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We've got a 5 year old Dyson cordless - V6 I think. Yes, I know - he's a berk and we'd not buy another. However, this one was still working fine except it's just got the red light of battery death.
New genuine battery shows up as £82 on Amazon. There are dozens of compatibles from £30 upwards, some claiming to be higher capacity than the original.
People here seem to post about successful non-OEM battery purchases but all of mine have been hopeless. Over the years IBM Thinkpad battery, Makita 10.8v and old 18v. Even the recent Worx battery. All the compatibles seem to have been less life than the OEM (suggesting capacity exaggerated) and failed more quickly than the one they replaced.
Any suggestions on how to source a *good* non-OEM battery?
Have you tried dyson? Mine died and they just sent me a new one.
They're £65 from Dyson. Ah, no they aren't. Out of stock (mine arrived tuesday!)
You can have our old one - it was working ok but would expire within a minute sometimes, and sometimes it would last 10-15mins or so.
Think this is where ours came from, but they were offering a higher capacity version at the time. Still not cheap though https://www.espares.co.uk/product/es1785182/vacuum-cleaner-power-pack
I bought a cheap one off amazon. Still giving way longer runtime than the original, a couple of years later.
Bought a 20 quid one off eBay. Better run time but died after a year.
Sold non working machine on eBay for £60 and bought a Shark. Far better cleaner.
Yeah I just got one from Amazon (was £36 back in 2017), can't link it as no longer sold. I just checked reviews at the time looking for genuine sounding ones. Worked at least as well as the original for a year or so then I traded up to a later model and gave the old one away.
found a wire cutter or some other site review of them. Advice was to buy a genuine one since all of the OEM ones they bought and tested were inferior. unbranded cells (depite claims otherwise), cell marked capacity less than was being sold as, poor electronics and potentialy dangerous construction.
https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/dyson-replacement-battery-packs/
I'm amazed there isn't more of a market for genuinely high quality replacement batteries for things (or re-celling services). Although when you look at the price for quality branded 18650 cells from a reputable retailer like https://www.18650.uk/sony-murata-vtc5a-18650-battery
it's as much as £36 of bare cells in there so Dyson's price doesn't seem that unreasonable.
Bought an ‘alleged’ 4000mah one from eBay at the end of Dec, our previous smaller capacity one lasted a year. If this one doesn’t last very well then it’s getting to the point when a genuine replacement would have been better value
You know you can just throw it at dyson for £99 for a service?
The battery is £20 over the non battery service... so is that the cheapest way possible using man maths??! 😂
Reviving this thread to see if anyone has some more recent recommendations.
Battery direct from Dyson is £65.
The following stores appear to be UK based and offer 1 year warranty.
Battery Shop Sussex is £49.99. Battery is CE tested and comes with protection circuitry built in.
Vac Wiz is £36.99, has CE testing too but does not mention anything about the protection circuitry etc ...
As just posted on the other hoover thread, I bought one from an Amazon seller for £19. [i]Claims[/i] to be CE tested, not exploded yet.
I guess it doesn’t have all the smarts of a more expensive battery? Though not looked inside it to check! You could probably transplant the charging protection PCB from your old battery if you were bothered, think it’s just an inline module.
If you were DIYing it though all you really need to do is replace the 18650 cells in the battery with some decent new ones, as that’s the only thing wrong with it!
Yeah, but sadly the Dyson batteries are an absolute pain to disassemble. It's almost impossible to do without damaging the plastic case, and you'd then need a spot welder to actually replace the cells.
Well, officially you should use a proper battery spotwelder, to avoid heat problems. In practice, most fittings will allow you to solder it, as long as you're a) quick and b) comfortable with the fact that it might, possibly, explode. I won't recommend it or advocate for it but I've done it a few times.
I bought one off Amazon for £23, much longer run time than the original ever had!
Yeah, but sadly the Dyson batteries are an absolute pain to disassemble. It’s almost impossible to do without damaging the plastic case, and you’d then need a spot welder to actually replace the cells.
I pulled my old one apart just to extact the cells for recycling - wasn't very difficult.
Well, officially you should use a proper battery spotwelder, to avoid heat problems. In practice, most fittings will allow you to solder it, as long as you’re a) quick and b) comfortable with the fact that it might, possibly, explode. I won’t recommend it or advocate for it but I’ve done it a few times.
There some youtube videos on how to build a battery spot welder with a car battery and motorbike solenoid if you want to take it up a notch
Had a generic one off amazon - lasted a couple of months, now have the official Dyson and no issues so far.
A year on and I maintain that non-OEM batteries are always a bad idea.
I just replaced the battery on a very old Kindle for which you can't buy OEM replacements. Bought from the most reputable looking company I could find who were claiming it was an 'extended life' battery. However, based on the markings it's lower capacity than the one it's replacing despite there being loads of space inside the kindle for something larger.
(The really annoying thing about the Kindle being that it drains the battery over the course of a few weeks when not in use)
The first aftermarket battery I bought lasted about 3 years but I got an even bigger capacity (4000mah) aftermarket one this time.
The problem is these have very simple chargers and the dock/bracket encourages you to keep it permanently "on charge" sat at 100% which isn't good for lithium ion batteries.
I've just ordered a replacement battery for a Dyson DC30 from the Battery Shop Sussex (linked above), they claim to use Samsung cells so fingers crossed it should be ok and not burn the house down. Dyson don't make them any more so that option wasn't available. The original was purchased in 2014 so if I get another few years out it I'll be happy.
Home-brew spot welding was an attractive option but Mrs R has vetoed it on the basis of the above burning the house down possibility.
interesting point. I can potentially see a way around this problem using a current-sensing smart plug plus some scripting e.g. Node Red or IFTTTThe problem is these have very simple chargers and the dock/bracket encourages you to keep it permanently “on charge” sat at 100% which isn’t good for lithium ion batteries.
We replaced ours in October with the vacwiz one linked above. Easy to fit and no problems so far.
We tend not to leave it on charge full time fwiw.
The problem is these have very simple chargers and the dock/bracket encourages you to keep it permanently “on charge” sat at 100% which isn’t good for lithium ion batteries.
The battery will have it's own protection unit which prevents over charging / discharging and should prevent the cells being damaged. Obvs there is a trade off here eg Teslas cars are very conservative in how they treat the Lion cells, and get incredible life out of them. Cheaper consumer products might use protection circuits which sail closer to the edge as they can get more runtime out of the cells at the expense of longevity.
Am I the only one who saw the title and thought of WCA and his V8 Tesla? I would love to see a V6 vacuum!
How many batteries are in a Tesla? Wonder if it makes financial sense just to buy the car and take the batteries out, assuming they are just in a flap underneath.
How many batteries are in a Tesla? Wonder if it makes financial sense just to buy the car and take the batteries out, assuming they are just in a flap underneath.
The battery weights 600kg and is quite a task to take apart, over 1000 18650 cells IIRC...
There some youtube videos on how to build a battery spot welder with a car battery and motorbike solenoid if you want to take it up a notch
A project for WCA
I bought a one from the Battery Shop Sussex at the end of 2020.. its been fine and while I haven't tested the run time I'd say it's on par with the original.
I was happy enough I bought one for my father in law when his v6 died this year.
Jeff
I rang Dyson to moan about ours giving up the ghost after just 3 years and they sent me another as a gesture of goodwill.
Before they’d sent me that I spoke to county batteries and they reckon they could rebuild the old one as per spec’ - wasn’t massively cheaper than OE so didn’t bother, just upped the whinging to Duson 😳
I pondered non-OEM battery vs Dyson for ours when the original died. After considering that it's plugged in all the time in the cupboard under the stairs, I'd rather not take the risk of it exploding whilst I'm out. A small risk granted, but one I'd rather not save £20 finding out.
Thanks all for the feedback, I think the Amazon ones are too hit and miss but the UK links I posted appear to be reliable so will go for one of those.
Just to add, the Battery Shop Sussex one I ordered came last week and has been fine, vacuum works better than ever and house hasn’t burnt down.