Mystery cells: not 18650s? Then what?

[christofoo]

I retrieved some rechargeable cells out of a dead LED work-light, thinking they were 18650's and would work in my P7 lights. However:
1) They charged to 1.38V and stayed there for an hour. (In my 18650 charger.) This is looking like Nickel chemistry instead of Li-Ion.
2) I realized they are not *exactly* the same size as my other 18650s. The mystery cells are 64.0 mm long and 16.75mm in diameter.

I'm scratching my head wondering who on earth would make a Nickel rechargeable cell that looks so much like an 18650. Have you ever seen one of these before?

 

[The Dane]

4/3A cell

http://www.powerstream.com/Size.htm

 

[Ray_of_Light]

They were used in laptop battery packs before the advent of Li-Ion.
Anthony

 

[Lynx_Arc]

They were used in laptop battery packs before the advent of Li-Ion.
Anthony

also early "cell" phone battery packs. The big lunkers that were about 5 inches thick I figure.

 

[45/70]

They were used in laptop battery packs before the advent of Li-Ion.
Anthony

Yeah, that size NiCd was around long before Li-Ion cells were even invented. Size is just that, size. Chemistry is a different matter.

Dave

 

[christofoo]

4/3A cell

http://www.powerstream.com/Size.htm

Thanks, that link is much better than where I was looking before:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_battery_sizes

It doesn't bother you that my cells are 64mm length instead of 67?

Any idea what I could do with these, other than recycling them? At a bare minimum I'd have to figure out whether they are NiMH or NiCad, before I could think about using them.

 

[Lynx_Arc]

Thanks, that link is much better than where I was looking before:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_battery_sizes

It doesn't bother you that my cells are 64mm length instead of 67?

Any idea what I could do with these, other than recycling them? At a bare minimum I'd have to figure out whether they are NiMH or NiCad, before I could think about using them.

cell lengths vary at times when it comes to those used in rechargable battery packs. I have seen slightly longer/shorter subC cells and even length of older AAA/AA nicad/nimh cells in packs can vary some also. Typically nimh are in green sleeves and nicad are yellow or gray but you will find varying colors of cell sleeves. If the capacity is marked that may give you a clue to the type of cell as nicads tend to have 1/3 to 1/2 the capacity of nimh cells. I have green and red sleeved 4/3A cells here and they are still glued together in packs I was using them to power some 6v fluorescent lights but when I got more AAs I don't bother with them as either I would have to get a 6v nimh charger setup, or wire them up individually to my AA/AAA charger. Capacity of most of the older packs tend to not be any better than the capacity of up to date nimh AAs the best nimh 4/3As I have are perhaps 1800mah, I am sure you could order new ones with higher capacity than that but the older packs probably won't have impressive capacity for the size as the technology has improved a lot since they were commonly used.

 

[christofoo]

cell lengths vary at times when it comes to those used in rechargable battery packs. I have seen slightly longer/shorter subC cells and even length of older AAA/AA nicad/nimh cells in packs can vary some also. Typically nimh are in green sleeves and nicad are yellow or gray but you will find varying colors of cell sleeves. If the capacity is marked that may give you a clue to the type of cell as nicads tend to have 1/3 to 1/2 the capacity of nimh cells. I have green and red sleeved 4/3A cells here and they are still glued together in packs I was using them to power some 6v fluorescent lights but when I got more AAs I don't bother with them as either I would have to get a 6v nimh charger setup, or wire them up individually to my AA/AAA charger. Capacity of most of the older packs tend to not be any better than the capacity of up to date nimh AAs the best nimh 4/3As I have are perhaps 1800mah, I am sure you could order new ones with higher capacity than that but the older packs probably won't have impressive capacity for the size as the technology has improved a lot since they were commonly used.

That's great info. Thanks.

It's sounds like these cells were worth a lot more when they worked in the original light. Probably time to recycle.

 

[Lynx_Arc]

That's great info. Thanks.

It's sounds like these cells were worth a lot more when they worked in the original light. Probably time to recycle.

you could use them for tinkering or replacing subC cells in stuff that doesn't work now not worth fixing.

 

[mdocod]

The cell sizes that li-ion cells have been made into have been around much longer than li-ion chemistry has. 15 years ago, finding a cell that size reading 3.7V might be more of a mystery than the other way around.