Generic laptop batteries -- safe?

[b0000000000m]

Hey guys,

I am all for buying generic products in general, when the price is right and there is good reason to believe the product will be very close in quality to the name-brand (e.g., aspirin, non-Scotch tape, supermarket-brand herbs and spices, computer RAM).
However, I am a bit leery about buying generic batteries, especially for expensive equipment like my IBM ThinkPad. My primary concern is not that the battery won't hold a charge as well (although this is a small concern), but rather that it will actually damage my laptop. Is there a general consensus about whether it's safe to buy generic laptop batteries? Or do they tend to 'splode? (Or otherwise cause harm).

[heavybody]

I have a Sony laptop and my oem battery died about a year ago. After seeing what a battery from Sony would have cost(245.00) I looked on the internet and bought a battery from atbatt.com (http://www.atbatt.com/) (135.00)
and global-battery (http://www.global-batteries.com/)
(89.00) both have worked fine so far as I have cycled them
at least 20-30 times. The reason the one was more expensive then the other is because it has more capacity, though the difference is not that noticeable. Good luck

heavily bodied

[Shajen]

Be careful with this, in some instances, you can void your warranty be using non-OEM parts.

personally, I've never had a problem with generic batteries.