How I Recondition Cells

Now THIS will be interesting! Charging and reconditioning is one thing. "re-watering" is something else ;-) !!!!

 

Is there any info on the level of electrolyte which is present in a newly manufactured cell? Full? Small "gap"? Large "gap"?

 

Just dry electrodes? Or is there some kind of "wet paste" or absorbent material, just not free liquid?

 

Very interesting. If you get the chance or inclination drop me a contact email - [email protected] There are things I'd rather not discuss on a public forum. If not, no sweat. This is really cool what you're doing. Thanks for sharing.

When you cut them open was any of the "material" wet, or isn't it possible to determine?

 

So do you plan to drain out any "excess" before resealing? This is very cool stuff you're doing.

 

So now we are cutting open cells that contain potassium hydroxide, which is extremely caustic?

I hope to hell you have the proper PPE for dealing with that stuff. It's pretty much the main ingredient in many drain cleaners.

 

More than a decade ago @Britprius did this as a proof of concept. His work was easier to follow compared to this person's more chaotic posting habits. I find it interesting and wish I could learn more directly rather than just reading his posts. As for hazardous waste aspect of it, I'm thinking it's not too hard to do that fairly responsibly at this stage. But the real challenge is how too much fluid added could lead to going beyond spec for internal pressure and the module popping. As someone mentioned recently on here a student lost an eye when the Prius C pack he was grid charging started popping module tops. And with that much fluid added they might pop sooner or with much greater force or both. Be safe @tracy ing

 

Most likely could of seen this in just a couple days, or is a week some magic number you came up with?

 

Jeesh..how many AH was he charging at to pop a module?

 

When you grid charge for balancing you charge all modules up to max capacity at super low amperage so the modules that are fully charged dissipate the low amp voltage as heat while other modules not fully charged have a chance to catch up. But if you don't get rid of that heat at a rapid rate the modules overheat and explode. That's why most professional rebuilders work in air condtioned facilities or simply don't work on pack charging once temperature is above 80'.

You can read his comment here: Build Hybrid Battery Maintenance Gear For Under $100 | Page 5 | PriusChat

 

That's a tad concerning, I've had my modules on a 500Mah and 650MAh charge for over 16 hours before (I do have it set to cut off at 7500MAh), and they are still cool to the touch when done.

But my charger also doesn't apply current constantly, it goes up to whatever you set it to, then slowly back down and up, I think in about a 15 second interval between 0A and what you set it to.

There's definitely a "sweet spot" at which the reaction at end of charge is quieted down enough where the current doesn't seem to cause much heat. I found that to be about C/10 (650MAh).