Taking Apart and Testing Flooded Craftsman 2.0Ah and 4.0Ah Li-ION Batteries

[@rkp1050]

Really Helpful.thanks

[@TalkingHandsTools]

Happy to help!

[@annbell1479]

What did you use to take the screws out.

[@emmettturner9452]

@@alienrocketscienceshared8454 “security Torx.”

[@pradeeppallan2232]

Helpful video. In your 4 Ah battery there are 4 terminals inside, correct? These are more likely dual, and does it feed to 8 individual cells? When you charged it, how did you decide which one is +ve? Where is the -ve connected ? You also mentioned that you changed the voltage increments, could you please elaborate the increments, duration and such? Thanks

[@TalkingHandsTools]

I'm going off of memory, but the battery is either labeled + and - or I metered it out. The 4 connections are definitely different points of potential. They are used by the battery management system and the charger to properly charge the pack and not overheat or overcharge anything. The 4AH battery should be 10 individual cells wired in series parallel the 2AH pack having 5 cells to make 20V the 4AH is essentially two 2AH packs in one casement. When I charged this pack, I slowly increased the voltage and the current to make sure nothing would get hot. More is not better. You can catch things on fire if you go too aggressive with voltage and current. Some guys say (just hook two packs together) if nothing has failed that may work, but if you have a bad cell, you're risking a pretty serious fire, not to mention risking damage to both packs. Rember the fusible link? You risk blowing that at best. I strongly suggest people take it slow when doing this and make sure things are not heating up. I also suggest metering each cell individually to make sure nothing is shorted before trying to apply any external power.

[@pradeeppallan2232]

Thank you so much. Mine is a 60 v craftsman battery. I was reading and watching and searching. Finally I found a video where a new 60v craftsman was opened up, and he has figured out that this particular one is 3 20- volt battery banks (clusters) which when connected in your tool, it draws the required power. FF, my two clusters are 14.5 volts, and the third one about 3 v. All the individual cells (15 of them) are in the range of 2.8-3.1 volts. But a single cluster has failed... Hope I can revive the battery sometime soon! Thanks for your reply, much appreciated.

[@pradeeppallan2232]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/mWrNZ6GQeKxsqMk The link for 60v battery details

[@TalkingHandsTools]

Thanks, I'll check it out!

[@leedlbo9949]

That might not be such a good idea You really need to balance those cells, You can use a DCDC buck boost converter that's adjustable And once The cells are all balanced the same They could be topped off with the factory charger Now if everything works as it should takeYou're in good shape

[@TalkingHandsTools]

I agree, I did meter the pack after this, and it did equalize the voltages. If there is a cell that does not come up after charging, trying to individually charge that cell would make perfect sense. If that doesn't work out, I would say to either replace all the cells together or get a new pack. At this time, these craftsman packs aren't worth much effort cause they are still available. As they become unavailable, rebuilding these packs becomes more practical.

[@leedlbo9949]

I had to go through an e-mail bike 42v battery it had a 5p 10s setup , one set of 5 was at 2v all the rest around 4v the bms did shut down as it should so since it was my own battery I just rebalance the pack and used it for another 60 cycles then rechecked all 10 groups to find it out of balance again so took a chance and replaced the bms , now after 120 charge cycles its balanced itself fine . I know there could have been a bad cell but wanted to exhaust all possible options before having to remove nickel strips and re spot weld . I ride 8 to 10 miles twice a day so get plenty of testing done.

[@TalkingHandsTools]

Thats interesting. I've not got into Ebikes yet. I'm thinking about it but there's a few other projects inline first. I take it the batteries are somewhat serviceable. Does that only apply to certain brands?

[@zackhaar2141]

How did you pop the cells out of the housing? I’m taking apart my 4.0 and I’m having a hell of a time getting the cell casing out of the bottom housing

[@TalkingHandsTools]

@zackhaar2141 If I recall, the cells might be stuck in the housing with double stick tape. I believe I rocked the cells back and forth, and the tape finally gave way. After I got this pack working again, I returned it to its owner, so I can't take it apart again to check. I hope I'm remembering this correctly, and this helps out. Let me know how you make out.

[@rjay8715]

So what would it look like if you put new batteries in this, you think it could work?

[@TalkingHandsTools]

Yes, I believe if you have the right tools, you could replace the batteries, and it would work just fine. I no longer have this pack. I resurrected it for a friend.

[@laurachatfield4142]

What if it just got dripped on by rain? I left weed trimmer on the porch but the roof leaked right over the spot where the trimmer was

[@TalkingHandsTools]

That's a hard one to judge without seeing it. Does it seem like the battery pack filled with water? If so, it may be done.

[@hubert-williams3379]

What size bit is that?

[@TalkingHandsTools]

I want to say T10 or T15.

[@hubert-williams3379]

@@TalkingHandsTools Hey thanks for the reply.. It' not T 15 .. I tried that.. gonna have to go out to harbour freight to get a T 10.. Thnks again

[@TalkingHandsTools]

Sorry I was going off memory, you should be good if you get an assortment. Be careful when you open it up, batteries don't have an off switch. Let me know how you make out.

[@hubert-williams3379]

@@TalkingHandsTools Kool, Thanks for the heads up.. I have the Craftman 20V Diehard Lithium , water damage, I sent it off to be rebuild MTO battery, nice folks but they only rebuild not from water damage, my fault.. I could restore this myself with no prob.. so I waste shipping and time. life lesson..

[@TalkingHandsTools]

It's okay, there's always a learning curve with any project. As you saw in the video, there's not much to them. Just be careful and take your time. If something doesn't seem right, double check it. If you find other components that are bad you may not win them all. There are charging circuit and battery management controls in the pack do a good check on the board to make sure there's no visual signs of failure. Depending on how long it was under water you may have some serious component issues. The batteries in the video were underwater for a few hours, so I wasn't too concerned about major ingress. Let me know how it goes. These are pretty basic batteries.

[@hardietamika4939]

I have a craftsman weed eater it takes a V20 2.0 battery. Can I use a V20 3.0 battery for it?

[@TalkingHandsTools]

Absolutely, in fact, go with as high as you can afford amp hour, you will be much happier with the performance of the tool. The danger is different voltages. Most tool manufacturers make things in a way so you can't put incorrect voltage batteries on the tools. Think of Amp Hours like the size if the gas tank the higher you go the longer the tool runs. Also consider it like an Octane boost the higher you go (generally) the better it runs, it has more torque and power. Hopefully that makes sense there's quite a bit more nuance to it but hopefully I explained that well enough. Stay with Craftsman V20 batteries and the amp hour size shouldn't matter. Bigger will mean better power and longer run time.

[@hardietamika4939]

@@TalkingHandsTools Thank you so much for the information. Appreciate it very much!

[@battsy2911]

3.5 v is still good for the 4 cells in the first battery. I think if the 1 bad fell is replaces the battery would be good

[@TalkingHandsTools]

Your correct, I've always been told to keep batteries balanced age wise as much as possible. Have you played around with replacing one cell only? I curious what the results would be.

[@SofaKingWeTodd]

​@@TalkingHandsTools You arent wrong. 18650 batteries are meant to be kept together at all times once charged together

[@leedlbo9949]

Those cell are power cells don't mix with lower c rating cells .

[@TheDirtbikerdude]

👍

[@ronnielowther2242]

There's a fuse like cell in the end of the battery itself

[@TalkingHandsTools]

I do not recall seeing that when I had it open, I do recall certain cells were not metering well at all which spoke to faulty cells within the pack. Next time I'm looking at one of these I'll look for the fuseable link. I know the Milwaukee packs have a fuseable link in them also. Thank you for the information.

[@jambajuice2408]

Just buy recycled cells from cheapbatteries. And swap out the bad cells. The BCM is important piece

[@TalkingHandsTools]

The Battery Management system is definitely very important. I've heard a few schools of thought on the cells, have you had decent luck with that approach?

[@ronnie3044]

@@TalkingHandsTools I’ve done this with my old dewalt batteries. I don’t have the equipment to test them but they feel just as good as before. I bought some old medical batteries from battery hookup and just swapped all the cells though. Haven’t tried doing just a few because I’m not too knowledge on 18650s yet and I wanted the cells to match.

[@glytch5]

Those packs are like 100 bucks lol. Hope you saved it.

[@TalkingHandsTools]

I got it to come back up again, I didn't have a proper charger so I got it off to someone who had one and they reported it didn't want to charge. There were a few months in between so I have a feeling the voltage sagged again. This is always a last ditch effort. The cells are already damaged from dropping low once they never really are right ever again after that. This trick is just trying to get some useful life out of them. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. It's a nothing to loose situation. Just make sure nothing runs hot.

[@jambajuice2408]

I haven’t paid for a single 1. I buy a lot of power tools during the free battery and charger. Go to different lowes and get a few. Then return the tools in 2 months. 🤫

[@0852657luis]

​@@jambajuice2408lol, that's what my dad used to do when sears was still around.