Reviving Dead Rechargeable Batteries

[pipsqueakspace]

Alright people so bear with me for a sec. I was just reading some reviews for eneloops on amazon and one person was talking about a possible method for restoring 80-90% of the capacity of a rechargeable battery once its started to die down from use.

This entire method seems completely ridiculous to me, but I figured I would give it a run on the forum to get some other opinions...

Here is what this guy wrote...
"One of my friends works for Samsung mobile phones and he told me that you could actually revive dying rechargeables up to 80~95% of it's capacity using this method.
If your rechargeable batteries are dying after some use, tight wrap them several times with saran wrap so that there is no moisture that could get inside (this is actually a very important part and if you don't wrap them tightly, you could ruin the battery) and put them in the freezer for 24 hours and the chemicals in the batteries realign back so that they do should work better. I haven't tested them with the rechargeable AA or AAA but I did with cell phone and camera rechargeable batteries and got great results."



I think this guy is full of it, but what's the consensus in the sea of knowledge that is CPF

 

[Dances with Flashlight]

Realign the chemicals in the battery?

 

[Twinkle-Plank]

As you use batteries hair like things form on the inners of the battery that restrict the amount on power it can hold.

 

[apete2]

i thought that was nicd only

 

[old4570]

Yeah , used to do that with Nicads ...

But Li-ions are different , no memory etc . So if there stuffed ?

Nicads could be trained , and re-trained to a point .. And resurrected after death !

 

[Norm]

Nicads could be trained , and re-trained to a point .. And resurrected after death !

I don't know about "trained" but the tendrals that grow inside a nicad battery and cause internal shorts could be blasted away with a quick zap across a high current supply.
Norm

 

[csshih]

Hey norm, how "high" is this high? And what voltage?

 

[Norm]

Just a quick (as quick as you can) touch across a 12 Volt supply often fixes nicads that read 0 Volts.
Observe polarity + to + and - to -.
Norm