I need a replacement battery for an older laptop that originally came with an 11.25V Li-ion battery (presumably 3 cells at 3.75V each).
The batteries I found online mostly have a nominal voltage of 11.1V or 10.8V (i.e. 3.7V or 3.6V per cell). I did some reading and this could be due to a different chemistry (e.g. cobalt vs. manganese) or marketing strategies that favor higher watt-hours.
Many battery vendors list these batteries as suitable replacements for my model, but I'm concerned about the safety and potential risks of using a battery with a lower voltage:
- Can these different voltage batteries (11.25V vs. 11.1V vs. 10.8V) be treated as equivalent/compatible for all practical purposes or will interchanging them cause a fire/explosion?
- More generally, what kind of discrepancies in voltage are considered acceptable? Are there authoritative sources or recognized guidelines I could use to determine compatibility?