Bringing dead batteries back to life.

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N4KVE
Posts: 1647
Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2003 10:35 am
What radios do you own?: APX XTS XTL TRBO 900MHZ

Bringing dead batteries back to life.

Post by N4KVE »

From time, to time I find batteries that can not be charged due to these batteries sitting for months on end without being used. I have brought them back to life by jolting them with an Astron 13.8 PS. Some have suggested that this may damage an Impres battery which contains electronic components, but I have never damaged one. But faced with throwing out a useless battery, or taking a chance with a 13.8 “jolt”, there is nothing to lose. I’ve only done this with XPR Impres batteries, & I’ve had a 100% success rate. One particularly stubborn battery needed ten 30 second jolts before the Impres charger was able to charge it. This battery is perfectly fine two years after the Astron treatment. Of course I only do this with batteries where the warranty has expired. GARY.
Jim202
Posts: 3609
Joined: Sun Sep 09, 2001 4:00 pm

Re: Bringing dead batteries back to life.

Post by Jim202 »

I know this is a very old posting, but there is a safer way to do this. I use a in series resistor of around 2.5 Ohms between the power source and the battery in question. I made it out of some wire wound power resistors in parallel. This will reduce the in rush current to limit the possible damage to the batter being worked on.

I also have a variable output voltage power supply with a current meter to be able to watch the current being put into the battery. This way I can see the current the battery is drawing while you try to bring the individual cells back into operation and not be shorted.

It may take several attempts to get the battery cells to start taking a charge and as such draw less current. Some playing with the battery in question and you will learn how to do this. Just remember not to allow the battery to get very warm while trying to un-short the cells.

Jim
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