Laptop cells

Batteries and Chargers Rechargeable Batteries
1

I was wondering if all laptop cells are 18650 size? I ask because one of my laptop's battery pack is near the end of it's life. I checked out the pack and it seems to be a 4400mAh - 4cell pack.

Are we talking about 1100 mah 18650 cells?? Should I even bother salvaging 1100mah cells?

**EDIT**

I got some recycled packs a couple days ago. One of them had cells that looked like cell phone batteries. Around 1.75" x 2" or something. They're in the garage so I don't have a pic atm.

The rest of the packs revealed these:

Look at the wasted space in the green cell pack. Cheapskates! 3 of the 4 green ones had 3.2v while the 4th had 2.3v. Anyone know what kind of cells these green ones are? Manualman, I think I got those same Sony cells with piss-poor voltage. Mine are electric bluish in color. All of them had 2.3-2.4v. I'm going to charge one and see if it holds charge. The purple ones got me excited since they're Panasonic 17670's (which I need), but 7/8 had ZERO volts. And that 8th cell had 1.8 volts. lol, oh well. The best cells were the blue LG cells. All of them were 3.8-3.9v. Looks like I got 6 used cells for $6.00 and some prying power.

2

No, they are in a series-parallell config and the cells should be 2200mAh or 4400mAh depending of the configuration

Some times the laptop cells are not good for flashlight use.... some yes some not

3

A lot of laptops cells are indeed 18650. Only thing you can do is tear it apart and see what you got.

4

I get my 18650 cells from salvaged laptop battery packs. IIRC, they are 2600maH Samsung cells (pink wrapper). I have never tested the actual capacity, but I only keep newer packs. The older ones are mostly worn out and I send those away.

5

Doh! Totally forgot about that. Upon further inspection (and searching), it seems I have a 6 cell, 10.8v, 4400mah pack so it looks like a series/parallel set up.

6

Just salvaged a 3 cell battery. Result 3 x 18650. One is worn out and cant hold

voltage for long. The other 2 works great. I have done so a few times and have

never had any problems. I discard the bad ones and only keep the good ones

after testing them.

7

Some weeks ago I won 6 pcs defective quite new laptop batteries for $10 on an auction , and I salvaged 22 pcs sanyo cells from them, only some were below 3V. All of them have 75-85mohm internal resistance, and their capacities reach 2400mAh or more. Sometimes you can salvage almost new cells, if you have lucky.

8

2350mAh batteries would be nice...slightly longer run time. I also have plenty to go

9

I also recommend doing this but outside and please be careful when taking the cells apart, dont want you to lose a finger now do we. This is a great way to save money and remember the cells are unprotected and always check the cells voltage before and after a charge. Weed out the bad and keep the good.

10

The best salvage I got was from a HP laptop where the pack was under a year old. Maybe the protection tripped. All batteries where like new. I recently salvaged some from a toshiba pack which was 5 years old. Most are not much good. Still work but I expect short run times. I would not trust them in a 2 cell light. I just tear them apart with my hands. Tried cutting the metal but got sparks.

11

Be very careful not to short out the Pack when tearing it apart. The ones I have done were arranged in groups of three, I broke these apart first and then worked on separating the triplets. Remove the solder tabs immediately as they become free, it is too easy for them to short out.
Good luck!

12

How do you get these old laptop battery packs?

13

This probably goes without saying but be sure to discharge the pack before taking it apart. Wear safety glasses, do it outside and its a good idea to wear some tight fitting mechanics gloves.

14

I have collected a nice stock of Dell laptop battery packs since the IT dept. gives them to me instead of recycling them. Most of the cells I have are the Sanyo "greenies".

Some Toshiba battery packs are made with 17670 cells instead of 18650s. I use an Imax B6 to test all of my cells before I use them.

15

I am interest in doing this myself now... one question first though: How old are the battery packs that you guys are pulling apart? e.g If I can get my hands on a battery pack from a laptop built in 2007-08 is it still worth the effort or will the cells be too far past it?

16

I got four laptop 18650 cells from another member here and they have worked great. I never tested their capacity but they charge up fine and run my lights just fine. The ones I have though don't have a brand name on them and a bunch of numbers that don't seem to mean much (no specs).

17

Usually i just go by the color of the wrap......you might have to do a search on the BAD site and do a search there.......so far all the ones that i have been getting are sanyo's in the red wrap.

18

Just took apart 2 batteries from a laptop that no longer works. Here's my haul...

The green ones on the right are from the original HP battery pack a few years old and give me a reading of 3.87 V.

The blue ones on the left are from a replacement "extended" battery pack and give me a reading of either 2.9 or 2.4 V. The ratio is about 50-50. Does that sound normal or did I short something while taking it apart?

I just received my Trustfire 003 P4 in the mail today and would like to charge some of these but don't want anything to go *poof*.

Any advice would help....

19

The ones that read 3.87 may actually be junk... I took apart a pack not too long ago and thats about what they read. They came in at about 50mah

I don't think theirs really any danger trying to charge them. I would charge them outside tho and monitor them as they are being charged just to be on the safe side. Heres some info on the samsung's

Model Name: ICR18650-22E
Model Type: Bare Cell, Li-ion Cylindrical

Nominal Capacity : 2200mAh
Nominal Voltage : 3.7V

Dimension : Diameter 18.25mm, Hight 65.0mm

Charge Method : CC-CV 0.5C-4.2V 3h
Max. Charge Current : 1CmA=2200mA
Charging Time : Standard 3hrs, Rapid 2.5hrs
Max. Discharge Current : 2CmA=4400mA
Discharge Temperature : -20°C ~ +60°C

1 : Nominal Capacity : 0.2C, 2.75V cut-off : Average Discharge Capacity.

2 : Nominal Voltage : 0.2C, 2.75V cut-off : Average Discharge Voltage.

20

I have just taken apart 4 batter packs myself...here's what I have:

30 x 18650s...there are three types...all of them green with the following markings:

12 x "Sony Energytec STG, US18650GR, G3, 354HK05E" most of these have a voltage of 2.6-2.8V the rest have a voltage much lower (e.g 1.5-2V). These batteries came in a pack of 12 which was rated at 14.8V and 5400mAh...which confuses me as this is a very low rating...<1Ah per cell indicating the battery pack is either older then I first believed. One question arises with these: what is a safe voltage...can you recharge batteries below the recommended 3V or is it far too risky?

6 x "SF US18650GR T 8A1130C24N"...four of these had a voltage of 3.8-3.9V with the other two being about 3-3.2V (new capacity of 2.6Ah)

6 x "SE US18650GR T 8A143PJ27X (Backwards) UR"...again, most of these had a voltage between 3.7-3.9V and one being just below 3V and one just over 3V. (new capacity of 2.6Ah)

6 x "SF US18650GR T 4E1460J17S"...these (plus the top 12) came out of battery packs which look to be about 2 years older then the two sets listed directly above. All of these cells had a voltage between 2.7-2.9V.

As I write I am recharging the better cells and I am going to check their capacity (which is a bit hard when all you have on hand is a multimeter that only goes up to 250mA).