I wouldn't even consider buying a new OEM battery pack if I could have it rebuilt with new cells for 1/3 to 1/2 the cost.

I have three "Computer-Trak" Maytag Washers and three "Computer-Trak" Maytag dryers. They're named that because they were the first Maytag commercial laundry machines to utilize new digital controls so that you can program them to give a wide variety of different options. Instead of changing out the coin slide, I can reprogram the machines to require a certain number of quarters before they start, and then to agitate for a programmed amount of time or dry for a programmed amount of time. These machines require a battery to remember their programming if they're unplugged because they were made in 1994 before computer technology no longer required that program memory battery.

ONE Maytag OEM battery for these machines runs almost $100, and the six I'd need would set me back over $600 after you include sales taxes. I had new batteries made up at a local battery shop for $15 each, and they last 3 times as long as the OEM batteries. Those batteries are in the machines as we speak, and they're working exactly the way the OEM ones would. Why would I pay 6 times as much as I need to just to have the Maytag name on the battery pack?

Years ago, when I replaced the batteries the first time, I asked one of the local Maytag repair techs why anyone would pay $100 for one of those batteries if they can have them made up for $10 to $15 at any place that rebuilds battery packs. He said that when a machine had to be repaired under warranty, it had to be an OEM Maytag battery that gets put in, and Maytag reimburses them for the cost of the battery anyway, so the cost didn't matter. That's about the only way it would make sense to buy an OEM battery when you can have a battery pack rebuilt with new cells for half the cost that will last twice as long.