Battery Reconditioning (long post)

[Mabbo]

I know battery preference between manual and auto is subjective, but since I began vaping I have always liked the idea of the control that the manuals would give me, and I own 4 standard manual batteries.

1 Of my oldest batteries black with a orange LED, has not been performing as well as my other newer ones, takes about the same charge time, but its usage time has been much less, about an hour less.

I had been thinking and have even asked if there was a way to recondition the batteries in some way, but cleaning the contact points was the most common answer.

An idea came to me several days ago in regards to this issue and it came when i was discharging one of my power tools battery, which it does by itself every time i put it in the charger, it discharges whatever is left and then gives it a fresh charge.

I decided to look at the manual about this, and it said it does this to extend the life of the battery and in sorts resets the battery so that its performance is maintaned over a longer period of time.

So I tested that same theory on my oldest battery. Given that it is a manual, I waited till it starting blinking when the battery is dead. I then put a peice of electrical tap over the manual button and let it blink for hours, till it stoped blinking at all. I then put it in the charger and let it charge till it was done.

I am happy to report that my old battery is back to its normal self again, I have used it 2 times since trying this and it is lasting just as long as my newer batteries and is performing back to the way it was.

I only had one battery to try this on, since it was the only one acting up, but I plan on doing this again when another battery starts to act up. Maybe some of you other people with manual batteries that are underperforming could try and let me know if this works for you.

I am sorry for the auto battery users, I am not sure how you would be able to totally drain the battery on those.

Just thought I would share this with you all.

 

[leaford]

INteresting. Thanks for sharing.

 

[jeffree]

Thanks, Mabbo. I've used this approach for years with my electric shavers but hadn't thought of it with my batts. I'll give it a try when the time comes.

 

[Pawpaw]

Li Ion batteries can't be reconditioned like some other battery chemistries.

They have on-battery electronics for safety both for us and for the battery itself. Since over-discharging a Li Ion battery will kill it once and for all, the electronics are supposed to cut off battery output at a pre-determined point.

Sometimes, the electronics can get "confused" and shut the battery down while it still has quite a bit of usable charge left. I'm betting that's what you ran into.

Your manual "reconditioning" really just reset the electronics and they're doing their job properly now.

That's great that it had the desired effect!

 

[lonercom]

ERM, ....... Cool Idea! I've got 1 or 2 that I can try it on tonight!

 

[Darrigaaz]

This is very interesting. I've been reading loads of information about these types of batteries, and everything I've seen points to how it's better to not run these completely down before charging. Thanks for doing this test, it'll let me know to do a little more research into this subject for my own benefit in the future.

 

[Mabbo]

Well I will be honest, I do not know much about the actual batteries, I just decided to try something that sounded right to me.

It worked for me, but reading from a few posts up that I might have gotten lucky and didnt kill the battery completely.

Hmmm

 

[Pawpaw]

This is very interesting. I've been reading loads of information about these types of batteries, and everything I've seen points to how it's better to not run these completely down before charging. Thanks for doing this test, it'll let me know to do a little more research into this subject for my own benefit in the future.

That warning has been misinterpreted many times on these forums. The only harm that can be done is if you OVER discharge them. If you take them below a certain threshold, they're gone for good. You can't discharge them that much in normal use.

Well I will be honest, I do not know much about the actual batteries, I just decided to try something that sounded right to me.

It worked for me, but reading from a few posts up that I might have gotten lucky and didnt kill the battery completely.

Hmmm

That little flashing LED consumes a minuscule amount of power. You could've left it that way for days without risk of over discharge.

It was really a good idea to try what you did.

 

[Darrigaaz]

Still good to know about the test result.. Doesn't hurt to have more minds thinking on a potential fix for something that is potentially ruined and ready to be thrown away. Any battery saved from death is money saved.

 

[v1John]

Maybe what we need then, is a processor controlled ecig battery charger.
I know what some think, it will cost a lot more, but I would much rather pay for a processor controlled charger than 10 of the generic chargers.

 

[Pawpaw]

Maybe what we need then, is a processor controlled ecig battery charger.
I know what some think, it will cost a lot more, but I would much rather pay for a processor controlled charger than 10 of the generic chargers.

There is already a micro controller in the batteries (the "electronics" I mentioned earlier) and the chargers. The batteries won't charge until the micro controllers establish a handshake.

At least that's my understanding, based on internet research and Addy's posts. Hopefully she'll show up soon and shed a bit more light on the subject.

 

[v1John]

Alright, but I want them to do more than a handshake, I want the charger to drain the battery to the optimum depletion point, and then charge them fully well.

(If it is good to deplete them first, without getting to the point of no return)

 

[Adrenalynn]

That'd be a good way to shorten the battery's life-span, John.

Li-Ion hate deep discharge. They have no memory (over the service life of these batteries).

You can use them at any time within their charge cycle without loss of overall life, as long as you don't cycle them "too hard". They don't like being discharged too far - it's really better to use them less and charge them more frequently.

PawPaw is entirely correct - you don't condition LiIon. We're confusing that chemistry to with NiCd or Lead Acid here, me-thinks.

The "handshake" is actually a fairly technical process of figuring out where in the charge cycle it is, feeding it less current at the start, max current towards the end, then dropping off sharply for a few minutes, finishing at no current [there-abouts]. It's entirely dependent upon the current voltage of the cell under load. Those exact numbers are relatively proprietary and require killing a good number of cells to find the optimum, so I'm not going to share them at the moment (assuming you're not looking to build a Li* charger anyway, since it's pretty technical and potentially very dangerous).

Suffice to say, the charger/battery is doing approximately the "right thing" as it is, and you're better off leaving well enough alone...

Here's a more detailed explanation: How to prolong lithium-based batteries

NOTE: The batteries we use are FAR cheaper grades of chemistry than they're talking about here, so don't expect ours to come anywhere near that lifespan...

 

[Adja]

That link has some great information about Lithium batteries! Thanks very much Addy!