Replacing Laptop 18650's with AW's 18650's?

[Tiresius]

I was wondering if anyone's done the swap themselves. I was thinking of ordering 6-9 cells and doing the mod myself to see if I can get a better battery life from it. I've seen 12 cells available for my laptop so why not just do 9 because the battery pack is designed to fit 9 cells but they leave the 2 space blank.

My question is:
1.) Is it easy to solder the connectors on each cell?
2.) Is it smart to swap the cells for better ones because the ones on mines are panasonic greens. They last 3hr with lowest setting but I'd like to see 6-9hrs.
3.) What do we use to solder the connectors to the cells? I've tried an ordinary solder gun and wire but it doesn't stick to the cells and the connectors don't melt.

 

[bshanahan14rulz]

Do not solder to cells. Period. Well, unless you don't care if the cell dies or explodes.

You can buy single cells, though, with tabs already on them. Those are a little safer to solder to.

On the actual replacing of cells and getting it to work, never tried. Might work, might not, depending on if the pack keeps track of bad cells or cycle count. Wait for someone else to have an answer about that.

for replacements, find a cell with the same voltage, but highest capacity. Maybe unprotected tabbed NCR18650's (2900mAh) from a reputable source.

 

[Tiresius]

Do not solder to cells. Period. Well, unless you don't care if the cell dies or explodes.

You can buy single cells, though, with tabs already on them. Those are a little safer to solder to.

On the actual replacing of cells and getting it to work, never tried. Might work, might not, depending on if the pack keeps track of bad cells or cycle count. Wait for someone else to have an answer about that.

for replacements, find a cell with the same voltage, but highest capacity. Maybe unprotected tabbed NCR18650's (2900mAh) from a reputable source.

Well, I was asking the question because I have a laptop but the battery pack last less than 1hr. The battery pack holds 6x18650 panasonic green batteries @ 1600mah. I ran across this video and was thinking if I can upgrade the pack to a 9-cell.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtqRvAu71Gw

I noticed that he bought cells with the tabs on them already. In other words, he soldered tabs together. Am I right?