Save Your Dead Lipo Battery: Rescuing From Low Voltage Cell Connect Error

Revive and recharge a dead drained discharged lipo battery cell with 'low voltage error' and 'bad connection error' and 'cell connect' voltage error with dead lithium polymer cells. Do it safely and know when to dispose of bad lipo batteries.
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[@DIRTYPRODiGY]

Man, I can't stress enough what these videos do for the community. Thank you so much! This is a really clutch and informative!

[@RCReviewChannel]

Glad to hear it!

[@brianmorrison2846]

Thanks for the video I just pulled a lipo from the recycle bin and recovered it

[@RCReviewChannel]

Perfect!!! Just observe that lipo over the next 2 cycles and make sure it stays balanced. Save money and landfills!

[@TrokaRC]

This has saved me few times thanks. Also store batteries inside a metal box with a vent hole.

[@RCReviewChannel]

Absolutely!!!!

[@Luke-en2tk]

I don't use the 1c rule when using Ni-Mh to recover a Lipo, I sometimes set it as low as 0.1. Good idea with the cell checker I will definitely use that next time when recovering a low pack

[@RCReviewChannel]

I've tried the 1C rule and the .1amp as well, many times. Both have worked well for me but the 1c is fast and the revival is done in 30 seconds while the person is fully present in the process. Yeah, looking at the cell voltages during the 'jump start' is a game-changer.

[@Luke-en2tk]

@@RCReviewChannel I have always done it low just as a precaution

[@BigHoTzMuZik]

I have $100 batteries and my youngest never unplugs the batteries from the esc. Thank you so much for saving me hundreds; I was about to purchase more batteries. 😮‍💨

[@rcaustralia1101]

Thankyou! Even us oldies can still learn some cool techniques to save us money from buying again!

[@RCReviewChannel]

You're very welcome!

[@rcaustralia1101]

@@RCReviewChannel i just recovered a 3s battery and its charging! For safety i charged it in 30 second intervals checking for heat or anything out of the ordinary at 0.1 Amps but i raised it to 0.2 Amps to get it over 9v. Once again thankyou👍💯

[@nic.25]

I used to do something similar with a few NIMH AA batteries that show dead on charger, brings it back to life.

[@RCReviewChannel]

Battery CPR!

[@Casitascrawlers]

Thank you this is good info you definitely never want to charge lipo’s when you can’t keep an eye on them for sure. And lipo charge bags also are cheap & good insurance. You bring up a good subject when you said get rid of bad batteries I’m getting a little bit of a collection how do you get rid of them properly I’ve never had any batteries that went bad because of low voltage but I have a few that puffed up & what really makes me mad is I have 3 or 4 bad expensive 6s batteries that have damaged charging wires from crashing & the battery coming out.

[@RCReviewChannel]

Yeah, that's my next video. How to dispose of lipos properly. Also, how to avoid lipos from getting puffy.

[@MichaelMcClung-et8nk]

Thank u soooo much! I have a spectrum charger w/ specktrum batteries & this worked flawless as long as you change connectors so balance or smart wire isn't read by charger!

[@RCReviewChannel]

Great to hear! So Sprektrum does work!!!!

[@insomnia7337]

Thanks Francis! I have 2 batts I'm going to try this on

[@RCReviewChannel]

Good luck. Great you didn't throw them away yet.

[@just.jose.youtube]

Besides all that's been said, one of LiPos (and any type of battery, I believe) biggest enemies is heat. The more you expose a battery to high temperatures, the worse. One can't control the temperature they're exposed to while being used, obviously but, other than that, we must keep them cool. Inside a car on a sunny day, for example, that's the best way to cut some cycles of it's lifespan. :p

[@SteffenHarter]

Thanks a lot!

[@RCReviewChannel]

You're welcome!

[@havingfunwithtaegan6624]

I'll have to try it. A low voltage meter is recommended. Forgetting to unplug a lipo will kill a battery.

[@but531]

130 euros 2 Gens Ace batteries went to the bin, paid with 6 monthly payments. This hobby slowly started to disappoint me, it's not easy for many people to buy lipo batteries like they cost 5 and 10 dollars. One battery is one year and the second battery is 2 years with not much playing.

[@DoRC]

When cells drop below a certain voltage copper from fhe anode dissolves and redeposits at random places in the cell. These random deposits are undetectable and can cause internal shorting and catastrophic failure at any time in the future with no warning. Forcing overdischarged lipos to charge is creating a fire hazard.

[@RCReviewChannel]

What voltage have you observed this to be? I have revived many lipos and they are performing well and staying absolutely balanced. Phantom shorting is not a thing. Problems are caused by dead cells during charging when not balanced charging

[@DoRC]

@@RCReviewChannel It's not my observation. It's the result of experimentation by multiple different studies that I have read. Those experiments are generally done at negative state of charges so below 3 volts or so. Depending on the study it can occur around two volts or maybe a little bit lower and is worse the deeper the discharge and the longer it's been discharged. And yeah whereas you can usually get away with reviving undervolted lipos You're still creating a significantly increased likelihood of catastrophic failure in the future. Personally I'm just not sure I would want to recommend that to tens of thousands of people. You get thousands of people reviving batteries based on your recommendations maybe one of them burns their house down. Not something I'd want to be associated with but that's just me.

[@christianrambissoon1141]

I learned this from your old videos and it has saved me a few times well....ultimately had to discard the lipo in question after a few months, one cell just wouldn't hold charge any more. Cool update though. What mode is the second charger in?

[@RCReviewChannel]

That's the idea. Gotta know when to save them and know when to give up and dispose. If it won't stay balanced during charging or during use, dispose. The second charger is in lipo mode but it doesn't really matter. It's just taking a peek into the balance plug and that always works. Charging is not performed with the second charger.

[@jondoe6618]

I did this to a 6s drone battery I flew too long 6 volts lol. It did come back to life!

[@RCReviewChannel]

So glad to hear. Based on the comments in our older videos on this subject, we've saved hundreds and hundred of batteries.

[@tj_garage]

Will this work on soecktrum smart battery’s?

[@RCReviewChannel]

We don't know. Theoretically, it should work if you have another charger with a compatible connector. It is hard to have visibility into the individual cells while jump-starting though. Once you plug in the normal Spektrum charger, it should tell you cell health. Traxxas batteries, it is even more risky. Since Traxxas charges don't display the voltage of each cell, it's a guessing game whether the cells are still ok.

[@RCReviewChannel]

@michaelMcClung-et8nk in the comments below says Spektrum works fine.

[@RCReviewChannel]

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[@siarc]

Extremely dangerous to recharge a LiPo that was discharged below 2,5V as it could be permanently damaged and have an internal short circuit. The result can be 🔥🌋

[@RCReviewChannel]

In my experience, as long as the battery charges up balanced, and stays balanced with no puffiness and warming more than normal, it is safe. If any of the cells are damaged, it will NOT stay balanced. Modern lipo batteries are very resilient and most of my new chargers will charge lipo batteries even with cells under 2.0v

[@HardcoreRC]

@@RCReviewChannel So are you prepared to take the consequences of your advice ? will you pay to have their house replaced ? are you prepared to accept a manslaughter charge if someone dies due to house fire ? All chargers will refuse to charge a lipo thats below 3v, there is a very good reason for that.

[@brucebaker0316]

Has anybody ever brought back a battery that has dropped to zero in all the cells.. buy charging it on NIMH.? Thanks 🤟 I'm guess not 😂

[@jasonflores706]

Ok how do you do the Traxxas lipos this way?

[@RCReviewChannel]

Unfortunately, not really an option. One can't really see the voltage of individual cells in the battery so it's not save. The other side of it is one would have to use a different charger and use aligator clips to access the positive and negative terminals (to charge as nimh). Not safe.