Look what I found in the recycle bin

I found 3 of these in the recycle bin yesterday. They are NiMH packs, 1 is rated at 9.6V and 1050mAh, the other 2 are rated at 7.2V and 1800 mAh. What caught my eye and the reason I pulled them was “MAHA” I know that name from my MAHA charger. Just had to explore and see what was inside of these.


Turns out the 9.6V pack had what measures out at 8 - 16270’s. Is there such a cell?
The 7.2V packs contain 6 - 16420’s?


I am testing the cells now. If they have decent capacity, they could be useful, size wise, some day.

just give it a coat of poly finish.
that is after you sand it smooth,stain it,ect.
dont want out battery storage/display rack to be ghetto LOL.

[quote=teacher]

[quote=greenlight]

short ones are 2/3a
long are 4/5a
i would have tested the packs whole.
those are for yaesu ht’s.

[quote=snakebite]
just give it a coat of poly finish.
that is after you sand it smooth,stain it,ect.
dont want out battery storage/display rack to be ghetto LOL.

[quote=teacher]

:+1:
Your right ‘snakebite’, that would take care of my “unlikely” scenario taking place.
And with your other suggestions, “un-ghetto” it also…………. :smiley:

I find all kinds of interesting and unusual stuff in the bins.
Here is something that is neither unusual or perhaps interesting. But it was interesting to me.

What we have here is 8 - AA NiMH cells. What was interesting to me was their physical condition, they looked fairly new. Also I recognized the 6 Duracells as the Chinese LSD types.
Why did someone throw them away? THAT’s what was interesting to me, and I was curious to find out why.
Also, what kind of person throws away cells in a nice new “ZipLock” bag :slight_smile:
Both kinds of cells were made in China, however I have much higher expectations for the DuraCells.

I have some of those very same cells in my stock, I also have some of the better “DuraLoops” that are made in
Japan. Here are both, the China DuraCells can be recognized by the black top while the Japanese “DuraLoops” have a white top. If you look closely at this picture you can see Made in Japan on the white top and Made in China on the black top. Remember, I found 6 of the Chinese black tops in the bin.

So what I did was number each cell and popped them into may OPUS to see where each cell sat.

Of the first 4 DuraCells it looks like 3 are in a good state of charge, while cell number 3 looks damaged.

At this point I took them out and popped the other 4 in.

Cell number 5 is looking good while the other 3, not so good.

At this point I thought perhaps cradle number 3 of my charger was bad as both sets of cells read NULL in position 3. I tested those cells on other slots and confirmed it was the cell itself, not the charger.

I am in the process of testing each of these cells for capacity. Here are the results of the first batch of 4.
These cells are of the LSD type and are rated at 2000 mAh and test close enough to that number to be called “like new” :slight_smile:

I also capacity tested the other 4, and only cell #5 tested at full capacity, around 2000 mAh.
So as of right now, 4 of the 8 cells tested as “like new” while the other 4 have issues.
Right now I am in the process of seeing how much improvement I can effect on the other cells using the OPUS “refresh mode” along with a Zap or 2 on the NULL reading cells.
I will report back on that later.

the null are likely discharged to 0 or even reversed.parallel them to a good cell for a short time and see if they wake up.

I think you are right about the reversed charge.
To those that haven’t realized it, when cells are drained in series, if one cell drains to 0V it can be reversed charged as the higher capacity cell pushes current through it. VERY bad for the weaker cell, usually killing it.

I did Zap the 2 NULL cells and it did bring them back to life, although not a healthy life.
After the Zap I charged all 4 of the cells that were not up to snuff, then drained them measuring their capacity.
First trial, remember cell #’s 3 and 7 were the NULL cells.

At this point none of these cells are worth keeping, buts let’s try one other thing. The “charge refresh” mode of the OPUS. What that does is cycles the cells thru a number of charge-discharge cycles, to “give them some exercise”
Here is the result of that.

Better, but still not good enough, these 4 cells are going back to the bin. But not until I try one last thing.
Right now I have the 2 DuraCells in the OPUS charging at a 2A rate, just to see if THAT helps.
Probably not, but let’s see what it does.
EDIT: it didn’t help, those 4 cells are toast.

So, I ended up with 4 good cells out of 8.
Probably what happened with these 8 cells was that they were in an 8 cell device, or perhaps they were 2 pairs of a 4 cell device and 4 of the cells malfunctioned, perhaps due to operator error or just bad luck. Even though 4 of the cells were good, their owner didn’t or couldn’t tell good from bad.
So they all got tossed.

Having an analyzing charger is a good thing! :slight_smile:

I’m impressed those cells are dead like that, i have some of those duracells and your probably right, reverse charging is about the only thing that would kill them

Good score. Haven’t checked the bins often enough but found a 10 cell Milwaukee with good HG2s over the holidays.

When I first found them it looked to me as though the original owner mixed the 2 cheap no name brand cells with the 6 DuraCells. If that was what he did, then I was expecting that ALL 6 Duracells would be good and only the no name cells would be bad. If all 8 cells were used in series, only the cells with the lowest capacity (the first to deplete) would be reversed charged. I was a little surprised, something else happened.
Anyway, those were my first thoughts, my premise, and snakebite beat me to my reveal. :smiley:

I said I was going to throw those 4 back into the bin, but for fun I am not done with the 2 bad Duracells yet!
Those 2 have approximately the same capacity, so this morning I fully charged them up and let them fully discharge thru a double AA light that I have driving a 219C.
When this light is on high it draws 2A and climbs as the cells deplete.
Then I charged them up again at a 500mA rate.
Here are the latest numbers.

Yep, as I have said before,

“There’s Gold in them thar hills bins”

http://www.truewestmagazine.com/whats-the-story-behind-the-phrase-theres-gold-in-them-thar-hills/

willie, why not post your find?

Found a Toshiba laptop pack in Lowe’s yesterday. Cells were just slightly below 2 volt. Sanyo ur18650fj 2200mah But didnt warm up at all charging and slightly warm on discharge. By the time 20mah was put in they were at 3.5 it looks like a pack someone never used. It was rated at 4300mah and all cells tested 2170 or better 4 of 6 over 2200. Will keep a eye on them for awhile. Cv stage wrnt quickly like new cells do. Input was roughly discharge capacity Found another no name brand pack at best buy. Only once cell had 1400mah but I use all the dead cells as a reason to go back to the best buy bin when I’m that way. I actually found last month 2 lg hg2 in the bin. On the case it had bad recycle on the case. One cell had a torn wrapper. Once cell tested 2800 the other 3000. There was 4 vtc5 in there with them. But they are pretty worn. Testing between 1600-1700. I use them while low wattage vaping around the house and my good batteries at work to last all day. Save some wear and tear on my expensive cells. Best find those was two perfectly like new hg2. Looks like they were recycled because of a torn wrapper. The free wraps from imr orders fixed that quickly.

I see some people ask about what to say. When approached. Best buy has never approached me I usually have a battery wrapped up to drop in either alkaline or a bad 18650. I break up my bad ones for multi trips (reasons to dig in) If it isn’t piled up near the top I shone my phone light down in there to get a peak if I see something I just snatch it and walk out and don’t look back. I bring a bag with batteries there. So if they see me standing there a minute it looks like I’m dropping stuff off. I do the same at Lowes or home depot sometimes. But usually just walk in and start digging. If anyone says can I help you etc. I say my brother dropped off a couple of my packs for recycling but he brought the wrong ones he brought my good batteries not the dead ones. Usually not a problem. If I don’t see something I’ll still take a couple identical ones to use as another reason to stand around the bin at best buy or another store.

Edit I will say its very addicting I’ve only been doing this for a few months compared to most of you. About 50/50 good cells to trash cells so far. But for free can’t complain. If I get to use them for 6 months then recycle that’s fine. Only get to go by best buy once a month and home depot. Lowes is in town and the only place around here I know of that does battery recycling. Maybe some other smaller stores do I’ll have to see at some point

Back on the subject of the 40V Ryobi. Anyone knows a way to convert it as a USB power bank? That would become my dream camping power pack…. I know USBEAST sell some module to convert smaller batteries into a power bank but I have never came across such a device to use a 40V battery pack.

with a little wiring, perhaps something like this would work?

eBay - 4.5-40V DC to 5V 2A USB Charger DC-DC Step-Down Converter Voltmeter Module

sounds like a great idea for portable USB power whatever way you come up with to make it work.

Hmm… seems like a good start ! Thanks :+1: ! Now if I could find one with a double or even more USB output…

…don’t know why you couldn’t wire multiples in parallel off the battery pack - muck up some kind of housing for it…

Bingo !

http://www.ebay.com/itm/3A-DC-DC-Buck-Step-down-Converter-Module-6V-40V-12V-to-5V-Dual-USB-LED-Voltmeter-/122049353003?hash=item1c6ab5552b:g:C34AAOSwtnpXilLF

Great idea! I would like to see this done. The result would be a huge 26,000 mAh power bank.

Ridgid tools already makes one for their 18V tool battery packs. I found this in Home Depot on the clearance rack. It currently is priced at $18.00 and connects to an 18V pack. One of these and a 4Ah pack would be equal to a 20,000 mAh power bank.

I am waiting for a lower price.
The DEWALT-DCB090 is also available and costs around $30. Battery or charger not included

It is addictive. I agree. Tool packs are where it really is at as you will learn if you keep it up. Nice suggestions on how to deal with snoopy employees. :)

That seems like a very nice device. Since Ridgid and Ryobi are related, I hope Ryobi will soon make some for their batteries. I own the same lime green 40v powerpack you’ve found. I got it for 20$ with the charger, almost new, in a garage sale. I don’t own any tool for it but the USB monster power bank immediately crossed my mind.

What I found in the recycle bin today made me aware of something I never really thought about.
Whenever I go into a Home Depot I make it a point to try and look into the battery recycle bins by the returns desk. Today was no exception.
This time I actually had some loose 18650’s that I wanted to dispose of. When I came up to the bin I didn’t see the roll of plastic bags they keep there so that loose cells can be wrapped. I could see from looking inside the bin that there were some in there so I reached in and pulled one out. Thing was though it already contained some packaged cells!

Looking a little closer, I noticed this sticker on the outside of the bag.

After reading THAT, I knew just what I was going to find. New cells that had “gone to a penny” and where thrown away by Home Depot and placed into the recycle bin.

For those that don’t know, when Home Depot puts items on clearance they generally are reduced over a period of time to 75% off. If after a set amount of time, if those items still do not sell, they pull them from the shelves, mark them for a penny in their system, and throw them away
Lamp shades, plumbing parts, light bulbs etc get thrown into the dumpster and crushed. Batteries however have to be disposed of in the proper way.
They are thrown in the same battery recycle bin that is place by the returns desk for the general public.
I netted 7 packs of 4 cells each of these Energizer Advanced Lithium AAA cells. And they are not “damaged”, they are brand new.

Actually I have found quite a number of these cells in both AA and AAA at a penny, Here is a link to the “Home Depot Deal Alerts & Discussion Thread”
where I posted about my score.

and again here Home Depot Deal Alerts & Discussion Thread - #1771 by dchomak