Laptop battery revival.Putting laptop battery in the freezer!

Caporegime
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Hi,

I was reading around the web on laptops and batteries and how you should look after them in order for them to last longer when I read this:


Battery Revival:

"The batteries on laptops are often a problem. Most people sit their laptop on a desk and use AC power, so the battery usually suffers, resulting in a chemical ‘memory’, which gives them a life of about 3 seconds under load. The batteries in my donor laptops were both made in 2000, so I had to try and revive them. If you have any NiCd or NiMH batteries that won’t hold their charge, you can often revive them. This is not a new concept, but here is my recipe for reviving rechargeable batteries:

1,Discharge the battery as much as you can.

2,Place in a sealed plastic bag.

3,Place the bag in your freezer for at least 24hours. Overnight is sometimes enough, but I leave it about a week.

4,Take the bag out of the freezer and leave the battery to return to room temperature. Make sure you wipe off any condensation from the battery contacts before you use it. I just leave them in the sun for a few hours.

5,Fully charge the battery, then run it down again, as low as you can get it.

6,Repeat this charge-discharge cycle a few times, and see if you get a longer life.

Your mileage will vary, but two of my 5-year-old batteries are now useful. I get between 2 and 4 hours from one of them, depending on the load on my laptop. You can do this with cellphone batteries, or batteries from lots of other gear."

Has anyone done this?
Does it work?

:)
 
Soldato
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i would have thought this advice is becoming less and less relevant now, as practically everything that uses rechargeable batteries are lithium ion now in my experience, i know my laptop, mobile and ipod all are.
 
Suspended
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There are mixed views saying it does work and others say it doesn't
Thats what I found as well from a lot of googling, if you have an old battery which you dont need then go for it, but make sure you dry it out properly!
 
Associate
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I've done the repeated discharge-charge idea loads of times on batteries - works fine, but without ever putting them in a freezer!

I've always been told to use the device until the batteries are completely dead (ie no power up of any kind), then do a full charge, use till completely dead, full charge, use till completely dead, full charge, use till completely dead then charge and use as normal (ie full charge discharge three times.)

Works fine for me.
 
Permabanned
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CF93, that is totally different discharge/charge cycles- for NICD usually.
Lithium doesn't like continual deep discharge routines.

I think people keep the age old idea of battery maintenence as the same. ie deep discharging for lead acids (sure way of damaging them)
 
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badbob said:
CF93, that is totally different discharge/charge cycles- for NICD usually.
Lithium doesn't like continual deep discharge routines.

I think people keep the age old idea of battery maintenence as the same. ie deep discharging for lead acids (sure way of damaging them)

Errr..yeh, that's what the OP was talking about...NiCd.

It was the OP that said the charge-discharge cycle can revive the battery, I was merely pointing our that yes it works, but without the need to put the batteries in the freezer.....
 
Associate
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Yeh, but this is the bit in the OP I was referring to...

If you have any NiCd or NiMH batteries that won’t hold their charge, you can often revive them. This is not a new concept, but here is my recipe for reviving rechargeable batteries:

1,Discharge the battery as much as you can.

2,Place in a sealed plastic bag.

3,Place the bag in your freezer for at least 24hours. Overnight is sometimes enough, but I leave it about a week.


etc...

I didn't specifically refer to notebook batteries (yes, notebooks don't use Nicad...) but the inference form the OP is that the method is for NiCd and NiMh...which is true, it does work...

Anyway, let's not argue....the OPs method works and that's the point I guess.... :)
 
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