Are the new MacBook batteries normally made with used cells?

I ask because I ordered one for an Early 2011 15" Unibody back in Oct 2016. It lasted a year as promised before puffing up, so I'm happy enough with that.

But I went ahead and disassembled it. Like I did with the original Apple battery. Like every iFixIt fan should do. I want to ask about what I found, in case your suppliers aren't meeting your expectations.

The new replacement battery cells were smaller than original, with 70x40mm rubber blocks to take up the extra space. The cells appear to have been used and repurposed. Part numbers wiped off with acetone, tab welds broken, folded and resoldered poorly, covered with cardboard insulators and cheap clear tape. It looked perfect on the outside, but inside it was amateur. Is this normal?

Had I known the build quality, I wouldn't have bought it, or left it charging unsupervised. I won't buy another one.

But I would totally buy fake internal battery simulators, with no cells at all, that could make my MacBooks believe they had functional batteries. I only use them as desktops, and never move them. I don't care if power blips cause reboot, and would prefer super low risk of leaking, bursting into flame, breaking the trackpad, etc.

Answer this question I have this problem too

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This question was migrated from http://www.ifixit.com/Answers.

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Dave I moved this over to the Meta site so the store group could see it. If you can locate your order info I think they would like to see that so they can track the supplier they used for your battery.

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Cool, I am not familiar with your different forums. Where should I ask the other question about battery simulators? I'd be interested in a product like that.

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I don't think iFixit sells those. you could probably look around on ebay or amazon.

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hmm... @kadan this may be your territory.

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