Look what I found in the recycle bin

Concerning my post about the Ridgid and Ryobi 24V packs, I went back to the same recycle bin a couple of days later and dug a little deeper. I found a second Ridgid 24V pack that also was lightly used. It was inside an identical plastic bag and was in the same identical condition. One cell sitting at 4.10V and all others at 3.34V
I did manually balance charge them and both work just fine now. I still can’t figure out how 2 packs could end up like that.
A clue to how could be this. Even though all cells test out “good” as new capacity wise, the pack shuts down when any one cell reaches about 3.3V, not the usual 2.75. So instead of having a useful capacity of 2.6Ah, because of the early shutdown, I get about 2.0Ah out of them.
Since then I have found another Ryobi pack that is in excellent condition except for 1 cell pair being dead. As soon as I can figure out how to replace those 2 cells with good ones, I will be able to test at what voltage that pack shuts down at. As I mentioned both the Ridgid 24V and Ryobi packs are identical inside and out.

Probably wouldn't have found them if it wasn't for this thread. Got some other goodies too, but haven't checked them out yet.

So the pack opens so easy and can be put back together with no damage. Seems well build, but don't know if they have the safety measures texaspyro mentioned. 14S2P LG HD4 cells. 2000mAh, 25A continuous.

According to the following site, month of manufacture was December 2014. Only a year and a half old. :)

https://batterybro.com/pages/18650-date-code-lookup-tool

How are you getting away with taking stuff out of the recycle bin at HD?

Are you going in there dressed like a homeless person and when one of the store employee's start questioning you about WTF are you doing in there, you climb out and start yelling at them in spiritual tongues while giggling like a little school girl and frisbeeing Jehovah Witness flyers at them going BOOMBA!!? Then they just kind of back off slowly, then turn around and break into a sprint towards the managers office....lol!?

I’m waiting for the day someone jumps into a recycle bin and meets another BLF member there…… :smiley:

LOL. The bins are inside the store near the entrance to the store. They are about 4 feet tall and about 16” square, but the part that holds the batteries is only about a foot deep. So it doesn’t take many batteries to get full. These days, no one seems to care if you pull anything out of them. I’m usually in business casual clothes, but sometimes in jeans. Doesn’t seem to matter either way.

Well…….then get some and mail them to me yea? :person_facepalming:

If you’re scared of home depot employees don’t do it :stuck_out_tongue: Last time a person acted like “What are you doing ? or ”You can’t do that “…” I just said
” I think a better definition of recycling is to re-purpose or re-use something instead of just bury it in a different section of a land fill .Do you really have a problem with me taking a few battery packs that were headed off to be crushed ?”
The trick is to have a logical argument in hand and make them feel like an idiot if they tell you that you can’t . it’s pretty simple ,these people are making minimum wage and want to be able to control this little section of the planet.Some will always need to be able to tell you no! tell them you have a little experiment and if they are junk then you’ll be sure to bring them right back . :slight_smile:
part of digging in recycling bins for me was to overcome the fear I had about doing it . the women at Lowes were glad to help me bag up the cells i brought in while I dug away for new gold .
IMHO if you’ve not torn down 10 or 15 recycle bin battery packs you’re not really hardcore BLF .

Ask Dchomak what it feels like to pull 3 brand new ryobi 18volt lithium drill packs out of the recycling bin.$$$$

LOL,
I got stopped the other day. As I was pulling what looked like a brand new Milwaukee double pack I heard a voice behind me say “can I help you?” After all the success I’ve had without any hinderence, I was a bit annoyed, and because I was, I didn’t hold back. Besides I was somewhere in PA traveling and I knew I would never be in that store again. So I turned and said

“You know, that question you just asked me is rhetorical. What you’re really asking me is what do you think you are doing rummaging around in our recycle bin, right?” To that he said “Right!”
So I got a little nasty and explained that if “May I help you, doesn’t mean may I HELP you, then it has no meaning. You are insincere when you ask that question. (it’s true, right?)
That’s why I HATE that question when it is rhetorical. :rage:

So knowing that this foray is already blown, I told him the truth. I told him I planned to recycle that pack in the best way possible, use it! Then he said that he can not let me have it, “that’s what I have been told”

Now remember, I wasn’t angry during all this, just annoyed. So I said
“Well then, you’ve been told, and now I’ve been told. I respect that” And I walked away. After I found some penny deals, I went back over to him to apologize for being so direct with him. And he told the real reason they keep an eye on the bin is because of the kids, especially the teenagers. “They use what’s inside to make drugs!” :smiley:
I said oh, it must be the Lithium, right? :smiley:

Anyway, just one of my experiences. I only get stopped maybe 2% of the time.

I just remembered this one.
Sometimes when I go to the recycle bin, I have one to “give” Actually, in my mind, that gives me the “right” to be there. One time I walked in with one in my hand, and held it while I looked for others. There was a lady behind the returns desk that was really nasty and told me to get my hand outta there. I told her I was looking to see if there was something I could use and she told me that they were all no good, that’s why people throw them away. I pressed a little further and she cut to the chase and told me that they belong to HD and I can’t have one.
This time I got mad and told her that if these things are so precious, then YOU can’t have mine (the one I brought in).
And then I really got nasty and told her that she lacks social skills, no wonder they put you over on the returns desk, you’re not good enough with people to run a checkout register! And I walked out, with my original pack. That time I was traveling also, so I knew I would probably never be in that store again.

98% of the time, no one cares.

Oh, and another time I found a Ryobi 18V drill. The planetary gears were messed up, I took it apart and fixed it. Other times I find drills and wait until I find batteries and chargers and donate the sets to charities like The ReStore

NEVER Li-ion drills though, too dangerous.

I get payback though, I found a brand new 18V Ryobi cannister vac for $5 at a ReStore and also an 18V jig saw for $3. And those were the marked prices, it wasn’t because I got special consideration.

i have grabbed packs from those before.only was asked why once by a customer.
even intercepted a bag of versapaks at batteries plus.saw them heading in as i walked up.asked if they were there to drop them for recycling.then told them what i do with them.guy handed them to me and i thanked him,and dropped them in my van.manager was laughing and made a comment that i was poaching his hazardous waste collection.and then found me a few more in his box!
turns out he has a huge versapak tool collection and converted his after i explained how i do it.
i hit a hardware store in indy that had a drum out front.6 or so ryobi/craftsman packs.the stockboy asked what i wanted dead packs for?he thought it was interesting.he said his manager was afraid to walk up to me and ask why.
not only are they a good source of cells they can often be rebuilt better than new if you happen to have tools that use them.

First I ever heard of the ReStore. Nice concept.

I guess if one feels their store might stop them from pulling from the recycle bin, just whip out your phone and act like you are in a conversation. People tend to give room and not stare at someone having a private conversation. While talking, look down into the bin to see if anything interesting is there. If they still stop you say something like, “Wives, always throwing out our perfectly still usable stuff.”, and indicate to the battery. Most people don’t like to get involved in marital situations.

LOL! You could even add to that pretend conversation into your phone “Now why in the world would you throw that battery away! You better hope it’s still here in the Home Depot recycle bin!”. If you find more than one battery in the bin you just keep ad libbing “oh wait, you threw my other battery(s) away too??? Ugh!”

BTW - the one time I wanted to pull items from the recycle bin I tried to play things “the polite & proper way” by asking the associate if I could take the items. He had to call over a manager and they had to consult “policy”. They couldn’t figure anything out! They had no idea who actually “owns” the batteries or bin, whether or not HD gets money for those batteries when they are picked up, etc. . . It was rather absurd. They finally let me take the batteries saying, “well you can this time, but . . .”.

-Garry

Hey Garry, the first time I asked for permission too! The employee said “why did you do that to me”
I took that to mean he couldn’t say yes, but didn’t want to say no. In other words, Don’t Ask.
So I don’t :wink:

I rebuilt a few battery packs a few years ago for Habitat for Humanity. Now I only rebuilt the Nickel battery packs, Lithiums a bit beyond my comfort level. Contact your local 501 nonprofits and offer your services. If accepted them contact your local Home Deport and Lowes. I received more help then I could accept from them. They set aside about 40 packs from recycle just for me and of those I was able to rebuild about 10-12 re recycled the unusable. Back then only about 10 were Lithium which helped the flashlight addiction. Both offered half price on new for the 501’s so that ended the rebuilding for me.

I kept it open, honest and got help in the process. So, if your into Boy Scouts, Churches or other non profits groups you can offer your skill to help the community and reap the benefits of good cells. It’s a win win for all.

Here’s a fool proof method of getting all the packs from all the recycle bins everywhere. Just thought it up. Place an ad in craigslist thusly, “For sale: One lot of used batteries and battery packs from all types of rechargeable devices.” In the description of the ad just say something like, “Not sure what all is included, come see in person, pics not available, sorry.” Anyway, tell them that you just bought them and had a bunch of others packs you could not use and put them in this bin yesterday. Then tell them you realized you put the wrong batteries in the recycle bin and need to get them out. Your getting old, memory is fading, whatever. When they ask, “oh really?, then where are the correct ones you were going to leave? Tell them you just left Lowes or another HD closer to your jobsite… and that is where they are. Then even if they still hem and haw a little tell them that the seller may have left the ad on craigslist, but you doubt it because it was a few days ago(very important), then say, ”let me see if I can find the ad.” If they have not already given in, find the ad and show it to them exclaiming your excitement that the ad is still there(YES!! Here it is!!). If the pause is too long then say, “do you think I made alll this up just to get some defective battery packs?” Then say, maybe I need to talk to your supervisor. You probably won’t need to though.

Anyway, try it and post back. Seems like it could work. No need to make anyone feel stupid or dumb. You just have to lie your a$$ off. :smiling_imp:

I have been wondering about this myself. If I were to try to take something out of a recycling I’d bet I’d be detained until the police arrive.

Me too!

Warning: What I report below is dangerous. I don't advise anyone do the same. I'm take safety precautions that are not elaborated upon when using the pack as it has been stressed by the soldering and test usage as a car battery.

Been very slow in reporting on what I used the cells from the 40V pack I found and reported in Post 94 above. Wired the cells 5P4S to drive a 55watt HID. Really needed a bigger solder iron. Gonna need to monitor some of the joints. Didn't build the pack for high amps, but did use it to start a car several times. Was curious what voltage they would stabilize in the car (turned out to be 14.6v). That little T plug connector and the then 12ga wires got hot as heck fast. The cells and soldered wires stayed cool.

Left pic is top of the pack as it currently stands. The right pic is the bottom of the pack part way though assembly.

So you had 8 cells left over?

I STILL can’t get over that pack you found!

I found my first pack in the recycle bin to day that contains 2500mAh cells!
New pack, probably from a demo at HD.


This is a Black and Decker pack, not much of a circuit board and not enough connectors to the tool. Notice that the pack is direct drive to the tool.

This pack contains 5S1P, Samsung 25R’s
When I opened it, all 5 cells were sitting at 3.67V :slight_smile:

^
Those 20 cells are from a 40v pack like you reported in the OP. I haven’t decided what to do with that “58v” pack yet.

Nice find. I got one of those too when I pulled the 58v pack. Looks completely unused, but I haven’t touched it yet. Great to know it has 25R’s in it. Thanks for reporting.

lets see whats on the other side of that board.