Battery sizes question

S

Simon Dewar

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Jun 2, 2017
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6
Hi there. First time posting and very, VERY new to this.

I found a few dead laptop battery cells from around town and started the process of pulling them apart. A lot of work just to do one.


image_zldddm.jpg


On the second one I opened the batteries were a lot smaller/thinner and had no markings on them at all. Are they still usable?


image_cfzfga.jpg


Thanks in advance. I still have a sh'load of packs to break open.
 
yes, these are 16xxx, don't remember the exact size right now... but they're Li-Ion with similar specs as 18650s, voltages are the same. I already use some of them in my powerwall without any problems.
 
They will just have less capacity as there isn't as much layers in the cell. But if it's matched in a pack with similar mAh, you should be fine.
 
Thanks for the response. I think I will keep these sized ones aside and use in a different project. The pulling apart of battery packs is a painful task. Literally! I have so many cuts and scratches on my hands.
 
SimonDewar said:
Thanks for the response. I think I will keep these sized ones aside and use in a different project. The pulling apart of battery packs is a painful task. Literally! I have so many cuts and scratches on my hands.
Click to expand...

I learned the hard way as well. Now I wear leather gloves during the tearing apart process. There are some links in the battery section on how to more easily open the battery packs. Essentially, you put the pack loosely between the jaws of a vise and push and pull on the pack until the halves separate. Some guys use hammers or slam the packs on the ground to get the cases to pop. I find that damages the cells, but it is effective.

Then what I do is pull guts out of the pack in one piece and start snipping wires starting with Ground at the circuit board and work my way to the positive. Then I use needle nose pliers to peel the nickel strips off the ends of the cells with a rolling action....gently popping the welds loose, trying not to leave any sharp bits on the ends of the cells.

Don't forget to break the charge connector off the circuit board. The fingers are gold plated. If you get enough of them, you can either sell them as is on eBay or try to get the gold off them. There are youtube videos on how to do that.

Also on the drill packs, you can get the cases open easily if you get a safety bit set from harbor freight for less than ten dollars. The fasteners take a torx with a hole in the middle. The Nickel buss bars in these packs are heavy duty and can be very very sharp. Be careful.

I opened a Dyson lithium ion battery and it was absolutely amazing. The build quality was phenomenal. And the cells were Grey 3000 mah cells. Well worth the effort. I have their vacuum cleaner, and it works OK, but I had no idea what amazing overkill they throw at stuff. Thats a company run by engineers and not accountants. Thats one teardown I would love to see on AVE.
 
SimonDewar said:
Hi there. First time posting and very, VERY new to this.

I found a few dead laptop battery cells from around town and started the process of pulling them apart. A lot of work just to do one.


image_zldddm.jpg


On the second one I opened the batteries were a lot smaller/thinner and had no markings on them at all. Are they still usable?


image_cfzfga.jpg


Thanks in advance. I still have a sh'load of packs to break open.
Click to expand...
Size isn't a big problem, measure it and check with wikipedia if this exact size correspond to a particularkind

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_battery_sizes

Looking at the photos we can see that it is a bit narrower but we can not see the length, so as owitte said it can be a 16xxx where 16 is the diameter in milimeters and xxx the length, if its lenght is 850 milimeters itcan be a li-ion 16650, or 17500, 17670, ...

Summarizing no matter the size but the chemistry, Ni-Cd batteries are often used on work tools so it is important to check the kind of battery. Ni-cd batteries have a normal voltage of 1.2v while li-ion have 3.7v, although the battery can be very discharged check the voltage it have.

Regards
 
mike said:
I have a whole box of those skinny cells. I'm sure there's nothing wrong with them but I don't like them and am not using them. I'll probably either list them on eBay or give them away once the box is full.
Click to expand...

I have a bunch of these cells in production without any problems. I remember, when I stumbled over them, I looked up the specs on the web (don't remember the details anymore) and decided to process them. They all passed my test procedure and work fine until now. Only problem: I use 18650 battery holders in a 10x10 plate to store them and since they're a little thinner, they always fell off when I carried a plate around... :D

Have sun!
Oliver
 
egam said:
SimonDewar said:
Thanks for the response. I think I will keep these sized ones aside and use in a different project. The pulling apart of battery packs is a painful task. Literally! I have so many cuts and scratches on my hands.
Click to expand...

I learned the hard way as well. Now I wear leather gloves during the tearing apart process. There are some links in the battery section on how to more easily open the battery packs. Essentially, you put the pack loosely between the jaws of a vise and push and pull on the pack until the halves separate. Some guys use hammers or slam the packs on the ground to get the cases to pop. I find that damages the cells, but it is effective.

Then what I do is pull guts out of the pack in one piece and start snipping wires starting with Ground at the circuit board and work my way to the positive. Then I use needle nose pliers to peel the nickel strips off the ends of the cells with a rolling action....gently popping the welds loose, trying not to leave any sharp bits on the ends of the cells.

Don't forget to break the charge connector off the circuit board. The fingers are gold plated. If you get enough of them, you can either sell them as is on eBay or try to get the gold off them. There are youtube videos on how to do that.

Also on the drill packs, you can get the cases open easily if you get a safety bit set from harbor freight for less than ten dollars. The fasteners take a torx with a hole in the middle. The Nickel buss bars in these packs are heavy duty and can be very very sharp. Be careful.

I opened a Dyson lithium ion battery and it was absolutely amazing. The build quality was phenomenal. And the cells were Grey 3000 mah cells. Well worth the effort. I have their vacuum cleaner, and it works OK, but I had no idea what amazing overkill they throw at stuff. Thats a company run by engineers and not accountants. Thats one teardown I would love to see on AVE.
Click to expand...

Yes the dyson are a PITA to get into but good cells, this is another avenue I'm tapping intofor cells.
Most cordless vacs have 6 or more quality cells.
On tbe gloves this is what I use. Very flexible and the prickly bits dont penetrate them

http://hyflex.com.au/
 
SimonDewar said:
Thanks for the response. I think I will keep these sized ones aside and use in a different project. The pulling apart of battery packs is a painful task. Literally! I have so many cuts and scratches on my hands.
Click to expand...

Get yourself a good set of gloves, when I first started I had a bunch of holes in my fingers.
 
RobertBaumer said:
SimonDewar said:
Thanks for the response. I think I will keep these sized ones aside and use in a different project. The pulling apart of battery packs is a painful task. Literally! I have so many cuts and scratches on my hands.
Click to expand...

Get yourself a good set of gloves, when I first started I had a bunch of holes in my fingers.
Click to expand...

yeah, I remember when I started disassembling packs, I once noticed a dark liquid apearently coming out of the cells - until I realized it was my blood... :D
 
owitte said:
yes, these are 16xxx, don't remember the exact size right now... but they're Li-Ion with similar specs as 18650s, voltages are the same. I already use some of them in my powerwall without any problems.
Click to expand...

So, size doesn't matter?
 
Its the same chemistry... They just have less capacity compare to weight... So nothing bigger than all other. Just make sure ti dimenison your wall on the lowest performing cell/pack
 
yep, that's right. And now I remember the size, they're 17670s, as far as I remember mostly made by Sony. So, they're not only a little thinner but also a little longer... but for building my packs with each 20 cells (10x2, see here), this doesn't matter at all.

Have sun!
Oliver
 
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