Conditioning Batteries

[ka7yru]

I recently pulled out some old Ham gear. I have two HT's and two mobile HF rigs. One of the HF rigs is an FT-817 with the internal battery. This radio has been sitting quiet for about 7 years. The battery is clean but has gone unused for a long time. I also have about 6 or 7 HT batteries that have also been out of service for a long time.

What is the life span of these batteries? Can I just charge them up and go? I have heard that some batteries can be re-conditioned or something to get them working again.

Anyone more technical than I have any thoughts on this?

Thank you

Kevin

 

[DXman]

Battery's can be reconditioned, but, when they have sat for that length of time and not being charged, then it's doubtful if they can be saved.

There are many good battery chargers out there today, I have (3) that I use for - AA, AAA, 9V, 6V and 12V etc. They are excellent for reconditioning.

What battery's are you talking about.

 

[bob85]

if the batteries are nicads some cells could be shorted by dendritic growth,
just before you throw them away its worth trying to salvage them,

discharge the pack as far as you can then take a large capacitor 10-20,000uf charged to 40-60v and dump a short blast of high current into the nicad pack, recharge cap and repeat the current dump,
it sometimes blows the dendrites and makes the pack useable again,

wear eye protection and make your final connection at the cap so you don't burn the nicad terminals

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

Bob, I have also used that method and was successful at restoring some NiCds.They worked for several months but kept developing the problem and I eventually threw them out. They were discharged for a number of years and were probably destined for the dumpster anyway but at least I got some extra use out of them.