Geek Special: How to determine if lithium cells are good or bad? | Salvaging 18650 Cells

What if I told you that you could get decent lithium (Li-Ion) battery cells for much less than new - sometimes even for free? In this geek special we do a deep dive into all the steps in the multi-day salvage process, how to record your results and how to determine which cells are good and which need to be disposed of. We'll look at determining capacity, self-discharge characteristics and much more. Stay tuned! [Use chapters if you want to jump to a specific section]
Li-Ion (lithium) batteries can be expensive if you need a whole bunch of them for your project. But in many cases there is no real alternative as lithium-based chemistries give the best performance as far as capacity/weight etc. Enter salvaging lithium cells project! We will be primarily working with 18650 cells (cylindrical cells 18x65mm). These cells can be found in laptop batteries, powertool packs, modem batteries, medical equipment powerbanks etc. When this equipment gets discarded, you can get these packs for cheap or even for free. So in this project we source some old packs, shuck them, deconstruct into individual cells and then try to revive these cells and see what can we get out of these cells in terms of performance. We'll take a look at a way of cataloguing the haul as well as analyzing charging profiles to determine what makes a good salvaged cell, and what should be discarded. So stay tuned!
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Disclaimer:
This video is only for entertainment purposes. Any injury, damage, or loss that may result from improper use of tools, equipment, or from the information in this video is the sole responsibility of the viewer.
00:00 Overview
01:03 Inventory database
02:21 Cell classification by initial voltage
07:36 Initial charge parameters
08:55 Thermal cutoff
10:27 Results of the initial charge
14:40 +10d checkpoint
18:20 +20d checkpoint
20:03 Storage mode
21:34 Thanks for watching!