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Dell XPS 13" 9343 Swollen battery
Hello,
I purchased a Dell XPS 13" 9343 two years ago and my battery just got swollen - one side of the keyboard/pad got lifted. I've contacted the local Dell support, and in addition to that that the guy was rude, he they told me that battery warranty is only for 1 year so they cannot replace it for me.
I find it really disappointing, especially to their top tier laptop series. It's only 2 years and the battery is "dead". I think it is unacceptable for a company like Dell to have that kind of issues and not to solve them although the warranty period has passed.
I am aware that batteries capacity can drop, and their performance is decreasing over time. But in my opinion, swollen batteries is something that shouldn't happen, it's a safety vulnerability.
I really hope that Dell will consider this case again and replace the battery even though the warranty time has passed.
kevintobrien
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September 13th, 2017 14:00
I also bought a Dell XPS 13 9343 about 2 years ago. Recently, the trackpad stopped working and the keyboard got warped. An internet search revealed that these problems were being caused by a swollen battery.
I contacted Dell, and they told me that they are aware that this problem exists with respect to the Dell XPS 13 9550, and that they are replacing the battery in that laptop free of change even after the warranty expired.
But they insisted there is no problem with the battery in the 9343 model. They told me they would sell me a new battery for $100 that I could install myself, or they would have a technician come to my home and install a new battery for $250.
I paid the $250 to have a technician install a new battery, and he told me he sees this problem regularly, but only in Dell laptops. After he installed the new battery, the trackpad started functioning again, and the keyboard was no longer warped.
I'm not happy about this. It appears that some batteries in the 9343 model are also defective, and Dell is not acknowledging the problem.
ejn63
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September 13th, 2017 17:00
With a year or just over age system, the failure is premature. At two years old, the battery is near the end of its normal lifespan (generally 18-24 months or 300-500 charge cycles is where lithium ion batteries spike in failure). So it's not going to be easy to argue the problem is a factory defect.
ANY slim lithium battery that is basically encased in a plastic bag can swell. The tech probably works mostly on Dell systems - which is why he said that. He must not work on Mac systems -- where swollen batteries first originated (Apple having adopted slim batteries before anyone else did).
The problem is extremely common in Macbook and Air systems.
kevintobrien
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November 5th, 2017 06:00
I understand that laptop batteries have a limited life, and that they generally lose the ability to hold a full charge after about 2 years. If that is what happened to me, I would accept it. I would still be able to use my laptop indefinitely even though it wouldn't hold a charge for as many hours. And I could use it plugged in. But that's not what happened to me.
What happened to me is that my battery swelled. It warped my keyboard causing some keys to not function, and it caused my touchpad to completely stop working. It made my laptop unusable. This is a defective battery. They are not supposed to swell. I had to pay Dell $250 to replace the battery. And I think I'm going to have to do this every 2 years. I'm very unhappy.