How to revive your old laptop and other batteries and accumulators

[hartiberlin]

Have a look at this:

How to revive your laptop battery :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3OO1Ui9vSo


Here are some more videos for recycling your other batteries:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzIlVLOH9XI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H60xtiY8gXE

Please be very careful,
if you do this, especially if you do it with Lithium
Batteries !
With Li Batteries never use this welder, as it could explode
your batteries.
With Li batteries always use only a little higher voltage
than your cell voltage,
so if you use a cell phone Li battery, which has a nominal voltage of 3.7 Volts, just use
just a little less
than 4 Volts and set your DC supply current limiter to maximum 3 to 5 Amps.
With laptop Batteries, that have 12 Volts,
just set it a bit higher, like 12.5 Volts
and use only small short taps to the contacts and check,
if your batteries get warm.

Very important:
Also with Li Batteries, never use the reverse discharge method
as shown in the welder video, but only the normal charging direction
method as in the first video !!!

If they get hot, immediately stop and wait, until they are cold again.

Only do this outdoors and wear a safety glasses and use gloves
and shield yourself, if the batteries would explode...

I am not responsible for any accidents and you do it at your
own risk ! Be safe and think twice, before you do anything like this
and don´t use too much power (volts x amps) if you do it...

The physical effect behind it is, that you burn away with these
about 3 to 5 amps pulses the small electrode metal bridges, that build up
over time internally on your battery electrodes, that automatically discharge your battery internally.

If these are "burned" away, your battery will again recharge much better and stay more
healthy.

But please be careful, when you do these experiments, especially,
when you use Li batteries.

I just successfully revived 2 small AAA NiMH accu batteries this way and they
work great again now.

Regards, Stefan.

[e2matrix]

I've used regular 10 Amp car chargers for a long time to bring back the errant NiCd or NiMH but using anything stronger than a standard charger on Lithium Ion batteries is very dangerous.  Even the fumes from a Li-Ion fire or explosion are highly toxic.  And I'm on a forum where I've seen these kinds of cells go off like a grenade punching holes through walls, breaking glass and burning like hot fireworks.  Add gas mask, helmet and bullet proof vest to your list of safety equipment if you are going to do this with Lithium Ions. 

  The Youtube guy in this video says "I'd love it if a Lithium battery blew up on camera".  This guy is an idiot.  He also say if one blows up just leave the room for a couple hours.  Good on not breathing the fumes but not good if it burns like most lithium and catches everything on fire.  He was shorting out his power supply like it was cool to do when he's just lucky it likely had built in short protection.  Sorry but this guy sounds like a kid that just found his first power supply and is going to charge everything he's got whether it blows up or not. 
   The idea of using short pulses of higher current/voltage on Nicads is fine but forget anything that has Lithium even if some of the newer chemistries are considered safer unless you know which is which just don't play with Lithium.

[hartiberlin]

The trick with Li-Ion batteries is to use only a little higher voltage than the cell voltage,
so never use 12 Volts on a 3.7 Volts Li cell !
Just only use 3.8 Volts with it.

Just check the cell voltage BEFORE the experiments and go only
about 0.5 Volts higher, then you are pretty safe.

And use a DC supply with a current limiter and set it to maximum 3 amps
and be very cautious not to overheat the batteries.

You can see many videos on the Internet, where they overcharge
Li batteries and they explode, but in these videos they really
overcharge them with very much higher voltages and amps.

Don´t do the experiment, if your Li battery already has some
malfunction like broken case or any part of the battery is
open and has contact to the air. Then the explosion
is much more easier to come...!
So be very careful with any Li battery !

NiMh and NiCd are not so extremely dangerous,
but also stop the experiment, if they get hot in any way and
only do it outside, where no fire could destroy anything
and wear mask, Safety glasses and gloves and do it behind
a protective plexiglas wall or remote from the distance !

It is your live, you only have ONE !
So please be very careful and I can´t be
made responsible for any damage that might happen to you.

Regards, Stefan.

[hartiberlin]

  The Youtube guy in this video says "I'd love it if a Lithium battery blew up on camera".  This guy is an idiot.  He also say if one blows up just leave the room for a couple hours.  Good on not breathing the fumes but not good if it burns like most lithium and catches everything on fire. 

Yes ! Never do these experiments with Li batteries INSIDE !

Only do it protected outdoors, where a 20 minutes fire could not burn anything !

Be very careful and read this thread 3 times, before you do anything like this !

Regards, Stefan.

[guruji]

Can anyone explain what one can do for Lithium batteries to revive them cause the youtube video was removed?
Thanks