I am a frugal guy...Ok I'm super cheap. When I decided to buy myself a laptop I set my budget at $150 :)) I knew I could find a used one, low prices on new laptops have made them almost disposable. So I bought one from craigslist for $100. I actually talked him down in price, it needed a new battery.
New OEM batteries were over $80, ridiculous. I searched on amazon.com (a third party seller) and found an aftermarket one for $35, perfect and under budget. Everything was great for about three weeks, then the battery stopped holding a charge.
I couldn't find any warranty information for the battery, and didn't get any replies from the seller. I decided I made a bad choice on the battery and continued to use the laptop in its less portable plugged in state.
After a few weeks of normal use, I set the laptop on my bed and pushed the power button. Nothing happened for a second, then a hiss. I was at a loss, I had never heard a hiss from a PC before. Then a small amount of smoke came out of the vents. I was more angry than freaked out, until the explosion. It literally burst into flames with a loud bang. I instinctively dove beside my bed. I came up slowly to see what happened. The computer and part of my bed was on fire. When it started to pop again I threw it across the room. Then a second louder explosion. I put out the bed and ran for water to put out the laptop.
It was all over when I doused the PC with water. I learned something about the explosive nature of lithium ion batteries. When you are told they can explode they can really explode. I will never go cheap on batteries again.
