Dell XPS 9560 Battery Replacement

[CK1]

Hi,
I have a Dell XPS 9560 with a 6 cell battery. It has just decided to give up on me and now my laptop will only run on mains power. I need a replacement.
Dell have quoted me £178 for a new battery but I have seen third party batteries that start at £40 but most commonly at around £58-£78, a significant difference.
Is there any difference between the performance of an official Dell battery and the third party ones? Do I need to spend the extra cash?
I've never bought a laptop battery before so any help / guidance much appreciated.
Thanks

[jimbouk]

Difficult one - it's a heck of a lot of money but the risks of a substandard battery in terms of fire, etc, are there. Do you need a long runtime? Would a second hand genuine battery suffice?

I've bought 'new genuine' phone batteries from ebay before which turned out to be neither...

[CK1]

Surely a second hand battery is just going to lead to the same problem just sooner as it is old. My battery just gave up the other day and said it couldn't be used anymore, even though it says it is 95% charged. Very strange, almost like it is designed that way.
I use the laptop 99% of the time plugged into the mains, whether at home or away so the battery performance isn't really an issue for me, i just don't want the thing to catch fire or swell and damage the rest of the laptop.

[Guy]

I use the laptop 99% of the time plugged into the mains, whether at home or away

I'd suggest you have a look and see if the manufacturer has any option to cap the charge capacity. If you're plugged in 24/7 it's not going to do the battery any good.

I know Surface devices have this option: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/battery-limit

Along with Dell, as for 'kiosk' type laptops that rarely if ever move (reception desks etc.) we set something similar.