Dell XPS15-9550 battery (4GVGH) expanding

Dell doesn't sell batteries for systems where the battery is internal - it's not considered user-replaceable.  They will replace the battery but you must contact them for an out-of-warranty repair estimate - the battery is sold only with the labor to replace it.

Dell has been really lame about this. I've had the same issue. Turns out the batteries only have 1 year warranties and are not covered under the extended warranties, unless you buy a special battery warranty. Of course, when I called about mine, they didn't have any 6 cell batteries in stock and they told me to go look for a third party seller. Even then, these are hard to come by. I'm pretty unhappy with Dell at the moment. My XPS is now a desktop. I had to pull the battery so it wouldn't damage anything inside, since it's still expanding.

I’ve given up trying to find a replacement battery. But even if I could find one, I not sure I would buy it – a battery that expands after just a year doesn’t sound safe to me.

In practice, I don’t think I’ve ever used my laptop in a situation where I haven’t been close to power, so using my laptop as a “portable desktop” is working for me. But I’m amazed that Dell would equip a top laptop with a poor quality battery.

"If you're usually not using the laptop on battery, you might reduce battery wear by using the BIOS option (or Dell Power Manager) that chargers it to max 90% and recharges only when it drops below 80%."

I didn't know this. Mostly I have been using using the laptop at home with power connected, not it seems a good idea.

Yes, swelling batteries are a new low and I don't think this is acceptable. I guess just a matter of time until Note 7 type of events. Battery swelling is surely not declared in laptop specifications that one finds when buying the laptop.

I searched the Dell site for this and only found a declaration that the expected lifetime of a battery is 300 charging cycles. Battery status does not give away info on the estimated number of cycles spent.

The unavailability of replacement batteries after a year-or-so is another low.

> it's not considered user-replaceable

That's nonsense, the online service manual describes the procedure.

Handling swollen batteries might be hazardous though, but there is no particular word about this in the manual.  

If you're usually not using the laptop on battery, you might reduce battery wear by using the BIOS option (or Dell Power Manager) that chargers it to max 90% and recharges only when it drops below 80%.

I'll go ahead and make a recommendation on this. If Dell doesn't like it, they should sell the batteries. I had another laptop this happened on two weeks after the warranty expired. It was purchased special order  for me where I work. They wouldn't supply a battery, I ended up buying a similar replacement with good ratings on Amazon and that battery lasted 3+ years after the Dell OEM one made it about 2 weeks past the 1 year warranty.

I don't know what model you have specifically, but changing the battery in the Precision M3800 I'm referring to was a cake walk, and literally impossible to screw up if you had any experience operating a screw driver, and you didn't smash the connector in backwards.

The quote we got from Dell for a replacement battery outside of warranty was over $300 including shipping. I paid about $90 of my own money for a replacement with hundreds of ratings on Amazon.The replacement was used for 3 years every single day at work, was still working when the laptop was fried by a power surge about a year ago.

Well, I've given up. My XPS is now a lame desktop. These batteries don't exist anymore. I've bought 2 dead ones from EBay, and online battery outlets don't have these anymore. Even Dell can't get them. After 3 months of trying to get a battery and failing, I'm done. I'm also done with Dell. They just don't care. I'm moving onto other more reliable vendors.

My experience as well, these batteries or some sort of replacement are just not available. My expensive Dell laptop lasted just 15 months. Bye-bye Dell.

I just wanted to add myself to this battery problem.  I've engaged Dell about the defective battery but so far no solution.  Since this is a dangerous issue I figured Dell would want to get this fixed but so far it seems no recall is in the cards, us customers have to pay for their defective battery.  Oh well,next time I upgrade my laptop this will factor in my decision.

Same issue here... one month out of warranty, the battery starts swelling and the trackpad is useless. Dell have offered to replace the battery for free, but I've had no indication of when that might be as they are out of stock. The best I can get out of them is that it might take weeks.

Great that I get a new battery, but I'm now stuck with a laptop I can't use unless it's plugged in. Not what I would have hoped for, for such an expensive pc.

I too have suffered this issue on a £2000 16 month old laptop and reported it to the ultimately useless Dell Cares (what a misnomer!) via twitter.  They followed it up, I sent pictures of the battery and they responded that it's not a safety issue and as the laptop is out of warranty to contact them for an out of warranty repair!  When I asked what the criteria they were using to decide it wasn't a safety issue they couldn't tell me.  They could only tell me that it was safe.  They even said  there was no risk to me or the laptop in putting the battery back in and carrying on using it!  This is utterly ridiculous and has ensured that I will not be buying Dell again.

Same problem here just 3 month after my warranty has expired. Battery unplugged in fustration.

I´m a former IBM/Lenono user and did never have problems finding and picking up spare parts if necessary. Apparently this is not an option at Dell.

Same problem, out of warranty for 6 months.  This is ridiculous for such an expensive computer.

I'm writing this on a 10-year-old iMac because the battery on my <2-year-old XPS 15 just pushed my trackpad clean out of the computer. I agree with you all, totally and completely unacceptable on a "high-end" laptop. First and last Dell I'll ever buy, for sure.