How can I tell if my battery is shot?

[Jerry J]

So I get my new Efest LUC charger and put a fairly new Efest 18350 in it. The LUC identifies that the voltage is 2.2v (huh?) and starts to charge it. About 5 minutes into the charge I hear a click and the charger shuts off. Hmmm? Already done? So I grab my dmm and check the voltage and 0v. What's going on? Did the LUC short the battery out interally? I checked the resistance on the battery and was open so no short, right?

How can I test the battery? I'm not sure I want to try and re-charge that battery, right?

 

[Nightshard]

The question is how did you get to 2.2 in the first place, most mods have protection circuits that will prevent you from dropping below 2.5 (and even 3.0).

In any case 2.2 is a bad sign.
Most battery manufacturers recommend not dropping below 2.5
Since you say they are fairly new then it's not from over usage.
Maybe they are just defective or they had a short circuit, by your mistake or from the charger somehow.

 

[kottonmouth401]

I would write that battery off as a loss. You don't want to take any risks with a faulty or over-discharged lithium ion battery.