Dead non protected battery? dont toss it, jump start it!

[villalaser]

Hey all I have a 3.2v non protected battery that was discharged way to far and sat for a long time. It is now only at .51v and my charger whont charge it or evin seem to recognise that the battery is there.
I did a quick seached around and could not find a fix, so I thought I would share how I fix a dead battery.

So back when I was more into R/C cars. Id occasionally forget to unhook a battery and or turn the car off, and end up with a battery that is so dead it wouldn't charge the next time i whent to use it.
So instead of buying a new expensive battery, I tryed difrent ways to jump start it to a voltage that will make the charger see it.


I came up with somthing like this, but with more baterry's in series for the higher volt battery packs. you need a higher voltage that the battery you are trying to jump start.

This works with NiMH & LiFePO for shure, I have not tried the other battery types so use Caution if you try this on different battery's.

Wach the battery like a hawk when it is charging, makeing shure it dose not get hot. I charged a battery of the same typ that has not died to compare the heat from the two.

But as you can see from the picks I have a battery that will now take a charge.

 

[pHeneX]

Your battery gonna have most likely less capacity if it was deep discharged..
They might also explode, so if you do that always charge it outside.
I know someone who lost a finger due to a exploding LiPo cell.
Rather take protected batteries than resurrecting a dead one..
Best of all: avoid deep discharge by checking your batteries each week

 

[Razako]

I actually use a really slow trickle charging method for resurrecting dead unprotected li-ion batteries. Also I have them in a large metal box while doing so just to be safe.

 

[Cyparagon]

I've used something similar before, and I can say it works sometimes.

 

[BShanahan14rulz]

Be careful. With NiMH and LiFePO4 not as bad, but with standard Li-Co rechargables is dangerous.