How To Get: Free 18650 Lithium Cells From Dead Laptop Batteries

In this video I'll show you how to get free lithium ion 18650 cells from old and dead laptop batteries. I'm ripping a part only dead or no more usable laptop batteries. Lots of them are a bust, but some of them still had good cells inside.

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[rocketrose]

Good video for starters. The only warning I'd throw in is to limit your discharge rate to .4A to .5A max. Anything higher and you are shortening the lifespan of the battery. Yes, the discharge goes slower but you will have batteries that last longer.

When you get into measuring the capacity of thousands of batteries you will want an Opus BT-C3100 v2.2. This device looks like a standard four battery charger but it will allow you to measure the capacity of four batteries at once. I own five. The fastest way is to have another four battery charger on either end of the process; one to charge them to capacity, the C-3100 to measure capacity and a third to charge them after the capacity test. This lets me test about 100 18650 batteries per day.

I use the large capacity batteries in my E-bike. The smaller ones I use in cell phone chargers. I get the empty boxes from China for about $2.00 and simply add the batteries. I also use the lower capacity batteries in LED flashlights that take 18650s. Both the cellphone chargers and flashlights are used as promotional items for my wife's business. But using them for these purposes lets me write off my project on my taxes.

Hope this helps.

Rocket

[facial]

I think that magnet idea was the best part of the whole vid and your info is so spot on

[ldwithrow]

Good advice. In my experience, most lithium battery packs fail when ONE cell (or maybe two) die. If you disassemble the pack usually the majority of the cells are still good. I put them in a box and next time I have a battery fail, I check if I have anything that fits. Before I store them I use a 3 volt flashlight bulb and a couple of wires to drain the cell completely. That doesn't seem to hurt a lithium cell and it insures that any new battery assembled starts out with even charges in all the cells. I've also used lithium cells to convert old NiCad batteries to lithium. In most cases there is more than enough room in the old NiCad case to fit new batteries.

[martiniafg]

yes you can get them a lot. but:
if u took it from laptop batteries dont expect to use in high amp required aplications such as electric tools in house building, drones, viping and more.
they are good for powerbanks, flashlights, toys, diy things.
if someone could say that earlier to me, i would be very thankfull for information.
you can find spec about the battery from numbers on it, and google it. most are 3-5 amp, some 1amp.

[garrygemmell]

This is very illuminating - i didnt know laptop batteries used 18650's so i opened up a duff DELL D630 and I now have 6 new batteries for my new project!

Good idea using the magnets to hold the crocodile clips onto the batteries!

[ftmazur]

For the most part an useful 'Tip', but from time-mark 1:30->2:30sec this Tip is an excellent demo' of what NOT to do!
FYI - All these type of multi cell 'packs' are Arc or 'spot-welded' together (don't ask how!) because the metal terminals & cell-to-next-cell links are Nickel coated, so cannot be ('tinned') soldered together [YES, Nickel is 'magnetic', but cannot BE magnetised i.e. made into permanent magnets - weird I know]. Ripping them apart as shown will damage the internal Anode & Cathode connections of the cell. It will also start highly TOXIC electrolyte leaks that WILL do CORROSIVE damage to you & any way the cells are used, especially when charging. As demonstrated, this is the very best way to kill cells, or at the least reduce their capacity. SO GREAT CARE IS NEEDED NOT TO DAMAGE ANODE & CATHODE TERMINALS WHEN SEPARATING CELL TO CELL LINKS, as was done here.

[nelchan]

TIPS : If you're planning to reuse it as a power tool battery and you don't have a spot welder, just leave the old nickel strip on the battery so you can solder it correctly and securely.

[icommandoi]

18650 voltage between 2.75V and 4.2V. You discharged them to 3V only, however real capacity discharge is 2.75V. Then re-charge and measure the difference in mAh (Discharge vs re-charge mAh).

[vontar]

I don't plan on breaking down laptop batteries but I did learn from you how to check my batteries better. Now I can test to see if ones I buy are as good as advertised. Thank you. Putting an imax b6 on my future amazon order list.

[jeffbrown]

I got many of these batteries the same way and use them for many diffrent projects.They make great back up power supplys

[cekpi]

you should discharge cells at 0.25c since thats what manufactures use, that 1000mah cell might have 1250 if you discharge it at slower rate

[shawn]

Good shit. I took apart some power tool batteries that refuse to charge and now I have more than a dozen fully functional 18650 cells

[notdone]

you could use the lower capacity cells for a battery bank project for say a car or a house, something where space isnt too much of an issue

[zanpekosak]

You can sometimes revive dead batteries on the charger by just letting them charge and testing the voltage and capacity a couple weeks later.

[pcfred]

No, the main thing is getting the battery packs themselves. They don't just grow on trees by me.

[gladyszryan]

Another good Idea is to mark set/pair numbers and date.
I do that for my cells and try to use pairs of similar calibration for same device

[chrisvanvoorst]

First, your home made charger is brilliant! But I am curious, why did you not use your sky charger to charge the batteries?

[Dusanetr]

And you can use your batteries for anything you want? Nice project.

[BladeRicsi]

Nice idea mate, but if you have a so improved charger, you can set it to "cycle", and you don't need to the charge step.

[motorbiking]

I've yet to do this without stabbing myself with the sharp soldered tabs. Interestingly - those snot brown ones are the best I've had out of Dell packs - around 2.8Ah each.