Just found 2000 LiFePo 18650 cells in the recycler

I went to the recycler place to throw out a hifi and I found that there is half a bin full of brand new looking lithium batteries unwelded dated 2015 to 2019 1500 to 1800mA... It's from a company that does a bunch of lithium outfitting near where I live.

I'd feel like an idiot if I let 2000 batteries go past without seeing if they can stock 5KWh for something, heck, I could be bulding monster harley three wheeler, seeing as we get 1000 cycles from LiFePo, they could be very fresh. And also, they could be completely overvolted, undervolted... I tested one at 3.33 and one at 2.7.... There could be even 3000 or 8000 batteires, brand new, all the same make, all by a dude with dodgey funding revenues who needs to cycle inventories, like a car-load. I took 20 liters of batteries home yesterday, thinking "someone will want them, Perhaps i'll use a few" and I couldn't see the bottom of it. I took a cement bag in weight of them. There's still perhaps 3 cement bags in weight of LiFePo 18650's...

Advice please? I have about 2 days to get 2000 batteries for free or to just leave them there.

Randomly test as many of the ones that you have. If a good amount seem to work well, go get more.

Or, if it costs no money to return them, then collect them all and start testing all of them. If they are bad, return them.

3.65v full charge
3.3v nominal
2.0v full discharge maximum.

Do you have a watt meter to test the usable watts?

Can you post a picture of what you have?

I'd take them all and sell them on CL or Ebay. I have no use for cells with that little capacity, but someone will buy them.

4S of LiFePO4 is a very common replacement for 12V lead acid. You can make a pack with a Vruzend kit (or something similar), and charge it from your cars cigarette lighter socket.

You might add a resistor so it doesnt overcharge. A full charge to 3.6V in 4S would be 14.4V, which is close to most car alternators. Of course test the car socket first.

A 4S pack of these cells would not start the car, but there are lots of uses for a small and light 12V pack that is pretty much free.

Hey cool advice! thanks for the directions. I'm just checking one of the 2018 cells at 0.7 amps / 0.5C charge, If they have more than 80% of their original value it would be worth going up to get 4000 of them to give/sell to people doing their camper vans and things. I have two bags with about 1000 cells in the car already, the serial number of the cells leads straight to the company which threw them away, I'll take some pics of the two bags and the bin because it's a bit mental to have 4000 cells for free...

If it won't cost you to take them back to the recycler if they turn out to be no use then you might as well take them Even with diminished capacity they're potentially useful for stationary storage if you (or someone you sell them to for cheap) can be bothered to spot weld them all together.

Yes, good idea. I think i'll go round and get another 2000 this evening if they are still there... The first test was a 1600mAh battery, it came in at 1634 on accucell, only from 3.6 to 2.8 at 1C ... cool!

Be careful there are deceptive there is stored energy and they could short out and that many cells would cause a big fire so be careful loose in a bag rolling around could be dangerous.

If you have any use of them or spare time to sell them after you have tested them straight to be working - that adds value. Without anything I'd se a value of 0-1$ each. tested 1$ or less if one can buy bulk from you. However the market ain't starting for 18650 cells and life4po. Question is why there's only 10,000 people in this forum and maybe the same sum in "power wall" and other areas of expertise working with these.

Yepp. the market is pretty small.

I get cells for free and even buying verified best or good cells at 2$ each is a struggle even though I'd like to build a module 2s pack of 21700 cells to test and se how it performs.

I have to many cells. That makes me ask the question what should I do with them and how should I store them. I have good wellpapp packages to store them safe and good but the real question with a thing is why should I have it if I won't use it. At least when I think about people in the end of their life leaving a lot of stuff after that might not even have been put to good use OR when moving house or apartment shuffling shit that they won't use in their life.

So

If you have a use of them. Save them. As I would like to save every Peugeot 206 Car but that's another question hahahaha that I have had to accept. I can't save all those cars..... or convert them to electric

Hey thanks, I just checked all the safety videos for LiFe battery short circuits and nailgun tests, The short triggered the safety, and the nailgun made the pack warm and smokey, although there weren't flames. I went to get another 35 kilos of them, and in the end my arm was not long enough to reach the end of the recycle bin, and there was another 35 kg.

Ran another test on a battery, it gave 1836mAh for a 1800mAh rated lifepo battery

I will sell them for 50C and the other guy can test 10KG batteries! I'll only test 20 of them randomly and if they all test at 100% i'll presume they are new but a bit wet, they were used in a prototype boat and 10% of them have signs of oxidation, to be discarded...

When I went back last night, they had thrown out more of them!