anybody revive a dead Ecoflow power station battery ? now charging with 10 amps on a timer

It's possible to revive Li-ion cells that have dropped below 2.0v. Sometimes, not always guaranteed. Especially if they haven't gotten all the way down to 0.00V.

With LiFePO4, not so much. Cells that have dropped below 2.0 are almost always unrecoverable.

Just my two cents, after having tried with zero success on a dozen different cells a few different times.
 
I've revived dead LFP cells before, but those were only A123 cylindrical cells.

The protocol was a bit different to how I recover NMC(A) cells.

I charge at a very low current (1/30-1/50C) up to 2.8V and then increase current to 0.1-0.2C depending on my mood.

I then discharge them down to 2.5V and charge normally to 3V. After that, I apply a charging current of 3C for 5s with a rest of 30s, and repeat that 3 times; charge normally afterwards.

It managed to get the cells from 60% capacity to 85% capacity, but the best part was the IR drop, which went from completely unusable to usable. The IR drop happened for all cells, but the capacity recovery only happened for 4 cells out of the 16 cells from the pack.

I remember very crudely copying the method from a paper where they used a proper pulse charging setup to revive LFP cells for second life storage purposes.

Now that I have much better equipment, I hope to properly replicate this protocol in the future.
 
BlueSwordM said:
I've revived dead LFP cells before, but those were only A123 cylindrical cells.

The protocol was a bit different to how I recover NMC(A) cells.

I charge at a very low current (1/30-1/50C) up to 2.8V and then increase current to 0.1-0.2C depending on my mood.

I then discharge them down to 2.5V and charge normally to 3V. After that, I apply a charging current of 3C for 5s with a rest of 30s, and repeat that 3 times; charge normally afterwards.

It managed to get the cells from 60% capacity to 85% capacity, but the best part was the IR drop, which went from completely unusable to usable. The IR drop happened for all cells, but the capacity recovery only happened for 4 cells out of the 16 cells from the pack.

I remember very crudely copying the method from a paper where they used a proper pulse charging setup to revive LFP cells for second life storage purposes.

Now that I have much better equipment, I hope to properly replicate this protocol in the future.
Click to expand...
Thanks for sharing. Any incidental data on how long the recovered cells lasted, how many cycles, use case, etc?
 
I recovered some RC Lipo cells ( NMC-ish ) from 0.3v below their low voltage cutoff and they were okay for a while but puffed up over the course of a year. ( i consider this dangerous )

Same technique, super tiny current until we got past LVC, don't want to stress it in a fragile condition.

So the best case of cell recovery isn't great.
 
I have recovered two 13S NMC packs from 0V , they have lost a small amount of capacity after beeing at zero for over a year. They have no higher self discharge and the cells behave perfectly. They are running fine since two years and have done around 70 cycles since the recovery.

I also tried with LFP , they did recover, but the capacity was from near zero to 10% of the original capacity, but that where no name LFP Cells.

I once recovered a Hawker Genesis lead acid battery that was sitting 10years at 0V.
After the second charging cycle it had 95% capacity. It was then running for 13years in an old Porsche tractor before one of the cells had a short, but the battery still started the motor.
All the cheaper ones I tried died after a few cycles and never got back near the original capacity.


There are a lot of different cells out there, one could work, the other won't. Be shure to make all your tests and charging in a fire safe place outside the house.
 
found this from Google"
EcoFlow's annual sales were $200 million in 2021 and were approaching $1 billion in 2022. The company saw its sales more than triple for the second consecutive year in 2021, significantly outpacing the global portable power station market. "
sounds like they are trying to make a good product
 
I have a brand new ecoflow here, cost about $250 at costco.. 258 whrs and 5x the capacity of my $150 lead acid battery backup.

Lead acid makes NO sense anymore.

Ecoflow has some nice units and they'd be worth re-celling!
 
harrisonpatm said:
Thanks for sharing. Any incidental data on how long the recovered cells lasted, how many cycles, use case, etc?
Click to expand...
Yes. The 4 cells that were properly recovered are still somehow living in my friend's smol router UPS 4 years later :)

The other cells were just discarded, most likely because the cause of degradation was different.
Since then, I've been avoiding A123 26650 cells.
 
dominik h said:
I have recovered two 13S NMC packs from 0V , they have lost a small amount of capacity after beeing at zero for over a year. They have no higher self discharge and the cells behave perfectly. They are running fine since two years and have done around 70 cycles since the recovery.

I also tried with LFP , they did recover, but the capacity was from near zero to 10% of the original capacity, but that where no name LFP Cells.

I once recovered a Hawker Genesis lead acid battery that was sitting 10years at 0V.
After the second charging cycle it had 95% capacity. It was then running for 13years in an old Porsche tractor before one of the cells had a short, but the battery still started the motor.
All the cheaper ones I tried died after a few cycles and never got back near the original capacity.


There are a lot of different cells out there, one could work, the other won't. Be shure to make all your tests and charging in a fire safe place outside the house.
Click to expand...
Yep. Copper dissolution is a much more severe issue with LFP cells. With NMC(A) cells, copper dissolution is an issue, but only at extremely low voltages and most of the damage is done during recovery if charging currents are high enough.

With LFP cells, the problem is that Fe dissolution is a very sneaky enemy, especially in the presence of copper, and you need very specific recovery conditions to actually recover some active materials like I did, but that success rate was only 25%, which meant that the other cells experienced more loss of lithium inventory than active materials.
 
One of my posts with some info on my recovery/testing of accidentally drained-dead EIG NMC cells
endless-sphere.com

LiNiCoMnO2 Battery Question

Forgive my ignorance. I don't know much about battery chemistry. I've heard that Lithium Cobalt batteries turn into little fire-bombs if they're discharged too much and then one attempts to charge them up again (boom). But I've seen a number of LiNiCoMnO2 (Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt...
endless-sphere.com endless-sphere.com
somewhere, probably in the Crazybike2 thread (maybe delta tripper) from probably the previous year or two form the linkedp ost abvoe, is the actual drain incident and subsequent recoverr detailsy.
 
using an old SLA 36v charger. now at 32v .16a thru a 50 ohm resistor.
when it was at 16.8 v it seemed to be steady until I pressed the reset switch, a green led lit, and v was dropping quickly.
.
some of the other strings are going up too, so I guess the BMS is trying to balance.
charger is 42v without the resistor, so if it gets to 42, it will be 3 v per cell, high enough to be almost dead. lol
now 35.6v .12 amp now 2.5v/cell
.
end at 38.2 .06a will see if it goes down overnite, led still lit.
some cells 2.8, some 2.6
pack weighs about 15#
will make range extender for 36v ebike if it is any good.
 
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now it is charging 40.5v 1.04a. (10P) It did drop to 30v from 38 in 12 hours, BUT Ecoflow complaints include it going dead when stored as it never really shuts off. Dumb as people often buy these for emergency power instead of a gas generator.
the idea behind my experiments is to look into ready made packs of various types, and the power station packs could be of better quality as I don't like fires. $39 for 140 cells if I can use any of it, or even learn something, could be well worth it. Already I see that I should not buy higher voltage as it may not be easy to drop it down to 36v. My controller is 36/48 so I can try it, but I really don't want to go faster, but with a huge pack like this, I may be tempted for short bursts.
.
43.4v or 3.1/cell charger shut off in 45 min. seems too fast for good cells?
 
Matt Gruber said:
43.4v or 3.1/cell charger shut off in 45 min. seems too fast for good cells?
Click to expand...
To overall voltage ist to low. Did you measure every single cell voltage?
The cells you pictured are Li-Ion
Probably on was hitting 4.2V and the BMS shuts the charger off.
 
dominik h said:
To overall voltage ist to low. Did you measure every single cell voltage?
The cells you pictured are Li-Ion
Probably on was hitting 4.2V and the BMS shuts the charger off.
Click to expand...
I don't have a 14s charger. I tried a 36v SLA charger and it shuts off at 43.4.
now I'm using a boost converter set to 50.4 to continue slow charging .12 a. (50 ohm in series)
yes I checked individual cells. there is a 0.2v imbalance..................... that circuit is probably collecting data and not balancing.
up to 43.7, climbing mush slower now :bigthumb: Pack built in 2019 when they used li-ion.
.
10 am edit 45.7 3.26/cell
there is a significant imbalance of .06 volt. will have to correct this tomorrow up around 4.00- 3.6 v.
set booster to 56.7 no load, amps .2 so it will be a long time. I have a 1975 truck charger 10a 24v that I plan to connect once it gets to 3.6 to 3.90. goal 2-3 amp charge as the booster about triples the input amps. since it is 10p, it could be 10+ hrs at 2 amps.
.
1:30pm 47.9 or 3.42 now charging .43a into 10p( tan 16.5v wall wart) boost input 18.5v big 20 ohm resistor
 
Last edited:
did 4 hrs at .42a. 48.4v 3.45 :cool:
tried the 10a 1975 charger and it hated it. booster got hot real fast and was only 1.25a with 8a input at 16.7v (low) maybe it needs a bag capacitor?
the wall wart got up to 180F so I took it out of the case added two 6800uf caps. dropped it down to .35a to be safe. back using the wart.😡
didn't burn anything up so far:bigthumb:
 
there is a center tap on the bottom
A and B
before balancing
3.52...........3.51
1058.........10.56
1762........17.56
24.7........24.6
I hit B with the old truck charger for 2 min. at 8 amps very close now :bigthumb:
since the booster gets hot, I dug up an old 24v 2.5a transformer and put it in series, thru a 2 ohm resistor charging at about 2 amps. goal is 56v or 4v per cell.
.
comes in a nice case 9x7x5.5" :) could attach it over the front wheel, and i see i can tap off 10s10p for~36v. :cool:
could also use this in an old free 24v UPS using the center tap.
.
10:30am 50.9v 1.75a and using 159w 120vac.
.
4:16 pm
did 8 hrs today, about 1.7a. 54.0 will continue tomorrow. overdid the balance, need to do other side 1 min at 8 amps.
good pack. well worth 39.99 to triple my ebike range :bigthumb:
 
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The ebay ad says "not working". This is true. the PCB +output is dead. So you can not put this charged pack into their power station and have it work. Now I see their problem, and this explains the low price.
Using the data/ balance wires going to the PCB and the exposed end of each cell, I took these readings:
A
3.84
383
383
383
384
383
383

B
3.84
381
381
385
385
382
383
total pack 53.8 14 hours after charge
was 54.0, 1 minute off the charger
 
That's actually not bad.
I don't know anything about this particular BMS but try applying a charge current through the BMS. There are some that "wake up" with this method.
 
eee291 said:
That's actually not bad.
I don't know anything about this particular BMS but try applying a charge current through the BMS. There are some that "wake up" with this method.
Click to expand...
i just charged the 3.81 to 3.83. this took 54 minutes, maybe 0.4a Borh halves are now 26.9 :bigthumb:
I never use a BMS. good cells stay in decent balance for my simple low speed ebike.
I did press and hold the reset button, and if flashed 53v then shut off and the green led turned off. RIP..
 
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so i'm kicking around budget ideas to use this battery. this is based on 11 yrs experience without a BMS and using the wrong SLA 2a 36v charger with a 1 hr timer on Makita tool packs. still the same used 2011 packs, but they are down on capacity.
I like the 10a truck charger. Idea is to charge half the pack at a time, using the 1 hr timer each side, so it gets 2 hrs at about 8 amps. Looking to ride the bike in the 3.5 - 3.8v range, per cell. I'll check the v after each ride, and only charge when it gets down to 3.5. Maybe once a month or whenever. I will only charge outside the garage, next to a block wall, due to the fire risk. It is only if the timer fails and I forget that it will go up in a spectacular fire. You can be sure i'll be looking out the window at it and not forget, mainly because I want it back in the garage ASAP so it won't get stolen.
 
last year , a neighbor gave me a nice looking cheap welder, 90 amp flux wire. I have not used it, but it works, and has lo/hi 26/31 vac. it weighs 35#. i'm thinking I could add a full wave bridge, put it in series with my 10a truck charger, and charge the whole pack in 1 hour or so on the timer.
Have a big chest outside next to an outlet, so they could stay outside and not get wet. the truck charger has an ammeter 0-10 so I will be able to see instantly that it is not over 10 amps. with a 10p pack, it is not really a fast charge, but fast enough for me.
anybody else buy the Ecoflow 14s10p ? says 140 sold 3 left.
 
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