Dud battery, possible fix???

[Neill_Currie]

Got a couple of Ultrafire 10440 cells from DX the other week to use primarily in a Maratac AAA.
One of the cells is fine through a couple of charging cycles (it's a Trustfire TR001 charger), but the other doesn't charge, and thus acts as if it's flat. When I put the dud cell in to charge, the LED on the charger doesn't even change to red.
The other cell charges just fine in the same charger, regardless of which side of the charger I use.
I have even tried small balls of aluminum foil between the battery terminals and the charger terminals (just so as I can be sure there's true contact), but it never charges.

So, is the cell simply dead? Is there anything I can do?? Is it possible to take the cell apart and effect a change somehow that'll enable charging???

Many thanks.
Neill

 

[jzmtl]

Contact DX about your cells being DOA, they'll send you replacement.

 

[DM51]

Posted in the wrong forum - this belongs in the Batteries section, so I'm moving it there.

Ultrafire cells have proved the worst and most unreliable in tests and reports by members.

 

[cbxer55]

I received a couple of 18500 batterys the other day, one of which was just like yours. Here is what I did, and it is now fine.

I took an old wallplug charger with an output of 500 milli-amps (1/2 amp), cutoff the plug on the end and bared the wires. Wire-tied the bared wires to the probes from a volt meter. Then turned the voltmeter on, plugged the charger into the wall, and touched the probes to the respective ends of the battery. Almost instantly it went form .44 volt to 2.50. I stopped when it hit 3.0, which happened in less than 30 seconds. Dropped the battery into the charger, and it turned red and started charging. Three days later the battery is fine and the voltage matches the other I received.

Just be sure and get your polaritys correct. Know which wire on the wall charger is positive and negative. You do have a volt meter? If not go get one from Radio Shack, it will not cost you much, and really is a good thing to have when dealing with batterys on a regular basis.

What happens here is that if the battery is a protected cell, the voltage fell below the low voltage cutoff during long term storage, prior to you receiving it. You just need to kick the voltage above that low level cutoff, to wake it up.

PM me if you got questions.

Here is the link on my battery trouble and fix.
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=239471

 

[Neill_Currie]

Thanks.
I will give the charger hack a go.
Neill