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How much does a Mac Battery Replacement Cost and How Long till it Take?

I recently got my macbook pro battery replaced because it said so – when looking at the status.
I was getting a maximum of about 45 minutes of work before the plugin was required.
This is down from the original 8 hours.

So I booked it in for the replacement at my local iStore.

Make a booking on the istore with this link.

How Much Will it Cost?

When making the booking you get this message:

 Ensure that your device has been backed up prior to your booking date. Potential costs once you arrive for your appointment may include:
R200 - fee if device is not purchased from iStore.
R450 - fee for complex tech support if device is not purchased from iStore.
R250 - insurance letter.
R250 - insurance quote for iPhone or iPad.
R600 - insurance quote for Mac when device is out of warranty. 

In my case the device was out of warranty so I had to pay R600 at the iStore – although the item on the bill did not say insurance.
It said technical assessment.

The quote for the battery replacement was: R5743.35 (including VAT)

That included:

  • English INT, Top case with battery ISO, Space Grey. (R4994.23)
  • Labour Fee (R521.74) [Already Prepaid]

Then VAT was added to the above.

The total paid was: R6343.35

How Long Will it Take?

I booked it in at the istore at 15:30 on 2020-09-04.

Ready for collection notifiction came at 15:19 on 19 September 2020

I accepted the quote immediately.

They mentioned that it would take 5-7 business days.
In reality it took 10 business days.

In actual days, it took 15 days or half a month.

Timeline:

  • 2020-09-04: Booked in (and paid technical assement fee)
  • 2020-09-06: Dispatched to Service Centre
  • 2020-09-11: Assessment and quote sent through (Accepted immediately)
  • 2020-09-19: Ready for collection

Info After the Upgrade

It feels like the keycoard was replaced after the upgrade but I cannot be certain.
The battery was clearly replaced as per the system report:

  Charge Information:
  Charge Remaining (mAh):   4594
  Fully Charged:    Yes
  Charging: No
  Full Charge Capacity (mAh):   4827
  Health Information:
  Cycle Count:  1
  Condition:    Normal
  Battery Installed:    Yes
  Amperage (mA):    0
  Voltage (mV): 12805

Then looking at coconut battery history:

Old Macbook Battery History

New battery capacity

Is it Worth it?

The Macbook Pro 13inch 128GB edition cost me R18999 initially.
I have had it 2 and a half years, before requiring the replacement.

As per using personal assets for work purposes, depreciation of assets is done over 3 years.
So it makes sense to do the repair on the 3rd year of service.

Is it worth it…is a question you need to ask yourself.
For me I think it is as I spend alot of time working outside.

The first time I used it…it went from 100% to 10% in 3.5 hours.
Much better than it was but not as good as quoted by apple.
Of course I was using it at 100% brightness, had many tabs open and was watching a few videos.