Several of Acer’s inexpensive 11.6 inch notebooks use the same batter. The Acer Aspire One 756, Acer TravelMate B113, and Acer Aspire V5-171 Windows laptops and the Acer C7 Chromebook all have the same 3-cell battery and typically offer between 3 and 4 hours of battery life.

But if you pick up a 3rd party 6-cell battery you can get about twice as much run time.

Acer Aspire V5-171 battery

Liliputing reader WANg wrote in to let us know that you can use a Sanyo AL12X32 5000mAh battery in any of these laptops and get around 7 hours of battery life.

CDW sells the battery for about $50.

In some parts of the globe Acer also offers some of these laptops with higher-capacity batteries, but in the US it tends to position these notebooks as low-cost devices and only offers the 3-cell, 2500mAh battery option in order to keep prices low (and presumably to convince customers who want longer battery life to spend more money on higher-end notebooks).

Bear in mind, the extended battery is bigger and heavier than the 3-cell battery, so it’ll make these portable notebooks slightly bulkier. But that may be a small price to pay for the ability to fly from one coast of the US to the other and use your notebook without recharging it.

thanks WANg!

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45 replies on “$50 battery doubles run-time of the Acer C7 Chromebook, V5-171 notebook, more”

  1. A few corrections: first of all, the original battery is a 4 cell, not a 3 cell battery. Second, the 6 cell battery doesn’t “double” battery life as the title of this article claims – it only increases it by 50%: double the mAh from 2500 to 5000, but also reduce the voltage to 11.1v. The 4 cell is therefore rated at 37 Wh and the 6 cell rated at 57 Wh (v * mAh = Wh). Wh, not mAh, is what matters in battery life.

    I just bought a refurbished 756 – nice little machine. With the screen dimmed 1/2 way, running Ubuntu 12.04 and playing an MP4 file with wireless disabled (how I’d use it on an airplane, where I’m really most worried about the battery life), it draws just over 10 watts on my Kill-a-Watt meter. As the 4 cell battery is rated at 37 Wh, that means a battery life of just under 3.7 hours at best. The 6 cell batter (57Wh) should provide about 5.7 hours at best. With wireless enabled and screen at full brightness expect less battery life, of course.

    Given that the 6 cell battery is now (July 2013) about $90 USD shipped and provides only about an extra 2 hours of battery life, it wasn’t worth the cost to me at this point. I wound up buying a cheap fairly new 4 cell battery on eBay for $32 shipped. Now that Acer has introduced C710-2055 Chromebook version with the 6 cell battery, though, I expect to see a bigger supply of 6 cell batteries and eventually a lower price – so maybe someday I’ll buy one!

    1. Yep. it doubles the mAH rating, but not the runtime. Your runtime is still highly correlated with your particular usage patterns. Of course, a sneaky way to get a 6 cell is to buy a C710-2055, get the battery, swap the battery out and sell it used as a 4 cell, pocketing the diff. It’s really too bad that CDW discovered the battery arbitrage and closed it down quick.

      1. Oh. And also, you still have your 25WHr battery when you upgrade to the 50. If you charge both, suspend-to-disk when one runs out and swap them, you are still effectively getting double the runtime. So it’s not entirely deceptive, Think outside of the box.

        1. Hi- I have an AO756-2808 netbook running at 14.8V with 2350 maH.
          Can I purchase a 11.1V running at 5200 maH?
          Will this be compatible?

  2. Do we know for certain if it will excessively wear on any components in the v5 171-6422 (i5 cpu) to get this extended battery?

  3. it will burn your motherboard`s PS in the long run beacause it aways compensate for the lack of voltage. i have not done it with my aspire v5 but did something similar in the past. not worth it!

    1. …if your machine is so poorly made that running it on an extended battery made by the original manufacturer will kill it, well…maybe you deserve to have your $200 laptop killed by a $50 battery.

  4. Hi if anyone wants to buy a battery for me for a AO756 and send it to Australia, I will be very appreciative of this. Obviously I will pay for it plus a bit extra. I contacted CDW and they said they don’t ship outside the US. Regards, Martin. edit. All sorted thanks, Martin.

  5. Just got mine, and it’s charging now. Slipped right in. Thanks for the tip about this deal!

  6. Is there a definitive answer on whether this works on the V5-171 (per the 14.8v vs 11.1v voltage concerns)? I have a v5-171 with an i3-2365 CPU if that matters. There are a lot of models that share the same shell but I am unclear if they have non-obvious differences -eg do they run the models with Celerons on different power?

    Are there any other discount sources (DealExtreme, eBay sellers) people have found for this part? I live in the third world (Canada). CDW Canada does not carry this extended battery, and CDW in the US will not ship it to Canada. I have found a few vendors who have the Sanyo part available as a special order, but at $120.

    I would gladly pay $50 for the battery life but at $120 it changes the equation into “I should have just bought a more expensive machine” category.

    I understand that Acer intentionally does not want to cannibalize sales of more expensive machines and so they don’t necessarily market a version of my machine with this battery, however the listed specifications of various models of AO756, V5-171 and Travelmate B-113 are vague enough that an informed decision is difficult. I started off planning to buy a Celeron based AO756 but upsold myself to the V5-171 to get an i3 and a USB 3.0 port. If it had been apparent that a single model of the Travelmate B-113 had the bigger battery I probably would have upsold myself to that.

    I get about 3 hours out of my stock battery (at full screen brightness) and I would be delighted to get to 5 hours on the bigger battery. Realistic?

    1. *sigh*.

      Yes. It works. I think everyone who bought one and bothered posting a response in here has pretty much proven that it works , and works quite well for a $40 upgrade.

      Just in case, here’s some proof of it working.

      1) Here’s a photo of my actual V5-171. That website looks familiar.
      https://imgur.com/NonsxSr

      2) Here’s a photo of it on its side. So yes. This is the bigger battery.
      https://imgur.com/Kyre2UP

      3) Here’s a pic of it running HWInfo32.
      https://imgur.com/NUNdZNI

      4) Here’s the more detailed technical information via HWInfo32.
      https://imgur.com/yrqUwmJ
      (Note that the voltage says ~12.6v off the battery with 52WHr, and my cells are at 1.2% wear, normal for a 3 month old battery)

      Keep in mnd that I have a Core i5/3317U, which is a bit more power hungry than the Celerons or Pentiums in the other machines.

      So yes. It works.

      Oh yeah. You might want to keep a copy of the service manual around just in case –

      https://www.manualowl.com/m/Acer%20Computers/TravelMate-B113-M/Manual/298662

  7. This appears very misleading. The 756/V5 had a FOUR cell, 14.8 volt battery. A THREE cell (or 6 or 9 cell) is 11.1 volts. this would not be expected to be compatible. What is needed for the 756/V5/113 is a four or eight cell, 14.8 volt, for charging circuits, etc to work properly. This post should be revised or deleted.

    I have looked every where for an 8-cell, extended battery for this computer. They do not appear to exist. Maybe someone will decide to do this.

    Regards.

    1. What’s so misleading about that? It’s an Acer OEM part meant for an Acer product line. It’s not as if it’s from a 3rd party vendor. Besides, the number of cells or voltage is immaterial. It’s the Watt-Hour rating that you care about. If it fits, it ships.

  8. So after reading this article, and the comments below, I decided to buy a AL12X32 for my AO756-2623 (Celeron 877). I knew there was a chance that it would not be compatible, but the risk was totally worth doubling the run time on this little beast. Unfortunately, this battery will not work with my AO756. It will actually run the laptop just fine, but it will not charge. Your battery indicator will flash orange, presumably to indicate a failing battery. I tried three different power supplies:

    Factory PS: 40w (19v/2.14a)

    Aspire 4339 PS: 65w (19v/3.42a)

    Targus Universal PS: 65w (19.5v/4.61a)

    The above power supplies will all charge the stock 3 cell battery with no issues.

    Hope this helps those looking for an extended battery for their AO756.

    P.S. – Acer, just make a damn extended battery for this thing already. : ]

    1. Welp, it looks like I am a liar. After flashing the latest bios (1.09), my AO756 will charge the extended battery.

      P.S. -Acer, I love you.

        1. I had the exact same experience…had to update the bios to get the battery to charge on a v5-171-6860

    2. I have an acer ao756-2808.
      Would it be ok to buy a 11.1V/5200maH rather than a 14.8V?

  9. I have a Dell Laptop at work, also a gen3 core I5.
    It states a requirement of 19.7v on the back under the battery, my work ordered the high cap batteries, I checked them, and they are 11.1v.

    I’ve been using this laptop on battery power for 18 months, no issues in regards to battery life, crashing, or bios voltage warning.

  10. I have an Acer v5-171-9661. It comes with an AL12B32 which is rated at 14.8V and 2500mAH. I ordered and received the AL12X32 (made by ACER); it is a perfect fit for my laptop however it is rated at 11.1V at 5000mAH. I’m concerned about the voltage differential on a couple of levels.
    1) If the computer is really designed around a 14.8 V power source then the computer will pull more current from the lower voltage battery to obtain the power it needs – does this compromise the life of my computer (circuit board traces and power management circuitry)?
    2) The wall charger that comes with the system is rated at 19V. This will cause a voltage drop of at least 9 volts or more across the computer’s charging circuit for a battery that requires charging. Again is the computer and its power management circuitry rated for this – will it reduce the life of my computer?

    I have not able to get any answers from ACER. Their customer service does not work with the part numbers stamped on the ACER batteries. They use a KT numbering system and have no cross reference to the AL12 series numbering on the batteries. They will only recommend the origonal 14.8 V battery that came with the system for a spare.

    1. Eh, the machines run on a 5/3.3/1.5v rail internally, so the battery internal voltage has not much to do with the stepdown conversion in the chassis. It’s really just battery electronics. The bottom line is that if you read Acer’s global website – the same 50WHr battery pops up on listings for the B113/AO756 series in those markets. It’s called market segmentation.

  11. actually man be careful, i dont think that battery is compatible with the chromebook or some other models. from what ive gathered doing a little research online, the chromebook and some other 11.6 inch acer models that share the same chassis use 11.1 volt batteries at 49 watt hours. the acer one 756, 725, v5-171, and travelmate b13 models use a 14.4 or 14.8 volt battery at 37 watt hours. so just make sure you are getting the right one, cause ebay sells extended batteries for the chromebook and other 11.6 models for like 20 bucks, but they wont work one those other models.

    1. Hey guys, just a quick follow-up on the tip (I wrote that one in). This is actually an authentic Acer battery – the AL12X32 is actually bundled with some Core i5 B113 models sold in the UK and the Oceania region. Also, this battery fits the C7 Chromebook – the one with the Celeron 847, not the C700, which has an Atom N570.

      To give you guys an idea of what it looks like, here’s some side-by-side comparison photos of the batteries:

      https://i.imgur.com/F85iw1J.jpg
      https://i.imgur.com/I7K4lQq.jpg
      https://i.imgur.com/a8i4AcJ.jpg
      https://i.imgur.com/EVRUtUY.jpg

      Acer provides new rubber pads in the package to raise the front end a slight bit – since the larger battery also induces an inclined angle (see the last photo on top).

      With my V5-171 I have seen the runtime go from 4 hours to around 8, and that’s a fairly conservative estimate. Windows 7 has reported 11+ hours, but I would take that with a grain of salt.

      Oh BTW, for those who are complaining about the pricing, I have seen other vendors listing the unit for $129, so $49.99 + S&H is already very reasonable.

      1. I feel suspicious about it. It`s 11.1V vs14.8V . Does it even work in your laptop?

        1. See photos of the functional machine above and then tell me again why it will not work.

      2. This is great! So you’ve been this battery for over two months now, how are things going, any issues so far with the lower voltage?

        1. Yes. Works just fine – why wouldn’t it? I actually put the V5 on a transcon flight -did 6 hours of work on it and it still came up with at least 2 more.

  12. Awesome, but it does put the price of things up to $250… Why can’t manufacturers offer decent battery life by default? I don’t mind $20 being tacked on for that huge advantage.

    1. And why would Acer do that? $220 is barely covering the cost of the machine – especially if google is subsidizing part of it. In fact, this battery is not offered by Acer Americas specifically so the upgraded AO756/V5-171/TMB113 won’t steal sales away from their S-series Ultrabooks. The fact that CDW carries the battery was a major fluke.

  13. This actually appears to be an Acer product. Similar to the standard Acer-branded 2500mAh Sanyo AL12B32 battery in the C7.

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