ian C.♦ Jun 11 '14 at 16:49
  • This question appears to be off-topic because it is aboutI'm closing this because it is, at the heart of it, a shopping question. People are going to list specific makes and models and give you some specs and largely opinion on how these things translate to real world use cases. The information is going to go out of date fast. A better question is "What criteria should I use to ensure the replacement battery I select is robust and long lasting?" -- no specific batteries and has longevity to it. – Ian C.♦ Jun 11 '14 at 16:50
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    See my explanation above and see my clarification on the meta question. I even posted an example in the meta question. As soon as you ask for specific models it's a shopping question. Better to ask, in general, what you need to look at to assess your longevity and robustness needs when faced with any generic battery spec sheet. – Ian C.♦ Jun 11 '14 at 16:53
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    I started the edits. Also, you'll want to quantify "better than" since some people feel better means less expensive other people define better a better value under specific circumstances/assumptions. – bmike♦ Jun 16 '14 at 12:44
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(this answer was written for the previous edition of the question)

I didn't find any "most robust and lasting" choice yet, but I contacted iFixit re their replacement battery, and this is what I found out.

  1. They claim that they sell the battery:

    • manufactured by the same company that manufactures Apple's battery
    • its initial power-on time on a single charge is better compared to the original battery: "buying a brand new battery will get you back to where your computer was [in same time between charges] when you first bought it"
    • there's 6-month warranty for a case if it performs poorly at customer's computer

  2. However:

    • I failed to get any comment on how it can be possible that Apple allows its manufacturer to sell parts that Apple itself doesn't normally sell (which is the case for MBA-2011 batteries)

    • the sales rep couldn't provide any tests proving the "with better life" statement, nor even confirm that such tests were ever performed: "Unfortunately I do not have any tests to show [better life / better time between charges] as we have found those to not be needed"

    • could not confirm that any part of these statements are true:

      • the replacement will last comparable number of recharge cycles as the battery installed by an official Apple service
      • the replacement's poweron time on a single charge will be the same (or ideally better) than how could original battery installed by Apple service perform, at (most) every point in the battery life

The above data doesn't exclude what I experienced with low-quality third-party batteries for non-Apple products: initially they start with unprecedented time on a single charge, but after few months time on a charge deteriorates to less than an hour.

But let's see what answers a question on performance of iFixit batteries will bring.

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I purchased a replacement battery on Amazon for my MacbookPro8,2 (A1286) for $70 two years ago (this was not the cheapest, but had a 1 year warranty). It is now down to 50% duty cycle and shows "replace battery" in the status.

The original Apple battery was down to 20% after about 250 pretty full cycles, in less than 2 years.

So for less than 1/2 the Apple battery price I ended up with a battery lasting somewhat longer. I have noticed that there are sellers on Amazon claiming use of A-grade Sony cells, and an 18 month "hassle free" warranty for approx. $50.

My experience is that the no-name, mid-priced batteries on Amazon are perhaps at least as good as the Apple battery. FYI I have a 2012 13" that is still going strong and has the Apple battery, 200 cycles.

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    Thanks for sharing your mileage! Could you add a link to the battery you ordered two years ago? Most likely you can find it in Orders section of Amazon, be sure to select respective year/time period there. – yurkennis Mar 16 '17 at 7:07
  • BTW, how many full cycles the replacement you mentioned has already delivered? – yurkennis Mar 16 '17 at 20:42
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Yea, I had to replace mine and, after some extensive research, I also ended up going with the other world computing folks. So far, I've had no troubles at all w/ the replacement. I had bought external storage from them in the past so that swayed me a bit to them, however so far my experience with them has been great at the battery is working solid in my laptop.

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    "I also ended up going with the Other World Computing folks": From what I see at this page, they only MacBook Airs that they sell batteries for are 2008-2009 (MacBookAir2,1 & MacBookAir1,1). Am I missing something? Otherwise, how does it answer my question (which is on MBA 2011)? – yurkennis Jun 16 '14 at 17:25
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I am currently recommending batteries from OWC (One World Computing)

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/powerbook/batteries/

and from FastMac

http://fastmac.com

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  • I failed to find batteries specifically for Air at either link--am I missing something? – yurkennis Dec 14 '13 at 13:03

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