We had our first death in our iPod family this week. Our 80 GB iPod 5.5 decided to no longer charge even though it was “100% Charged”. “Our” iPod is used the same way every day. C uses it an hour a day while she’s walking in the morning 5 days a week (she’s very dedicated). The nice part is that it will hold a charge for the entire week. Charge it up on Friday, ready to go for her walking on Monday. Rinse and repeat.
So it was quite odd that without the usual slowly depreciated battery life between charges – it just died. So even though the new iPod Nanos just came out – I took a chance on getting a new, user replaceable battery.
Two options. Ship back to Apple for $70 or find one online somewhere (who buys locally any more?). That turned out pretty easy as there’s plenty of review sites and companies to purchase from. For our first effort, I chose iPod Battery Depot.
For about $20 including shipping, a new replaceable battery showed up via USPS. Probably took maybe 3-4 days to arrive. Web site looks a little 1998 if you know what I mean… But I checked out the BBB links, did a little bit of research to see if there were any horror stories out there about them. Seemed decent enough. And for $20 – it was worth a little risk.
Turned out not to be an issue at all. Popped open the iPod and about 5 minutes later the new battery was in. Funny enough as well – the instructions state to run the battery charge down that it came with and then perform a full charge after that for 4 hours. Well – even the trickle that was left from the factory took 2 hours to wind down playing back video! A few days in and everything is still working great! C has her perfectally size iPod for walking and I have my iPhone back! (She was afraid of dropping it… I think the screen size was just too much for her! LOL)
So if you’re in need of a new battery for your iPod – iPod Battery Depot is worth checking out. Be sure to check around for some online coupons… There’s a 15% and $3 off coupon floating around right now…
(There’s no sponsorship here… or hidden links – or referrals… just a good experience…)
My iPod mini is slowly kicking the bucket. Sometimes I turn it on and it will have 2 battery bars, but then it will die and say there is no power. Also if I don’t use it for a couple of days, the battery is dead. But since mine is ancient, when it does completely die, I think I wil just get a nano.
Yeah – it’s time for a new one for you for sure! I like the iPod Nano as well… If you want to save $50 – you can get a “refurbished” last generation Nano… Same screensize. Or checkout Craigslist…
that’s interesting – i got two ipod batteries and i was told that i needed to charge them up and play them down for best results. my expereince with ipodjuce was very very positive and i would highly recommened them to my friends. I wasn’t sure what ipods i had and a pleasant asian fellow helped me figure it out (i felt kinda stupid but he was patient and said other people sometimes don’t know what kind of ipod they have either). My new batteries also have a ten year lifespan so that’s huge for me, cause i really don’t want to have to keep replacing the battery again if i can help it.
I’d like to give a big shout to ipod battery depot too. I just replaced my ipod video battery using their online instructions and it was a snap. Plus, unlike the ipod juice site, ipod battery depot offers a lifetime warranty on the battery.
Ipod battery depot is dirty and deceptive! I had to throw away a brand new ipod because their tutorial on replacing the battery did not mention the electrical connection that had to be soldered. Maybe it used to work with older ipods, but their instructions ruined the ipod — and I’m a surgeon by trade.
They also sold me an ipod “universal” charger that didn’t fit my daughter’s shuffle and wouldn’t take it off the order. Their customer service is awful.
DO NOT DO BUSNESS WITH!
This outfit is a total rip. I tried to get 2, 3td gen ipod touch units battery replacements. After two weeks, the units were returned with apparently the same battery as they had when I shipped them to be replaced. I contacted customer service and was told to ship the units back for ‘examination’ and battery replacement. When the units were returned, again, they would noy hold a charge and I suspect the batteries were never replaced. I won’t waste any more time or $ with this rip off.
AVOID IPOD BATTERY DEPOT AT ALL COST!!
I would also recommend avoiding ipod battery depot. I paid for expedited shipping, and when that fell through on the fault of the shipper, the only thing they would offer was to ship out another one regular delivery unless I was willing to pay more (again) to have it overnighted. I would recommend a more legit operation with better customer service. They just kept saying it was the shipper’s fault, which I really don’t care about since they have to deal with the shippers they choose, not me.