Has Anyone Tried Freezing Their Dead Li-Ion Batteries?

[Paul678]

My pack is 10.8 Volts, which is 9 cells, but the measured
voltage was way below the 9 x 0.6V=5.4Volt limit for a
still-good battery.

So I'm throwing it in the freezer for 12 hours:

http://www.wikihow.com/Revive-a-Dead-Laptop-Battery

We'll see if a miracle happens..... haha

[mockingbird]

It's gimmick, doesn't really fix anything.

There is a way to improve old cells by giving them some voltage. I don't remember exactly how it is done.

[golemmaster]

I used to revive laptop batteries by zapping them on a car battery. Doesn't always work because some have some kind of protection built into them.

[Clydeuk]

I tried this freezer idea, initially the battery (according to windows) would only charge up to 63%, ran for 2 minutes before hibernating the system (sudden drop to 3%). With all power saving features switched off the laptop ran on the battery for over an hour. The amber charge light never went green though, and one night after charging the battery decided to just give up, charging only to 3% and lasting a very short while.

Here's the odd thing, after I did the old freezer routine (which has never worked by the way!) the laptop does all kinds of odd things. Firstly the amber charge light turns to green after 10 seconds or so of being connected. Secondly, the laptop starts up very slowly, the mouse pointer freezes and the keyboard will not work. The battery will also not run the laptop at all now. Removing it everything works as it should.

I think the smart monitoring thingy inside the battery pack has failed in this case, never seen one confuse the computer this way, but you live and learn

[G3n1us]

With -20 to -30 degrees celcius outside, dead batteries have been pouring into my shop for replacements. This is proof enough for me, that freezing them will do no good.

What you can try though, is disassembling the pack, disconnecting the cells one-by-one and charging them individually. Make sure you use proper voltage and current and don't overcharge them. If the cell gets too hot to touch comfortably, stop what you're doing. You don't want lithium burning on your desk. Check youtube to see what it looks like.

[Koda]

I've seen some improvement when moderately heating batteries but that won't last very long, as for freezing G3n1us is right, that will completely destroy the battery.