I ended up with 8 good batteries, the pack appears to have gotten wet and damaged the output contacts causing it not to run the tool it was in. Two of the batteries had rust under the wrapper and 8 did not. Of the 8 remaining cells all had 3.45V resting charge. They are Samsung INR18650-15M, so not great cells but not bad. Will work in my standard EDC's very well. My question to the group... How do I remove the harness tails? I keep seeing that you should peel them like a tuna can and then smooth down the ends of the battery with something like a Dremel. Is this the best way?
Charge them up before cleaning the tabs of too much . then let them sit a while and check the voltages again … If they are junk there’s no reason for recycling cells that are all spiffed up and ready for church … just break off as much as you can cleanly and start charging them
DANGER WILL ROBINSON, DANGER WILL ROBINSON
Battery packs should be labeled like cigarettes. Once the “Battery Pack Fever” takes root the urge to scavenge batteries becomes like a drug for junkies. All you will think about is battery packs and it will drive you to the lowest possible humiliation…. Dumpster diving for batteries. You have been warned and proceed at you own risk.
Lol then you get ome battery pack that all batteries have less than 1v and you get discouraged and slow down. Last battery I opened had a vented cell. Not cool that it must have happened while using that laptop.
I don’t talk much about it, but I have gotten infected with this.
Milwaukee?, yeah I have recovered some. The ones I saved look and perform as new. Even so, I don’t trust them. Nor would I sell them or even give them away. What if?
That’s why I don’t even talk about it.
I am always using these for things other than lights and for lights that don’t draw a crap load of amps. I would not give them away either, still a risk.
Home Depot has a battery recycle box next to the returns counter. Nobody was in line so I asked about snagging a few packs out of the box, and at least to the girl at the register she didn’t think it would be a problem. Home Depot only provides space for the box, and every few days the returns cashier puts them into plastic bags and takes them to the back where some recycler picks them up from time to time.
OTOH I would not be looking at them for a source of cells, but for packs to rebuild and use myself. People with access to premium cells from laptops etc are willing to sell good cells too cheaply for my to do much hunting.
