Damaged Li-ion batteries?

[hamop]

Hello all,

I got one of these batteries, I think it was this one: https://www.homedepot.com/p/EGO-56-Volt-7-5-Ah-G3-3P-Battery-BA4200T/308667794 -- in a recycling pile - this should probably be my first warning...

I took it apart and found what appears to be a bunch of 18650 cells. Except they don't look like your average 18650. I guess they put a plastic sleeve in them as per the you-tube video below:
[youtube]qW4c1HQv0xA[/youtube]

I measured about 1.9 V to 1.8 V on most of the batteries. Some of them are nothing, didn't confirm open, but presume so. I'm not planning to use these. Obviously they got hot and while I've not taken them apart like the fellow above, they probably melted the sleeve?

All mine look like this, none of them have that nice sharp ridge as per above:


Do you think it's safe to scavenge the batteries that aren't "open circuit" for use in an e-bike/e-gokart application?

Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[flippy]

please put ALL of those cells in a box and bring them to your local chemical waste collection point.

 

[dogman dan]

Yes, if you charge them in your house, it can burn it down. Those are dead cells. Discharge them and take to a battery recycle drop off.

 

[kcuf]

buy lotto ticket today

you are lucky

 

[fechter]

I don't think the "bloating" is caused by cell failure. If a cell had enough pressure to deform the can, it would vent out the end. Something else is going on there.

Measure the voltages. Any cells that are below about 2.0v are likely toast.

Take a blade and carefully remove the wrapper on a bloated one and see if that's the actual can shape or if they put something around the can before shrink wrapping it.

 

[mark5]

EGO batteries are supposed to have phase change material. Isn't that what that stuff is?

https://egopowerplus.com/innovation[/url]"]
...
KEEP-COOL CELL TECHNOLOGY
Each cell of the EGO POWER+ battery is surrounded by revolutionary phase-changing material that pushes heat away. Coupled with our patented ARC Lithium™ design, this keeps the battery from overheating and your equipment running longer at full power.

 

[dustNbone]

Yeah that's not a swollen cylinder. They don't go like that. Something is wrapped around the can under the shrink.

 

[john61ct]

recycle only

 

[flippy]

EGO batteries are supposed to have phase change material. Isn't that what that stuff is?

https://egopowerplus.com/innovation[/url]"]
...
KEEP-COOL CELL TECHNOLOGY
Each cell of the EGO POWER+ battery is surrounded by revolutionary phase-changing material that pushes heat away. Coupled with our patented ARC Lithium™ design, this keeps the battery from overheating and your equipment running longer at full power.

yeah, if they call heat shrink "phase change material" you need to take a WIDE detour around whatever the bullshit they are selling.

 

[hamop]

Thanks for your feedback all.

All these cells seem to have the failure mode of the few in the youtube video.

They do have a sleeve they put around the 18650 --> it's not just heatshrink. I didn't watch all of the youtube video, but the fellow thought it may have been some fibreglass material. On a "good" cell, this sleeve would slide easily on/off. On the "bad" cells, it melted and would no longer slide off. In melting it caused the rounded off edges you see in my image and in the red/black cells you see in the image of the you tube video.

If the failure mode of venting out the ends is to go open circuit, then most of the cells did not have this occur.

I think the safest thing for me to do then is to wrap electrical tape around one (or both) ends and drop off are a recycling facility...
However, if these cells didn't have that sleeve, I don't think I would have known that they ever got significantly hot. I would just be left with the voltage reading of 1.9 V to 1.8 V.... and in this case, the only knowingly stupid think I could do is try to "re-enable" the cells with the open circuit safety that has been triggered.

As fechter mentioned, the 18650 wouldn't fail bloated as seen in my picture. However he's probably right that batteries discharged to < 2 V are probably toast. Or maybe heat damaged to < 2 V. Or that's one and the same to < 2 V.

Below I've snipped the examples of the good cell with the well defined ridges of the sleeve vs the fellow's melted sleeves... which I expect all mine to appear as.

As for the "revolutionary phase-changing material that pushes heat away," if you watch the youtube video, you can see what the fellow thought of the material as he futzed with it.

 

[flippy]

As for the "revolutionary phase-changing material that pushes heat away," if you watch the youtube video, you can see what the fellow thought of the material as he futzed with it.
cell_difference.png

yeah, that "revolutionary phase-changing material that pushes heat away" is vuclanizing heat shrink. i use it to electrically isolate it from metal housings or other cells if i cant fit cell holders. but it is a awesome insulator so cells get hot really good and tend to heat damage themselfs pretty fast so i basically never use it unless i have to and in agreement with the customer as i refuse to give warranty on wrapped cells.