HELP ! Laptop Battery Pack--How to Safely Remove Li-Ion Batteries ??

I need some help and info for removing batteries
from a Laptop battery pack.I’m not mechanically
inclined but I think that I maybe can follow some
simple directions. I really need help with the ??’s.
Text,pictures, videos and any other info you add.

1-How to safely open the pack ?
2-Safely remove and seperate batteries ?
3-How to read pack-batteries date of manufacture?
(Because if possibly too old—batteries no good )
4-Recommened tools to use ?

Someone gave me 4 battery packs.
A-Dell_Type PC764-11.1v—Capacity56WH-[Japan]
(no mAh’s are shown)

B-Dell_Type 3R305-11.1v-4320mAh-Capacity48WH
[Japan]

C-Generic-(Dell)-TD175 312-0386-11.1v-7200mAh
[China]—There’s a small label on the battery pack
reading—oncore.com—Model:NB318—Date:010909

D-Dell_Type Y4367-11.1v-7200mAh-Capacity80WH
[Japan]

Your help is appreciated. Thanks, Mike

I’d practice on B & C.

B is a 6 cell 3s2p pack (3 series 2 parallel), which means that the cells are, at best, ~2,200 mAh, and generally, those generic packs.

I don’t have experience with Dell packs. The Acer packs I’ve opened have taken some effort. The HP pack I opened was a cinch, and the Asus pack was somewhere in between. I’d suggest going slow.

To start Try peeling off any heavy plastic labels to see if they reveal anything that makes the pack easier to get open. If that doesn’t give any clues, I’d suggest eyeballing the pack from many angles to try and get a sense of how the cells are arranged in it. I’ve had luck using multiple slow, gentle passes with a hacksaw blade (removed from the saw) to scrape through the plastic above a “valley” between two parallel rows of cells on opposite sides of the case, then I use the blade to cut through the ends to connect the channels. From here, I work the two halves of the case apart.

You can also try to work on the original seams of the case, but these have the downside of generally being flush against the side of 1/2 to 1/3rd of the cells), so there is more chance of gouging the wrapper, or denting the metal jacket. This technique is a little slow, but using it, I’ve avoided damaging the cells or the wrappers.

Safe removal of the batteries takes a bit of finesse. They are often secured with glue and/or ridges on the case. A stiff thin piece of plastic slipped between the case and the cells can be useful for teasing them loose.

Once you have them free of the case, take some wirecutters to cut them free of the circuit board. I cut as close to the circuit board as possible. To get the tabs off, I find a free edge and get pliers under it, working it as close to the welds as possible, then I twist to sort of wrap the metal strip over the top of the plier, with the goal of applying force perpendicular to the base of the battery. Generally the welds tear free of the metal conductor strips, but this approach minimizes the amount of metal left behind on the battery.

Again, go slow, try not to force things, particularly the cells themselves. If something isn’t working, try a different approach. Be careful about shorting out the whole pack or cells with metal tools. I think the only way to get mechanically inclined is to take things apart (and put them back together) and pay attention as you go.

I’m sure others have good advice too. Best of luck.

Thanks for the motivation to finally upload some photos I took while butchering a battery pack and caption them. I hope its helpful.

See Old-Lumens video on the subject in this thread….

I’m sure the O-L vid is excellent (haven’t watched it), but I’ve been pulling from Lenovo packs lately, and here’s what I’ve found:

- be near the great outdoors in case something goes desperately wrong

- wear gloves

- twist the pack (on the long axis) to see if there are any weaknesses. If you see a crack, that’s good. Work it with a flat screwdriver

  • if not, you’re outside my experience and you’ll have to figure out how to get in

- once you’re in, carefully separate the cells without shorting them. If you short them, keep moving. If it’s all going bad, pitch them somewhere fireproof and outdoors and hopefully downwind of anyone you care about.

- when you have a pile of cells with tabs hanging off messily, check the voltage. Below 2.5v is an automatic toss to the battery recycle bin (eg, home depot).

  • clean up the tabs by tearing/rolling them off the ends, then clean up the rough spots with a dremel.

- stick them in a good charger, and monitor them for excessive warmth. Too warm = recycle.

- if they complete the charge cycle, check the voltage after a few minutes of resting.

  • set them aside for a week and check the voltage again. Major drop = recycle.

You can probably figure out what battery it is by googling whatever is written on the cell.

Since these are unprotected, I’d be reluctant to use them in series in a multicell light. For single cell lights and parallel applications, they could be great.

Regarding the advice to recycle if they come out of the pack below 2.5v. Is that based on experience, or just caution?

Battery University suggests cells can still have a useful life after static discharge to as little as 1.5v, provided they revive quickly with a proper low-current pre-charge before going further.

I wouldn’t risk 1.5v, but I’ve had some that were close to 2v when I got them out of the pack that seem to be doing pretty well now.

Pure caution on my part. If I’m getting them for very little $$, I don’t mind chucking anything that’s on the edge.

Thanks. I have four Acer packs coming from a ebay seller who was recommended here as having very good packs for $12 each with six 2600 mAh Samsung batteries per pack.

I have pulled some Acer packs from netbooks and they have yielded some of my best pulls. I just haven’t had time to post them on the community pull thread yet.

Fair enough. Just consider that the edge may be further away than you think :slight_smile:

As a tiny datapoint, I just checked the voltage on 18 Samsung 28Cs I got out of some of the $12 acer packs that I think have gotten a lot of us into battery pack butchery. These were all charged and capacity tested and charged again in an Opus charger 5-7 weeks ago. At the time, they all did well for capacity and internal resistance.

Since then, they have have been sitting in my cool basement. Two of the packs had all the cells at 2.5v or above. All of the cells are still incredibly close to 4.2v. One of the packs had a number of cells that were closer to 2.0 v when I pulled them. Most of those cells are sitting a little lower, but all but one is at or above 4.17v The the cell with the highest voltage is 4.19, and had a voltage of ~2.0v coming out of the pack. The final cell is resting at 4.11. I’ll probably discharge test them all again soon and then take them back to 3.7v for storage.

An abundance of caution is definitely warranted, and people should study the issue and reach their own conclusions. Just doing my part to avoid the waste of perfectly good battery meat.

I have been trying to figure out how to get into these
battery packs without having a big catastrophe here.
eas , travis , ruffles , Richwoudnt and downlinx thank
you all , for the input you have posted here. You, eas
have really put up a lot of info here on this posting.
I also did look at the video that OL posted. It showed
me some things. I still need a mountain of help for
me to work this out. Please keep the info /help coming.

I have just barely started on the Dell Type Y4367 .
I easily pulled off the label that was on it and then saw
9 red batteries partially covered by some plastic strips.
I cut through one side of the strips and bent them up
and kind of out of the way of the batteries . I stopped
there.—How to NOT short-out the batteries :quest:

Got a photo?

Photos would be good, but I’ve found that after you get the pack opened (one side of the case off), the batteries will generally be tied together with the tabs in sets, maybe pairs of batteries, or 3 together, or 4 together.

The thing is that when they’re all tied together, they kind of flap around, and that’s when there’s most risk of a short, so as soon as I can do so safely, I use a pair of scissors, or cutters, to cut metal strips (the tabs) so that the sets are away from each other, so for example, I’ll end up with 3 pairs where the 2 batteries in each pair are tied together with the tabs.

At that point, it’s a lot easier to avoid shorting anything, since 2 batteries in a pair won’t short and you can easily manage to keep all the pairs apart.

eas : No I haven’t taken any pics. Even if I had pics,
how do I post them ? What to do ? I need directions
from A to Z on how to post PICS and LINKS on BLF.

ohaya: I really have not opened the pack up enough,
to see the tabs ,wires , strips or whatever you call
them. I can see most of the batteries , but not where
the metal or wires meet onto + or - end of batteries.

https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/15452

Remember if you're cutting wires, one at a time, or the cutter will likely cause a short.

A: pull the sticker label off by putting a exacting knife under the label and pulling enough up to grab with needle nose pliers. Then cut the plastic flat bars(careful these can be sharp). You can now cut down one side of the plastic with some side cuts and cut along the bottom of the side you cut. You should be able partiallypulk out the battery pack and the cut the wires to the circuit board. you should be able to get the rest from there.
B, C, D: follow the steps of A

First, dittos to all that has been said, here and in the many (MANY!!!) other threads about harvesting 18650s from old laptop packs.

Much of the technique depends on what tools you have at hand.

For example, after you use your fingers to pull the label stickers from Dell packs, to where you can see the 18650s, you can cut that plastic “rib” that runs down the middle with dykes or break it off with pliers. Then you can use the pliers to grab the side edges of the plastic to pull & break them away from the batteries. Heavy pliers or those slip-joint angled-head pliers work best up to this point. At some point, the plastic will give up & let the batteries come out.

The flat steel strips that join the batteries need to be broken free, and needle-nose pliers work well for this step. I grab the strip close to the welds & roll it across the end of the battery. Working the welds back-&-forth helps if they’re solid enough to require a lot of force. Then a fine file, diamond sharpener, dremel wheel or other abrasive will get the sharp “nibs”, where the steel strips were welded on, off the ends.

For non-Dell packs, I’ve been very lucky to take my large slip-joint pliers & use them to gently crush the plastic at the ends, enough to show the seam. Then the flat-blade screwdriver can finish the split, although it’s hard not to touch a battery & that usually gets you a spark. Brief contact doesn’t seem to hurt much, although if I leave a “spark mark” or damage a wrapper, that 18650 goes to recycling. OR, you can grab & twist if your fore-arms & grip are strong enough.

PS: have you tried visiting your local PC/Laptop repair center for “dead” packs? That’s my only source, and I’m so flush with 18650s I will toss them for any reason or no reason, or just because I don’t like the wrapper color anymore. So far, there is an apparently inexhaustible source of “dead” packs, almost everywhere people live in groups…

Just my two cents worth of free advice…

Dim

I prefer to leave the strips on the anodes. Bend it away from the cell enough to cut it off smoothly then burnish it down with the curved side of the wire cutters. Give it a smooth top, cery slightly raised, without having to dremel.

I’m glad that technique works for you. I’ll caution others that I managed to dent half the cells in the Acer pack I tried a similar technique with.