How To Recondition Old Batteries At Home
THAT drawer in your home… be honest, just how many old batteries lurk there? And how frustrating is a laptop battery that gradually loses its grip on power, until one day you face being plugged in… ALL, THE, TIME.
As for car batteries, at best they’re an expensive outlay every four years. And at worst, you’ll one day find yourself with a car that won’t start after a period of cold weather.
Laptop batteries, car batteries, normal NiCad batteries – your time’s up. No longer must you face replacing them at a cost to your pocket.
No, reconditioning batteries is not a SCAM. You CAN recondition these batteries to bring them back to life.Simply, painlessly, and profitably. All from the comfort of your own home. Here’s an easy how-to…
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How to recondition old batteries?…There are up to 10,000 searches for “how to recondition batteries” EVERY, SINGLE, MONTH. Yet despite this impressive figure, most people don’t even know that you can recondition and reuse batteries – over and over again. So consider yourself among the enlightened.
Now let’s get onto how to recondition your old batteries–stepping through the process for different battery types, covering: hybrid car batteries, laptop batteries, NiCad batteries and lead acid batteries.
How To Recondition Hybrid Batteries
Hybrid cars have hit the roads all over the world in ever increasing numbers since they exploded onto the vehicle scene over the past decade.
Featuring a more simplistic set-up under the bonnet than a standard car, hybrid cars are fitted with a battery that generally lasts between 80,000 and 150,000 miles. Once the end of the road has been reached for this type of battery, you can expect to outlay up to £$3,000 for a new one. Not chump change, by any means.
Hybrid cars have differing numbers of battery modules. The Toyota Prius has 28. If you’re lucky enough for your batteries to be replaced before their warranty is up, the manufacturer will cover the cost. If not, you’re looking at around $700 per module, and even then the manufacturer will recondition the module ready for resale. Meaning that they effectively profit twice.
Lifespan of a reconditioned hybrid battery: Between 6 and 7 years.
Stuff you’ll need:distilled water, voltmeter, battery charger and syringe.
The step-by-step for reconditioning a hybrid battery
- Carefully remove the battery as well as the protective rubber that is fitted to the caps.
- Then remove the caps as well. Your battery may have 6 or 7 caps (this differs depending on the car).
- Fill the battery with the distilled water and recharge it for a minimum of one hour
Tip: Once you see bubbles forming in the holes you know that the process is working. If bubbles don’t appear, you should switch the negative and positive wires, then watch and wait for 2 minutes. Once you see bubbles, switch the wires back and leave the battery to charge for 30 minutes.
An alternative method is to remove the existing battery acid and add a new acid mixed with distilled water. Then allow the battery to charge for 3+ hours.
Whatever the method you choose, after you’ve finished you should expect an energised battery that’ll put in a further 6 to 7 years of performance.
How To Recondition A Laptop Battery
Laptop battery reconditioning is simple and can be done easily without expert help (avoiding the need for a costly new battery or a trip to the tech shop).
There are five different methods to pick from, and we’ve saved the most effective one for last.
Method one
This method is suitable for batteries that show no signs of leaking, and it can be used multiple times on the same battery.
Stuff you’ll need: plastic bag, freezer
- Remove the battery from the laptop and place it within the plastic bag.
- Making sure the bag is sealed, place the bag in the freezer.
- After 12 hours, remove the battery from the bag and fit it back into the laptop to charge it.
Method two
This method is more about resting the battery, rather than reconditioning it. In most instances this isn’t very effective, however it’s worth trying as a first step for improving battery performance. It can also provide for more accurate battery levels.
- Charge the laptop until the battery reaches 100%.
- Leave your laptop to stand for 2 to 3 hours.
- With your laptop switched on, leave it unplugged until the battery drains to 0%.
- Once your laptop switches off, leave it to stand for 5 hours.
- Charge the laptop again until it reaches 100%.
Method three
- While this third method is effective, it’s also time-heavy.
- Plug your laptop in and charge it to 100%.
- Leave the laptop to drain the battery.
- At about 5% battery level, plug the laptop in again and charge it.
- Repeat this procedure at least three times.
Method four
This method may seem bizarre, but it can be effective for laptops with a removeable battery that can function for a limited amount of time.
This process works because it halts the chemical interaction between the battery and the laptop, which effectively resets it, leading to longer power periods.
- Plug your laptop in and allow it to charge.
- Once 100% charged remove the battery.
How To Recondition NiCad Batteries
Around the world NiCad batteries (short for nickel–cadmium batteries) are purchased in their billions every year, and every year the vast majority are sent to landfill.
We want to let you in on a secret – usually they stop working because of sulphur crystals that form on their two terminals.
The good news is that there’s an easy fix.
- Create a battery holder and switch, and then connect these to the capacitor.
- Stick the wires to the cylinder and connect them together using the battery holder and switch.
- Take care to ensure that all wires are insulated, and that they aren’t touching any materials that can carry electricity.
- Place an alkaline battery into the capacitor, and the NiCad batter into the holder.
- Flick the switch and check the LED. Repeat this process once. At this point you should hear a noise. This will indicate that the sulfur crystals have been destroyed. Once you hear this, your battery is good to go again.
Save the planet, save your pocket, and turn batteries, into profit.
How To Recondition A Lead Acid Battery
Before we begin, a word of caution – battery acid can and will burn you. Although the following steps are simple, you should follow these instructions with great care.
Method one
- Carefully remove the battery as well as the protective rubber that is fitted to the caps. Then, remove the caps as well – you won’t replace these until the end of the process.
- In many instances batteries are low on distilled water, which is the root cause of the power problems (as the battery can’t charge without water). If this is the case, you should fill the battery with distilled water.
- Your battery is charged once is has between 13 and 14 volts (you can measure this with a voltmeter).
Method two
Method two is a more aggressive approach. Try this only once method one has failed.
Stuff you’ll need: Goggles, gloves, battery acid pack and a voltmeter.
- Buy an acid pack.
- Replace the existing acid and add in fresh distilled water.
- Charge the battery up for between 10 and 12 hours if your charger is slow. If you have a fast charger, charge your battery for 6 hours.
Turn A Profit With Battery Reconditioning
Get free batteries from local websites – use them for your own use or recondition them and sell them on at profit.
Motorcycle batteries, car batteries, tool batteries – there’s money to be saved (and made).Are you ready?
