Refurbing bike batteries

[jb]

Interesting, I looked into myself but the cost of a spot welder for a one off was excessive.
Also, at the end of the day your repairing the battery by replacing the batteries (or cells) so all your saving is the plastic cover and the circuit board. I know that's still cheaper than a new one but still...

[Cowsham]

"Wrap the lithium ion cells in paper and place them in a plastic bag and dispose of them. Lithium cells, unlike NiCad or NiMH, are environmentally friendly and can be disposed of in your regular trash."

But please don't follow this step they can be recycled

Read that on the link and thought "What?"

I'd think buying equipment to re cell a lipoly or lithium ion battery would be uneconomic. Not to mention dangerous
Heating especially lipolys could result in you having no face. The things go off like a flare with nothing left but the foil wrapper.

The heat will take the paint off a door 3 meters away and that's just a small model plane battery.

The reason I know is cos I was charging one I knew was a bit dodgy so had left it in the middle of the garage floor away ( or so I thought ) from everything that could get damaged.

The reason I did that was cos a friend had been charging one in his car at the flying site -- there was nothing he could do the fire was too fast and too hot to save the car it was burned out to a shell.

[hemo]

Interesting, I looked into myself but the cost of a spot welder for a one off was excessive.
Also, at the end of the day your repairing the battery by replacing the batteries (or cells) so all your saving is the plastic cover and the circuit board. I know that's still cheaper than a new one but still...

Building your own is only worthwhile if you want one for a particular need, shape or have a use for a few which are of a different voltage. Some will have ago because they just want to.
One can buy quality cells for about £3 - £4 so it can be worthwhile if it piques your interest, the spot welder kit and a very good high discharge rate lipo for power will cost about £200 - £225.

[jb]

Thanks for the info, I've taken the plunge and bought a new battery now so hopefully won't be needing another for a while. I just hope the motor will last the distance.