My work laptop is a Dell with an internal battery that is shot. Small company so the IT department will consist of me and the boss cracking it open and replacing the battery ourselves. The model is Inspiron 15-5000 and there are plenty of options on amazon of the Chinese alphabet soup variety. The computer works fine and I'm not a heavy used, just need to be able to occasionally send email when away from power. Is there an upside to trying to find an oem battery or will the dubiously named Chinese brands do the job for the most part?

I got my mom an aftermarket dell battery from Batteries Plus and it served it's purpose for 3 years.

If you're skeptical of the Amazon offerings, i've had good luck in the past with iFixIt and BattDepot replacement batteries. Dell Inspirons are usually pretty easy to crack open, just find youtube video for your model and follow along.

https://www.parts-people.com/ is the answer for all things dell laptop

I look for battery companies that have 10's of 1000's of reviews and read a few pages worth to make sure they are not just bots. Be sure to check the reviews at all levels, worst middle and first. Also, once you look for a bit you start to get a feel for which companies are legit and which are not.

I'm not as worried whether the battery works, but mainly concerned it doesn't burn the house or office down, or catch fire during a flight somewhere...

I have bought the true OEM batteries many times as a result.