Pulled apart a Gateway laptop my mother in law had replaced, And it had 6 18650 cells inside.
All were in the low 2.2 - 2.5 v range and they did take a charge @ .5 amp, all be it a strange charge.
They never Peaked out, And the charger pumped way to many mah into them
only one cell seems Really sketchy but they are hanging out on a nonflammable surface
I’ve searched for info but I’m not entirely sure what they are, In the Red Wrap there is a purple ring, they are very Lightly embossed Sanyo and under the wrap it has ” A NIMA4C and 001723”
Looks like GAs to me —- How many MAH did you pump into them 3350-3450 that’s normal — if they got to the 4.15v range and sat there forever those cells are what they call heaters —If you use them I would advise stopping the charge around 4.12-4.15 volts—- I’ve had them mess up channels in chargers before —For the first charge of any repurposed cell I always use an older charger just in case
Thanks. Yea they’re definitely heaters. They were all at 4000mah.
Charger seems okay, I might rewrap the one I stripped and use them in some low power cheapo lights that just sit in drawers.
I’m going to invest in a better charger soon, any with a target Voltage option?
The only charger I know of that you can adjust the High and Low cut offs is hobby chargers — I use ISDT Q8 Max with a 3P 8S charging jig I made from 4 cell holders — I have an inline fuse and the individual cells are fused with a small wire —- this way I can set my charge limits —mainly for storage charging 3.83v
Those cells will work in better lights but more than likely not have great output like new cells —- I’m dealing with some tool pack VTC6 that are diminished to 2400 mah —a new VTC6 will drive a quad light around 15 amps these older cells will only push 10-11 amps
If they get hot to the touch while charging and don’t terminate then they are toast, the internal resistance is high and they are probably not going to work well in capacity retention/output.
Those are not GAs. Probably some ollld LCO 2.2ish Ah cells.
The can printing is useless for IDing them. The model will be embossed on the wrapper just like the Sanyo was. Likely a “UR18650x”. Find that and you’ll have your answer.
I’d discharge them in a safe place and recycle asap.
Apparently there are some old Sanyos that didnt print the model number anywhere on the cell. Debate about what the where originally, but alas, they are junk now
I had no expectations of them being useful. This was more an educational exercise, I’d never tore open a laptop battery and I was curious if they had used decent cells in a terrible laptop
I have some of these from a laptop pull can’t remember the name of them except they are Sanyo, they are old and low amperage draw and capacity is around about 2000mah i think.
They charge up ‘hot’ so there’s some high I.R.s going on, but if not all, they might still be serviceable?
I harvested two Sony VAIO packs and got 16 useable 2000mAh 18650s that are date coded 2002 and they work at about 75% capacity. I charge them up at 500 mA and try not to discharge them at more that 1A.
I wouldn’t bother with these… You don’t want the risk of something going wrong while charging unattended.
Some laptop pulls can result in decent cells. I’ve had good luck with HP battery packs. But AFAIK, you never get any real gems in these laptop battery packs. Just your run of the mill average performers, which can be just fine for general applications (no high amperage demand flashlights).
Got a bunch of very similar ones out of old-new stock laptop packs many years ago. They seemed decent to start but I was new to 18650. They don’t hold up well at all. Poor current capability from the start. Capacity down, and IR up in a few years of pretty easy service. Never abused.
Maybe because they have never been used hard, they still charge and behave OK. Major use now is an 8-bay powerbank and low draw lights.
Glad I got the packs cheap, because their main benefit has been learning what not to buy.