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Is swelling a “normal” failure mode for Li-ion batteries?

1 points by raylad ↗ HN
My 3 year old Macbook Pro has a swelling battery, and the Genius Bar rep said:

1) It should not be powered on any more because it could catch fire

2) This is a normal way for Li-ion batteries to fail

3) Because it's normal, they will charge $200 to replace the battery (since the machine is no longer under AppleCare), and presumably because of the fact that to replace the battery they have to replace the entire top panel, keyboard, and touchpad)

What I'm curious about is: do we feel that it's "normal" for Li-ion batteries to fail by swelling and then becoming fire hazards (more than they are normally), or are batteries that fail this way defective?

3 comments

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timonoko
You really do not want to charge those batteries anymore. I had some overcharged Li-ion batteries, which I put on windowsill to cool off. They went off like rockets, flying hundreds of meters, damaging some cars, but luckily missing all humans.
jqpabc123
All rechargeable batteries have a limited lifetime and fail at some point.

Based on personal experience, swelling is a common failure mode of Li-ion batteries. Whether this is a "normal" or adverse effect would depend on age and the number of recharge cycles. To extend the lifetime, recharge less --- as infrequently as possible.

[dead] zhihua3536
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