So what is a Burner Cell

Today I was observing my charging and I decided to measure the voltage on cells that were getting extremely hot. I am currently using a IMAX with 16 batteries. The charge is at 6amp which turns out to 375 mA per cell. In no way should a health cell get hot. So I pulled one of the burners and measured the voltage, the cell had a leak, no not like the kind we do when we're out in the woods..... no a voltage leak. I immediately dispense with them now, I suspect internal damage to the cell.

Burners typically have high resistance, you can check that before charging

Charging and then leaving the cells unplugged for a week or so works good to identify the bad cells

If you charge with an opus, and you leave the cell on there for 6 hours. When you come back, all the other cells are full, and the burner is still pulling 300 ma. The display says it took 4000 mA hours. The surface of the battery is warm and it's still not full.

I put that one in the burner box. I'll check it later in a couple days.

Burners also have high discharge in many cases. Ie they wont ever get up to 4.2v but starts to burn of all excess energy when they getting closer. That test is just to throw out. Batteries that selfdischarge that much is not useable in a powerwall.

daromer said:

Burners also have high discharge in many cases. Ie they wont ever get up to 4.2v but starts to burn of all excess energy when they getting closer. That test is just to throw out. Batteries that selfdischarge that much is not useable in a powerwall.

Click to expand...

Hi Dan,

I agree, they get tossed in the recycle bin and do not even warrant a second look. We talk about safety in another thread, well this would be a challenge to safety. Sure you might be able to get the cell to cool down and act normal, but I am sure there is something structurally wrong. I have already started thinking about what I am going to do with the cells that are less than 2000 mA. I am going to replace the batteries in my UPS which I believe are PB. It kinda sucks because each battery is 12v and I have 8 of them. So I will have to build 40 cell packs in a 4s10p configuration. Just started researching the battery pack shrink wrap. I also want to use some of the cells to build my sister a battery her golf cart.

-Bob

I have a box I put them in to wait.

After a few weeks most of them have not self discharged. I do not plan to use them in a power wall, but there are many other uses.

They seem to get to 4 Volts fine, but can not seem to get to 4.2 volts ever.

I bought an LED flashlight that accepts 18650's.

You could use them to jump start dead cells.

You could make a spot welder out of a bank of them and use it to weld instead of solder packs together. (Reduce lead vapor exposure)

You could make a 12Volt car starter battery out of them usinga 4S XXXP configuration. Charging the pack to 13 Volts would not be a problem.

I have also toyed with the idea of making a sacrificial surge bank out of them...like a poor mans Ultra capacitor to protect the main bank from constant charge discharge when clouds go over and the solar kicks on and off. Also, Loads in the house can hammer the pack with lots of cycles.
Use a 15 S pack of these as a buffer to a 14S pack of the good ones. I still need to think through the pro's and cons of this.
how much energy is wasted when this is done? But you use what you have.

Simpler is better...but I hate to throw away potentially useful batteries.

---

egam said:

I have a box I put them in to wait.

After a few weeks most of them have not self discharged. I do not plan to use them in a power wall, but there are many other uses.

They seem to get to 4 Volts fine, but can not seem to get to 4.2 volts ever.

I bought an LED flashlight that accepts 18650's.

You could use them to jump start dead cells.

You could make a spot welder out of a bank of them and use it to weld instead of solder packs together. (Reduce lead vapor exposure)

You could make a 12Volt car starter battery out of them usinga 4S XXXP configuration. Charging the pack to 13 Volts would not be a problem.

I have also toyed with the idea of making a sacrificial surge bank out of them...like a poor mans Ultra capacitor to protect the main bank from constant charge discharge when clouds go over and the solar kicks on and off. Also, Loads in the house can hammer the pack with lots of cycles.
Use a 15 S pack of these as a buffer to a 14S pack of the good ones. I still need to think through the pro's and cons of this.
how much energy is wasted when this is done? But you use what you have.

Simpler is better...but I hate to throw away potentially useful batteries.

Click to expand...

Save them for me, and I will put them to use.

U can take mine to. I dont want them close to my house

[quote pid='6799' dateline='1497017230']

egam said:

I have a box I put them in to wait.

After a few weeks most of them have not self discharged. I do not plan to use them in a power wall, but there are many other uses.

They seem to get to 4 Volts fine, but can not seem to get to 4.2 volts ever.

I bought an LED flashlight that accepts 18650's.

You could use them to jump start dead cells.

You could make a spot welder out of a bank of them and use it to weld instead of solder packs together. (Reduce lead vapor exposure)

You could make a 12Volt car starter battery out of them usinga 4S XXXP configuration. Charging the pack to 13 Volts would not be a problem.

I have also toyed with the idea of making a sacrificial surge bank out of them...like a poor mans Ultra capacitor to protect the main bank from constant charge discharge when clouds go over and the solar kicks on and off. Also, Loads in the house can hammer the pack with lots of cycles.
Use a 15 S pack of these as a buffer to a 14S pack of the good ones. I still need to think through the pro's and cons of this.
how much energy is wasted when this is done? But you use what you have.

Simpler is better...but I hate to throw away potentially useful batteries.

Click to expand...

Save them for me, and I will put them to use.
[/quote]

Lot's of great idea's but I have enough < 2000 mAh cells already. I want to replace my Pb batteries on my UPS with 18650's. I also want to experiment with using these cells to create a battery bank for my sister's golf cart. Communities like hers use golf carts to go out to the beach and to the bar. Perhaps I can sell battery packs made up of unwanted cells.