Last Thursday night I was using my 2015 MacBook Pro when I noted that the battery was switching between “Service Now” and “Normal” on the menu bar via iStat Menus. That was a clear sign to me that the battery was about to go as I’ve written about this situation in the past. It is a three year old laptop so that made sense. It was also out of AppleCare so I knew that I had to cough up some bucks to fix it. But unlike my wife’s 2012 MacBook Pro which had a battery that was easy to replace, I had a bit of a challenge. The battery in my MacBook Pro is a pain in the backside to replace as it is literally glued into the notebook. Here’s a YouTube video that illustrates how difficult it is to replace it. It’s also a tad bit dangerous to replace. I’ve heard of people puncturing batteries which starts one hell of a fire seeing as these are lithium polymer batteries. So there was no way I was buying the battery and doing it myself. Also going to the Apple Store was going to be expensive and not any faster. Thus I phoned around to repair shops that I trust to see if I could get it addressed the same day.
That lead to two challenges for me. The first being that not a lot of places had the battery in stock as it appears that they are popular at the moment. The second was that I would be without my MacBook for the day or longer. That was kind of unpalatable to me, but I was resigned to that until I came across a company called TechKnowSpace in central Mississauga. They had the battery in stock, an Apple OEM one at that, and they said that they could swap it in 45 minutes or so. So I handed out my MacBook Pro and went to the Bier Market next door and consumed a Mad Tom IPA while watching Novak Djokovic play tennis on one of their big screen TVs.
About 45 minutes later I got a text message from TechKnowSpace saying that my MacBook was ready. I powered it on, found a new battery installed when I booted things up. So I paid up and went home. I ran a battery rundown test of running videos from YouTube and got just over 7 hours. The notebook is rated for 9 under less taxing activities so that meant I was good to go. Gripes? A minor one. There are two very tiny dents in the top case where your palm is supposed to go. The only reason why I noted them was that I am insanely detail oriented about my stuff. My guess is that they got there when they removed the old battery as you have to do some scraping and prying to get it out. I was able to smooth them out so they are less noticeable. But in no way was this a dealbreaker.
So, the total cost of this battery replacement was $149 CDN plus tax. To put that in perspective, Apple charges $259 plus tax. And for the most part I found very little to complain about. Now with a new battery installed, I can continue to use this notebook until Apple comes out with a MacBook Pro that I feel comfortable buying. Because I have to admit that #KeyboardGate as well as their processor throttling issues (though they did fix that) have made me sit on the sidelines when it comes to buying a new MacBook which is something that I do every 2 to 3 years. While I am sure that Apple doesn’t care about that, I am happy that I have a reliable notebook to use. Though I have to get the screen replaced under Apple’s #StainGate program at some point in the near future.
Getting My 2015 MacBook Pro Battery Replaced
Posted in Commentary with tags Apple on November 4, 2018 by itnerdLast Thursday night I was using my 2015 MacBook Pro when I noted that the battery was switching between “Service Now” and “Normal” on the menu bar via iStat Menus. That was a clear sign to me that the battery was about to go as I’ve written about this situation in the past. It is a three year old laptop so that made sense. It was also out of AppleCare so I knew that I had to cough up some bucks to fix it. But unlike my wife’s 2012 MacBook Pro which had a battery that was easy to replace, I had a bit of a challenge. The battery in my MacBook Pro is a pain in the backside to replace as it is literally glued into the notebook. Here’s a YouTube video that illustrates how difficult it is to replace it. It’s also a tad bit dangerous to replace. I’ve heard of people puncturing batteries which starts one hell of a fire seeing as these are lithium polymer batteries. So there was no way I was buying the battery and doing it myself. Also going to the Apple Store was going to be expensive and not any faster. Thus I phoned around to repair shops that I trust to see if I could get it addressed the same day.
That lead to two challenges for me. The first being that not a lot of places had the battery in stock as it appears that they are popular at the moment. The second was that I would be without my MacBook for the day or longer. That was kind of unpalatable to me, but I was resigned to that until I came across a company called TechKnowSpace in central Mississauga. They had the battery in stock, an Apple OEM one at that, and they said that they could swap it in 45 minutes or so. So I handed out my MacBook Pro and went to the Bier Market next door and consumed a Mad Tom IPA while watching Novak Djokovic play tennis on one of their big screen TVs.
About 45 minutes later I got a text message from TechKnowSpace saying that my MacBook was ready. I powered it on, found a new battery installed when I booted things up. So I paid up and went home. I ran a battery rundown test of running videos from YouTube and got just over 7 hours. The notebook is rated for 9 under less taxing activities so that meant I was good to go. Gripes? A minor one. There are two very tiny dents in the top case where your palm is supposed to go. The only reason why I noted them was that I am insanely detail oriented about my stuff. My guess is that they got there when they removed the old battery as you have to do some scraping and prying to get it out. I was able to smooth them out so they are less noticeable. But in no way was this a dealbreaker.
So, the total cost of this battery replacement was $149 CDN plus tax. To put that in perspective, Apple charges $259 plus tax. And for the most part I found very little to complain about. Now with a new battery installed, I can continue to use this notebook until Apple comes out with a MacBook Pro that I feel comfortable buying. Because I have to admit that #KeyboardGate as well as their processor throttling issues (though they did fix that) have made me sit on the sidelines when it comes to buying a new MacBook which is something that I do every 2 to 3 years. While I am sure that Apple doesn’t care about that, I am happy that I have a reliable notebook to use. Though I have to get the screen replaced under Apple’s #StainGate program at some point in the near future.
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