Hi. I have a protected Samsung ICR18650-22F battery with a charging issue. The battery is 4 or 5 years old, and I’d estimate it has been charged no more than 50 times. The issue showed up a month ago when I charged the battery in my Nitecore Intellicharger I4 (older model with 3 yellow lights to show state of charge). The battery appeared to charge normally with one then two yellow lights, however near the end of the charge all of the lights went out as if there was no battery in the charger. I thought maybe the protection circuit had tripped, but when I measured the battery with my DMM it showed 4.05 volts and the battery worked properly in my TK15 flashlight. Today I charged it in my Lii-500, which showed it charging normally until close to the end of the charge when the charger switched to “null” as if there were no battery. DMM says the battery is 4.06 volts and it works in the TK15.
I know it’s an old battery - is this a sign the battery or protection circuit is failing? I keep the TK15 in the garage in case I need to look for something. Is it safe to continue using this battery, or should I just recycle it? I have plenty of extras, but am curious what would cause this to happen.
It seems like the protection circuit is going bad. 4-5 years on a normally used lithium ion battery is not that old. You could just remove the circuit by unwrapping the battery and then see if the battery charges normally. If so, the battery should still be good.
I have some (old) batteries that someone donated to me for my testing purposes. Most are quite old, and a number of very very high IR and very low capacity (as in a few hundred mAh when I did a capacity test — assuming they can still complete the test on the analyzing chargers I’m using).
One battery behaves erratically, and seems to sound a bit similar to what you encounter.
At first, it behaves like a normal (but old) 18650 battery. So when I charge the battery, it charges normally (doesn’t get very hot like some bad/defective 18650s). But after awhile, the battery disappears (as in the charger indicates as if there is no battery in the charger). When I test the battery with a DMM, sometimes the voltage is zero, but later, it reverts back to what voltage it was previously in (the behavior seems like a protected trip, except that this is an unprotected flat-top battery…). I know this is not a battery I’m going to use in a flashlight as it is defective. And I monitor the charging when I was trying to do a capacity test of this old battery.
I’m wondering what happened to the battery, it appears to be working properly, then suddenly no voltage, but later it becomes normal again.
My own explanation is that probably something inside has a “loose contact” (and thus would be dangerous to use), but I’m curious as to the explanation for what is happening inside the battery? (when placed in a flashlight, it still works like using an older battery, but I only tested for a very short time to check whether that battery works)…
Thanks for the replies. I don’t think this is a loose connection because the charge always terminates around 4.05 volts and the battery works correctly in the flashlight. Plus the Lii-500 showed it was charging close to capacity before it went to “null”, and it doesn’t heat up while charging. Guess I’ll go with a failing protection circuit.