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Laptop battery and consumer goods act

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
in Home, Law & Money
Any idea how long a laptop 'should' work properly under the consumer good act? The battery life on my Dell is knackered, and according to their tech support the battery only has a one-year warranty, despite the rest of the laptop being covered for three years. Apparently the battery is seen as a 'consumable' and so is not covered. Does anyone know about this? Ta.

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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Generally they're correct. Things like batteries are never normally covered at all (see Ipod several years ago) and if they are it's a very limited warranty.

    Battery life is normally measured on the number of charges/discharges, what sort of temperature/humidity it's kept in, is it left on charge e.t.c.
    We've got a house phone at home that we kept taking off charge because it was in the bedroom and too bright. Several months later and the battery is knackered, whereas the other phones are fine.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Batteries are consumable. Depending on the use, you can expect them to lead a useful life for anything between 12 months and 5 years.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Cheers for the replies. I suppose it makes sense now; at the time I was a little thrown by the person's insistence on selling me a £109 battery. There are ones available for about £50 online anyway.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Careful with the cheap ones. Some of the cheap ones have caused dramatic fails in the past... some of the expensive ones too(Google "Sony Battery"). OIf course, plenty don't give any problems... :)
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Thanks for the advice but that doesn't really tell me anything! Which cheap ones are okay?! I'd rather pay £50 twice than £100 once... if that makes sense. All the cheap ones feature a picture of the same model, so they're probably either all crap or all okay...
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Another option is to eBay the Dell battery's model. I did that when I had to replace an optical drive on my Dell Inspiron 5150. Cost me only £8 incl p&p.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    wooooooooah wrote: »
    Thanks for the advice but that doesn't really tell me anything! Which cheap ones are okay?! I'd rather pay £50 twice than £100 once... if that makes sense. All the cheap ones feature a picture of the same model, so they're probably either all crap or all okay...

    Can't tell you. As I said, they can be hit and miss. Your money, your lap...
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