Swollen battery?

antares said:

How can I determine if a battery is swollen and needs to be replaced? Yes, the obvious answer is if it starts bending your phone screen or laptop touchpad, or even just a visual inspection. Issue is I own this old Dell XPS laptop , the touchpad felt a bit stiff and upon removing the battery the touchpad is much smoother when clicking, but when looking at the battery it does not look swollen. As a precaution I discharged the battery completely, removed it and safely stored it inside a metal case. I'm using the laptop now only with AC plugged in. If I post a picture of the battery can anyone guess if it's swollen or not? I googled swollen batteries and they look like balloons. If this battery is swollen it has to be by a very narrow margin. Thanks

Well, you can post the picture. It couldn't hurt.

If you can get it in and out easily, that's one point in its favour.

What's the battery's life? Is that what you expect? Does it hold charge in the normal way or discharge more quickly than you'd expect?

Hold a straight edge along it where you can- look for deviation.
Place it on a flat surface- does it rock or lie flat?

Granted, some reports mention impact on your touchpad or keyboard- in the case of my laptop that couldn't apply- the batter is under the hinge at the back. Where is yours located?

If that was the case, I'd expect one or other physical check to show distortion.

Gross case:
Why is my laptop bulging? - YouTube

Thanks, here is a picture of the front and back. The battery is from 2018, it came brand new with the Dell XPS 9570. I always used it with AC plugged in and never recalibrated the battery (complete discharge/recharge). Power management shows a wear of 8%. It lays stable on a flat surface and looking at it from the edge does not show any deviation. I can remove/install the battery in the laptop without forcing it, fits perfectly fine. Only symptom as mentioned earlier is that the touchpad becomes a bit stiff, as if the battery is exerting pressure on it. The touchpad is located above the 3rd battery cell from the left in the first picture (you can see that the first two cells are not as swollen as the remaining 4). This is what made me believe that the battery was swollen.


Comparing this picture with the brand new battery , it seems the new battery is a bit flatter

Help, My Laptop Battery Is Swollen! Now What? | PCMag

- compare the image here

antares said:

In the end what I'd like to determine is if the battery is still useable or if it poses a risk

The best bet would be to take it to the service, considering it can burn down your house and even harm you.

Examples of Lithium Battery Fires - YouTube

antares said:

Yes I agree, that's why I removed it and completely discharged it to store it safely as mentioned earlier.

A damaged battery can ignite at any time and reignite even weeks after burst, so the only safe place to store it is outside, expecting it to burst. Some might think that it is excessive, but better to be safe than sorry.

How to safely store a defective (bulging) lithium-ion battery - Super User