Old Li-ion: the bomb?

[Buck]

I found an old (5 years? maybe more) iBook pack in our scatter of computer junk, self-metering LEDs indicating no charge, probably not charged in a year, at least. Broke it apart and found the 6 x 18650 unprotected Panasonic cells under no load read 0.7 V, 0.5 V, 0.3 V x 2 and 0.0 V x 2. All those with a positive voltage were charged by a (Un)Trust(Worthy)Fire cheapy charger to 4.05-4.1 V in roughly the amount of time I expected, but it would not initiate a charge on the 0 V cells.

In the meantime, I decided to try resurrecting the cells at 0 V by hooking them up in parallel to a single AA alkaline cell, using the "light fuse and get away" strategy and done outdoors in a flowerpot battery bunker set on concrete. Somewhat surprisingly, this did not start a fire, did not discharge the alkaline cell completely (voltage remained over 1.5 V even while hooked up to this stupid circuit after several hours) and did restore the Li cells to 1.0 and 0.7 V. The TF charger then brought them up to 4.05 V in about 10 hours or so.

These are all still out in the little bunker. Any bets on whether they are worth trying in an L-mini, or is this all inevitably heading toward the Smoke and Fire subforum?

 

[ANDREAS FERRARI]

Your a braver(foolhardy) man than I am.I've had too many unprotected cells go to try something like that.

 

[metlarules]

I would ditch all of them. It's not worth the risk.

 

[Christoph]

Get rid of them before I would not even have charged them that was risky.
Chris

 

[jblackwood]

ANDREAS FERRARI I totally love your sig! :laughing::naughty:

 

[poguy]

Keep them until July 4th. Then build a small campfire away from houses and anything flammable and throw them in.

It will give you an appreciation of what happens when they go up.

 

[chewy78]

 

[VidPro]

well you tried, now recycle them, cause they are dead

put them in a flashlight it wont likly hurt anything, but if you charge them, especially if you charge them quickly , they are likly to just heat up internally (which could be bad) and not hold much of a charge, probably be self discharged before you get them from here to there, that is how bad.

 

[Burgess]

Well, on a related note . . . .


I have an old Toshiba laptop computer, purchased in 1996.


A big selling point at the time, it has a Lithium-Ion Battery.



Really haven't used this much in the last 5+ years. At all.


Although, 6 months ago, i DID plug it in, and start it up.


Played a few games on it for a couple hours, just for fun.


Then, put it back in its case, perhaps not to be used for ? (years ?)



What do you guys think . . . .


Safe to keep it around like this ?


Safe to RUN it on AC / mains power ?


Or, am i foolish for doing so ?



Am NOT interested in purchasing a new battery pack
for the thing, since i perhaps may never use it again.

(but, who knows)


Any thoughts on this ?


Thank you for your input and suggestions.


:help:

_