Rejuvenating NiCad batteries ?

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14 Jan 2013
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Suffolk
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I have 3 Makita 14v batteries for my drill/ screwdriver. They are about two and a half years old. Not heavily used, in fact laying in the garage for weeks at a time. Today they seem very poor, and although the charger says they are charged, they last only a few minutes. Is there anything I can do to revive them ?.

Suffolkman
 
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The only way to do a proper rejuvenation is to cycle them a couple of times by a total discharge followed by a full charge. But from the sound of it they are boll*xed. I had to replace mine a couple of years ago and found them at a firm in scotland (OEM). can't find the ref at the moment.
 
Makita batteries are cack, have a brand new one which wont take a charge.The 'Site' batteries which fit are half the price and twice the quality.
 
Makita batteries are cack, have a brand new one which wont take a charge.The 'Site' batteries which fit are half the price and twice the quality.


Yes I have been discharging them with a car bulb, then recharging, dont know if it is working yet. Foxhole...what doo you mean by site batteries...have you got a link to some ?.
 
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A couple charge discharge cycles should show if there's any benefit to be gained by rejuvenation, but I would reserve the light bulb discharge for later.
Start with a fully charged (according to your charger) battery and twist a bit of electrical wire rubber band, or anything that will keep the trigger engaged, put this on a surface in an other room (the constant noise can be annoying) close by where you can check the time it takes to stop turning the chuck, recharge the battery and repeat this process. Now check the time the second experiment takes to discharge the battery and write this time down, repeat and if there's any significant difference, your battery is good to go. Next step pop your battery in the freezer for 24 hrs, allow 24 hrs. to thaw and dry at room temp then recharge again and use in the drill, if there's no overall improvement then you might want to give up the ghost and bye a new one...pinenot :)
 
Never heard that one before ch :confused: But reducing crystal size is right on the button, If it does work putting a used battery pack on a vibration plate, Hmm...pinenot :)
 
Thanks Pinenot, sounds like this is worth a try. I have been cycling them for a couple of days now. I notice that one retains it's voltage better than the other two.
 
kept my old dewalt batteries going for about another year,by having 50 volts shot through them every now and then.
this blows off the crystals.
 
It's the combination of both the voltage and amperage that cause the effect, therefore 12V at a high amperage does the same i.e. car battery.
Crystals (for those who want to know) is a good word to describe it and when one of these crystals grows large enough to break through the folded carrier plate (inside one cell) that's when the battery is effectively dead.
Of course that's a simplistic description but does explain in elementary terms what happens. It's the quantity and quality of these crystals that determine the eventual output of any rechargeable battery, the more and finer formed crystals - the more available power both amperage wise and time wise. By altering the impute of electric charge (Zapping) the crystals formed can be different from the current status of charge given by most chargers. That's not to say all chargers are the same, smart chargers follow the above principals in so much as they vary the charging conditions according to the feedback they get from the battery placed on charge and by doing so vary the possible crystal size and configuration, this is also what battery conditioners do, it's almost like giving the battery an internal spring clean, so to speak...pinenot :)
 

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