Waking Up/Activating a 0v Cell Pack Battery

[sshibly]

Good Monday Morning,

I ordered 1 each of the following 12V battery packs from Batteryhookup

12V LIFEPO4 A123 MODULE W/ BMS

YOU CAN FIND THESE ON EBAY AND OTHER PLACES BUT NOT THIS CHEAP. HERE YOU GET HOOKED UP. PLUS WE TAKE THE TIME TO MAKE SURE THEY CYCLE AND THE BMS WORKS PROPERLY. THIS IS PLUG AND PLAY. THESE BATTERIES WERE USED IN MEDICAL CARTS. THEY ARE IN NICE CONDITION AND STILL SITTING AT NOMINAL VOLTAGE SO...

batteryhookup.com

The Battery I received was FLAT, 0 volts..

I emailed them to get a replacement, crickets till now unfortunately.

Q: What is the proper steps to wake up a dead fully discharged battery?

 

[BarkingSpider]

Stick on an old school car battery charger or bench power supply until it reaches over 50% of its nominal voltage, then switch to your smart charger. I have done that a few times, works fine.

 

[ericgrand]

Couldn't it be the BMS that switch off the output?
In any case, I would not accept a 0V battery as it is clearly advertised the battery is tested before shipping...

 

[sshibly]

Stick on an old school car battery charger or bench power supply until it reaches over 50% of its nominal voltage, then switch to your smart charger. I have done that a few times, works fine.

Charge at what C? 1 amp?

Couldn't it be the BMS that switch off the output?
In any case, I would not accept a 0V battery as it is clearly advertised the battery is tested before shipping...

Nope, I tested the volts on each of the BMS leads from the cells, big 0 VOLTS,

I agree, not a happy customer, they sent me a fully discharged unit when I paid for a working unit. Also the unit did not come with the Clear case in the advertisement.

I will hold off messing with the batt till I hear back from Batteryhookup, wonder how long I have to wait to hear back from them.

 

[BarkingSpider]

I found BatteryHookup staff very helpful, they refunded me for a bad BMS no problem. Good luck ...

 

[sshibly]

I found BatteryHookup staff very helpful, they refunded me for a bad BMS no problem. Good luck ...

I am keeping my fingers crossed, today is day 4, no response yet [insert music from jaws]

Back on Topic:
1. I watched David P's video and he was waking up his dead LIFEPO4 using very low amps, something like 0.05A if I remember correctly.

A123 batteries, do they have a whitepaper on how to recharge 0% SOC cells?

Samsung Lipo cells - I found a datasheet which says till the cell is 3.0V charge it at 150mA max. That makes sense on waking up a dead cell with low current.

Does the same apply for LIFEPO4?

Also, should I charge in STEPS?

 

[BarkingSpider]

I would just go ahead and put any voltage on them and see if that works. At this point you have nothing to lose.
Like I said before:

-- Stick on an old school car battery charger or bench power supply until it reaches over 50% of its nominal voltage, then switch to your smart charger. I have done that a few times, works fine.

 

[Sojourner1]

I would do as barkingspider suggested. Some charge is better than no charge and if they aren't toast you should see some sort of result within a short period of time. 12v vehicle charger set on 2a or 10a will give you an idea.

 

[RCinFLA]

Lithium cells can develop metal dendrites when held below about 1v. If significantly low resistance they will heat up cell if significant current is pushed into cell. On LiPo's you get a very dangerous situation. For LiFePO4 you just get some messy excitement.

A normal LiIon charger would refuse to attempt a recharge below 1v per cell. At less then about 2.0-2.5v per cell it will do a low rate <0.01C timed charge and when cells get to about 3v it can go to full recharge rate. The main reason to do a low rate charge is if there is significant leakage shorts the cell voltage will just stay at low voltage and because of low current will not generate significant heating that can cause a cell 'rapid dissassembly'.

 

[sshibly]

I would just go ahead and put any voltage on them and see if that works. At this point you have nothing to lose.
Like I said before:

-- Stick on an old school car battery charger or bench power supply until it reaches over 50% of its nominal voltage, then switch to your smart charger. I have done that a few times, works fine.

I would do as barkingspider suggested. Some charge is better than no charge and if they aren't toast you should see some sort of result within a short period of time. 12v vehicle charger set on 2a or 10a will give you an idea.

Lithium cells can develop metal dendrites when held below about 1v. If significantly low resistance they will heat up cell if significant current is pushed into cell. On LiPo's you get a very dangerous situation. For LiFePO4 you just get some messy excitement.

A normal LiIon charger would refuse to attempt a recharge below 1v per cell. At less then about 2.0-2.5v per cell it will do a low rate <0.01C timed charge and when cells get to about 3v it can go to full recharge rate. The main reason to do a low rate charge is if there is significant leakage shorts the cell voltage will just stay at low voltage and because of low current will not generate significant heating that can cause a cell 'rapid dissassembly'.

I have a really old batt charger I picked in 20 plus years back, but it does 20A,
I am not sure if I have the cajones to hook it up to my batt

Ah hah, slow is good for 0V batts, makes sense,

Plan for a 2000mAH cell:
Bench Power Supply (CC/CV)- 20ma per cell to wake up cell
let it sit and cool down
Bench it again - 20ma max per cell
@2.5v - 1A charge till max

I will do it 0V packs I have and post result back.

Thanks guys!

PS: BH emailed me back and said that they will issue a full refund, kudos to BH.