High risk Laptop Battery Pack deal?

Batteries and Chargers Rechargeable Batteries
1

I kind of hesitate posting this, but I found this on Ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/251313363615?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&\_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

I found it last week, but I didn’t post because I had ordered 2 of them, and I wanted to wait to see how they turned out.

Anyway, they came in today, and there are 6 18650s in each pack. The batteries are wrapped in red, with no markings:

Out of the 12 total batteries from the 2 packs, only 3 had any voltage. The other 9 showed 0 volts. I’ve checked them on two different meters, so I’m tossing the 0 volt ones, and I have 2 of the 3 in a Jetbeam i4 charger, and have been taking the 3rd one through a charging cycle now on my Accucel 6, then will do a discharge cycle after that.

The packs are fairly easy to crack open, and once you remove the cover, all 6 batteries come out together, along with the PCB.

Anyway, the deal is the pack is $1.00, with $6.00 shipping, but he said he can get 6 packs in one USPS package, so if you buy 6 of them, the shipping is total $6.00, i.e., the total for 6 packs including shipping is $12.00, or $2.00 per pack.

I had some problems with the shipping payment (Ebay charged $6.00 for each pack), but he refunded the $6.00 almost immediately for the 2nd pack, without me asking for the refund, and I think he fixed the problem after that, so I think that he’s a pretty good seller.

I’ll post more info after the charge/discharge cycle is done.

EDIT: Per request, here’s a better pic of the label on the pack showing the pack capacity:

10.8V 4000mAh

2

Is the performance ever comparable enough to new cells to make it worth the risk? By that I mean melt down not cost.

3

The last deal Ohaya found with some unused 3 1/2 year old battery packs where well worth the money with out the risk.

I think he maybe trying to find another good deal like that one.

4

I am probably a bit biased. I have seen laptop packs explode first hand so I am skittish. Love the recycling angle though. Reduce, reuse, recycle!

5

It's only an explosion...must not justify purchase...

6

That deal you linked was a kind of once-in-a-lifetime one (really lucky). I’m pretty sure that these packs aren’t new, but you’re right I am always on the lookout for a good deal.

I’m not so sure about this one though… it’s kind of borderline, but figured I’d post info about it, more so that if someone else ran across it, they’d have a better idea of what they might be getting if they decided to get some of these.

7

They look like they might be a Sanyo 2600mah battery. What was the rating on the pack?
I can’t read it off the ebay pic.

8

Let’s just say I am not even allowed to burn candles in the house. Used batteries packs might cause a nervous breakdown!

9

For some reasons I don’t understand, something inside of me makes me “nervous” to use that battery.

10

Yes, it was a pretty bad pic, so I’ve posted a closeup of the label from one of the packs I got in the OP. It’s 10.8V 4000mAh.

Also, BTW, although I didn’t take any pics of the inside of the pack, it looked like the 6 batteries were connected in a 2P3S configuration (or is that 3S2P?). Anyway, there were pairs of batteries connected to each other, and each pair was connected to the next pair.

11

3s2p :bigsmile: 2000mah battery

12

That’s what I figured too. Batteries are still charging… “watching paint dry”… so I haven’t had a chance to run a discharge test yet :(…

13

I dunno, if it were me, I’d probably try charging the 0 volt ones and see what happens… weeeeeeee

14

In a missile proof bunker? :smiley:

15

hehe, ah no, mah bathroom! Kidding aside, I’ve charged low voltage (0.9) 18650s from pack pulls b4 w/no problems. Just kept a good eye on them.

16

but the internal damage is done, if its gonna blow its only a matter of time, and it won’t necessarily happen while charging

17

Just sayin...

18

^LOL……Toss the questionable cells…A hospital bill for attaching a few fingers is much more costly.

19

I did some searching and only found them on ebay

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=221204782722&item=221204782722&vectorid=229466

listed as the Sanyo UR18650EX UR

But it also says they are 20A cells, so take that with a grain of salt.

20

Thanks for the research…

Reporting on what I found with the 3 batteries I salvaged from the 2 packs I have… and here’s the grain of salt :)…

- I charged 2 of them on my Jetbeam i4, and it took forever for the 3 lights to go solid. I measured voltage intermittently during that time, and they were up to about 4.17-4.18V, but seemed like it took forever (again) to get to 4.20V. I have them in the charger again now.

- I charged the 3rd one on my Accucel, at 1 amp, and it completed. Measured about 4.06V when I took it off the charger, so I put that one in the i4 charger also.

- I did discharge test on 2 of them that eventually made it to 4.20V-4.22V, on my Accucel at 1 amp discharge rate down to 3.00V:

=> One of them got 624 mAh when the discharge finished.
=> The other one got about 460 mAh when the discharge finished.

- I have all 3 batteries back in the i4 now, and will try a discharge again after/when they get 3 lights.

I don’t know what the other packs that are being sold look like, but at least on the 2 packs that I got, it wasn’t worth it, esp. with the time I’ve spent testing them.

So, there’re the grains of salt :)…

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I did the following add’l sanity test: I put one of the batteries into my HD2010 with an EAST-092 driver, and measure tailcap current, and got 2.25 amps. The same light on a partially-charged KK had tailcap current of 3.45 amps.