Cooking with Lithium | Apple iPad 1st Gen - dead battery revival

If you have one of the original 1st gen iPads that is completely dead, this video may help you out to bring it back to life! Quite often, if you have an old device that is completely unresponsive, even on a charging cable, chances are the battery is completely dead. In this video we're going to resuscitate a completely dead lithium battery (use the chapters if you want to jump to a specific section)!
There are two different models for 1st gen iPads - A1219 (WiFi-only) and A1337 (WiFi+3G). Both models have the same battery setup. Be careful in using the same approach with other devices though as cell configurations can be different. In particular, if you have multicell lithium batteries that have serial connections (i.e. anything with pack voltages above ~4.5V), recharging over end terminals is not a good idea, you will want to use balanced charging (there are videos on this channel that demonstrate how it can be done).
If you're working with Li batteries, be very careful and make sure you're doing it as safely as you can. There is a mandatory disclaimer that these batteries are potentially dangerous - they can release toxic fumes, ignite or even explode. So don't do it unless you're certain that you can handle scenarios like that. You have been warned.
Video on repairing 1st gen iPad that this battery belongs to:
youtu.be/watch?v=kmkTmVRqxbM
Don't forget to like and subscribe if you found this useful and would like to see more. Let me know in the comments what you agree/disagree with, what you liked, what you didn't like, if you have any questions, if you know of a better way of doing it, or if there is something that I absolutely should not be doing or have done ;) All constructive feedback is welcome! ;)
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 Intro
00:40 Safety warning
02:05 Initial test
04:27 Revival theory
05:54 Initial charging bump
06:47 Charging with iCharger X6 (FAIL)
08:34 Charging with SkyRC MC3000 (SUCCESS)
10:55 Charge results
13:28 Why use almost dead battery?
15:42 Device reassembly for testing
16:37 Power consumption test
18:26 Test with screen
21:36 Success - thanks for watching!

[@sergiopaiva9429]

Hello, first of all congratulations on the video! I was looking for some tutorial to revitalize the battery on my iPad a1337. I would like to know if it is possible to apply this procedure without disassembling the iPad, that is, using the standard iPad connector. My question is because I found it very difficult to disassemble the device as you demonstrated in the other video. Thanks!

[@JustMakeItNow]

Usually not, because the battery cells connect to the charging circuit that needs to be bypassed. The closest you can get is to keep plugged the device for a few days without turning it on, and hope that it will trickle-charge to a level where it will start charging in a regular fashion. But chances of this working like that are not very high.

[@sergiopaiva9429]

Yeah, I tried that by leaving it charging for 2 days and it didn't work... Thanks for the answer!

[@skdevskdev2843]

Hello, have you tried to power the ipad without any battery by applying power to postive and negative pins of where the battery would connect?

[@JustMakeItNow]

No, haven't tried that. Contact terminals for that would be on the back side of the mainboard, so not sure how useful that would be even if you'd be able to power it (unless you're OK to run in out-of-case mode). Also skeptical if that would run at all, batteries normally have more functions than just supplying power. Usually there is data bus/HDQ and thermal data pins, though I don't remember if these are in the original iPad.

[@AvalonGion]

I have a kind of puffed up battery should it try this on that one.

[@JustMakeItNow]

Mandatory disclaimer: don't try to operate on visibly puffed up batteries, this is unsafe etc. So the short answer is no. The long answer is also probably no ;) The thing is, I have try to resuscitate puffed up batteries on several occasions, and while they did not blow up in my face (but see disclaimer above), in every single case the cells were pretty much useless. Even if I managed to force them to accept charge, internal self-discharge was so rapid that as soon as I removed charging leads, the battery was draining in a matter of minutes (even without load). On top of that, for the most mobile devices with LiPo batteries you usually cannot even place them inside the case after they puff up enough.
So realistically, if it is significantly puffed up - dispose of it. But if it just puffs a little bit it may work out just fine. Pretty much all LiPo cells that were used for some time, even the ones that work just fine, would look a little puffed.