Cheap eBay batteries

[wiley46]

My wife is a bit frustrated by her Eris battery life, so we're looking at getting a second battery and charger. Would you guys trust these cheapies from eBay:

2x BATTERY+DESKTOP CHARGER FOR VERIZON HTC DROID ERIS - eBay (item 270519582451 end time Feb-21-10 10:57:34 PST)

There are a gazillion auctions for two batteries and a charger for $20 or so, seems too good to be true.

[wyzzerdd]

The "generic" batteries included kinda scare me. You have no idea what kind of quality checks they were given. I'd buy that charger seperately then get some official HTC batteries or at least a brand that's well known.

[Matth3w]

I bought a battery for two bucks on eBay for my Droid, and it specifically says BP6X on the back like the OEM one (though it isn't OEM) and it works fine.

[wiley46]

That's the thing, I bought a bunch of those $1.50 car and wall chargers from eBay/Amazon for both my Droid and her Eris and they work fine. But batteries scare me a bit more. I suppose I'm only out $17 if they suck, and I doubt it will actually do damage to my phone, right?

And thanks for your service Matthew, I'm in Tucson too with a brother-in-law up at Pinal Air Park as a 1st SGT in a Apache maintenance unit.

[Matth3w]

No problem for the service, no reason to thank me.

As for the batteries, just buy the ones that are 3 bucks. You're going to be using it as a secondary backup anyhow, right? Your main will get you through a good portion of the day even with heavy use, then you can just pop in the spare to get you the rest.

[wyzzerdd]

Wow lots of arizona folks in this thread, im in chandler

[Guchi]

i would do it the seller has good feedback on the actual thing you want to buy and like you said its $16 bucks. oem would cost you like $100 probably

[Matth3w]

OEM batteries are only like 30 bucks.

[bkfist]

That's the thing, I bought a bunch of those $1.50 car and wall chargers from eBay/Amazon for both my Droid and her Eris and they work fine. But batteries scare me a bit more. I suppose I'm only out $17 if they suck, and I doubt it will actually do damage to my phone, right?

Personally *I* would be MUCH more concerned about $1.50 chargers than batteries. A battery can only produce the voltage that the chemical reaction allows it to produce... As long as it has the same number of cells, it can NOT damage the phone (unless it leaks).

A charger, on the other hand can produce voltage spikes, surges, over-current, brown-outs, noise, all of which can damage the rather delicate electronics in the phone.