you guys need to get a good batt charger that can recover drained batts i have a couple xtars that will do it and i have tested it so i know it works
If I may, just a word of caution about recovering overdischarged lithium rechargeables. There's a difference between overdischarged & overdischarged with permanent damage.
If a lithium rechargeable is over discharged chances are it can be revived depending on the cells condition/life. Many chargers will not charge an overdischarged cell for safety reasons & the low voltage cutoff varies with the charger's manufacturer. If a cell is over discharged & recharged fairly quick after chances are it will be a survivor if you have a charger that will charge it back up from the low voltage state. However if a cell is extremely overdischarged (below 2v) & is left in that state for a long period of time, chances are that cell has suffered permanent damage.
When I say killed the cells, I mean that they have permanent damage & not because my charger won't charge them. When a cell has permanent damage, when attempting to recharge it it should be very closely monitored for heat. A damaged cell will get hot during charging & probably won't charge up to 4v. It might but after pulling it from the charger to settle, if you checknthe voltage periodically you will find the voltage constantly dropping as it settles. IMRs (Li-Mn) are safe chemistry but in these cases it can still vent. The danger is much greater for a Li-Co since they are known to vent.
I've used AW cells since 2005 & I have killed Li-ions & IMRs mainly from neglect or from devices with parasitic drain that I was not aware about. I never heard of a method to truely recover a damaged cell. Lithium rechargeable s are totally different chemistry than Ni-Cads & Ni-Mhs, conditioning & shocking with high voltage does not work on lithium rechargeables, well at least I never heard of anyone attempting to, I sure wouldn't.
I use a hobby charger to charge my IMRs (cause I'm impatient with most chargers & low charging rates). I can set the charge rate from 100ma to 5A. It will charge cells that have been overdischarged but if a cell is damaged from overdischarged for a long period of time, that's that. I have a Nitecore i2 & an old WF-139 that will not charge an overdischarged cell because of the safety cut off but I only use them for travel or my smaller li-ions.
So if I overdischarge a cell by accident (which is not often), I will try to recover it but if it happens to get very warm to touch during that initial charge after I know that cell is done for & won't even bother with it. They should never get that warm charging even when i charge certain cells at 4.5 - 5A.They're cheap enough to replace & not worth the risk.
