Review on KUNLUN 3200MAh ABL-D1 Battery Replacement For IRobot Roomba E/I Series Vacuum 4624864 14.4V Extended Life by Blake Burrell

I had originally purchased this battery last year after noticing that my i7+ was starting to charge more frequently. The original iRobot battery still works, but run times were becoming shorter. I received the battery as per standard Revain terms, and discovered that it would not work - i and s-series Roombas have a challenge-response mechanism to determine whether or not the battery is genuine, and the original battery couldn't pass this test. I informed the company, and after refunding me, they asked if I would like to test a replacement when one became available.After a few months, I received a communication from Kunlun that a revised battery was available. Full disclosure, I received this unit free of charge. And, after plugging it in, it works! The robot thinks it's a genuine product, and run times have improved - not dramatically, but better than the aging battery that was powering the robot before.Normally in this case, I'd assign five stars - after all, it's OEM battery performance at a 25% discount - who doesn't want that? In fact, as I write, I'm so tempted to give it that extra star, but two things dissuade me from doing so:1. The printed/rated battery capacity can't be taken seriously. It's not a 3200 mAh battery. However, knowing this market segment, I strongly suspected this would be the case, and it was confirmed. When buying this battery, just keep that in mind, and you won't be disappointed. Honestly, if it matches the OEM battery in capacity, that's good enough for me - the price makes it worth it. It's hard to say if the run times are actually longer than the OEM battery, just because it's been a long time since the i7 came with a fresh battery. Overall, performance is quite good.2. There is a possibility that iRobot wises up to these non-OE batteries, and releases a firmware sometime in the future designed to render them inoperable. Almost everything comes with a firmware, even batteries, and manufacturers are keen on keeping their recurring revenue stream. It's hard to check for genuine filters and brushes, but batteries do have embedded microcontrollers and software. For now, this battery seems to work great, but there's no guarantee that it will always continue to do so.Overall, the price difference, and even the prospect of higher capacity (whether accurate or not) would persuade me to purchase this product again. Keeping these caveats in mind, and also the fact that the company was very responsive to my issues with the original unit, it is, for now, a good choice.