THE PORTAL HUB - Pinzgauers, Haflingers, Volvo 303s and more!

I was working on the Pinz yesterday when i noticed another Ryobi 18v battery was dead. Its a total of 3 that now display yellow in the charger and will not charge.

I remembered watching a video on YouTube about using a DC welder (with gas and feed off) to zap batteries back to life. Pulled out the handy iPhone, watched a few videos (we all know that what you read on the net is true) and decided to give it a go. Please understand that this is potentially dangerous and you should wear protection, especially around your eyes!

Battery 1 = 2.8 volts
Battery 2 = 0 volts
Battery 3 = 4.5 volts

I started with the oldest, at 0 volts. I know my clamp is ground on the welder, so i connected a set of jumper cables to the clamp and the negative terminal of the battery. I turned up the welder to 100 volts and flicked the positive terminal of the battery about 20 times. Voltage popped up to 14v!!! Popped it in the drill and the drill spun! So i gave it a few more zaps and got the battery to 22v! Popped it in the charger and its working like a champ today.

the 2.8 volt battery did the same.

The 4.5 volts battery was tough. I watched a video here one gentleman reversed polarity for a few zaps and then went back. I tried that on this battery and feel it caused more damage than anything. After turning up the voltage to 200, i was eventually able to get it to 22v but its touchy in the charger. I will watch this one carefully.

So do some research and experiment a bit. You may be able to save some of those cordless batteries after all!

NiCad batteries I assume?

I did the same with some dewalt batteries. Similar results with the terminals reversed, it seemed to cause negative results. Of the batteries I was able to bring back they now run at about 50% of a new one. I still feel this is better than just throwing them away.

I wouldnt Zap them not a good thing. Most now have circuit boards inside that handle balancing of the cells. The best thing to do is OPEN the pack and find the cell that has dropped in voltage. You can try and charge the cell back up to the others and it should work on your charger again. You can alway take a spare pack and replace the bad cell with a good one.

Most places have a recycle box for used batts. Go in and help your self to some. Easy to fix or use for spare parts.

Good forum for batt related help.
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/