Cordless battery rebuild question

[DieselSaves]

I have aquired some early Li-Ion batteries that are no good. The tools still work fine. The local battery rebuilder does NiCad all day long but can't legally or safely do LiIon. If there was a way to safely and legally dispose of the lithium contents of my battery cases, could they be rebuilt with NiCad cells? If so, would the charger still charge them?

I'm assuming the tool only cares about input voltage and not about the source of the power. Maybe this is unpardonably cheap or impractical, but is it possible? I'd like another option to $150 throw away batteries.

 

[Ign]

First, I have no input regarding swapping back to ni-cad, sorry.

If you're willing to consider li-ion, have you tried currentbatteries.com? He appears to do quite a few lithium-ion packs, including V28. He says he offers a 90 day satisfaction guarantee.

I JUST (as in yesterday) dropped a V28 battery at my local scrapyard. They said they can't pay anything for them but were happy to have me set it on the pallet with car batteries. He was fully aware it was li-ion. Otherwise I drop my scrap batteries in the kiosk thing at Home Depot - - point being, I refuse to believe disposal is THAT hard and someone is just feeding you a line of BS.

 

[DieselSaves]

First, I have no input regarding swapping back to ni-cad, sorry.

If you're willing to consider li-ion, have you tried currentbatteries.com? He appears to do quite a few lithium-ion packs, including V28. He says he offers a 90 day satisfaction guarantee.

I JUST (as in yesterday) dropped a V28 battery at my local scrapyard. They said they can't pay anything for them but were happy to have me set it on the pallet with car batteries. He was fully aware it was li-ion. Otherwise I drop my scrap batteries in the kiosk thing at Home Depot - - point being, I refuse to believe disposal is THAT hard and someone is just feeding you a line of BS.

Thanks, I'll try that website.

The store I asked about rebuilding had an in store drop off for dead batteries. They were not allowed to rebuild the LiIon ones. They mentioned a law was under consideration to allow them to rebuild LiIon if they would install the appropriate containment area.

Maybe I'm off in thinking rebuilding is cheaper in the long run. Wouldn't be the first time I've been trumped by disposable goods.

 

[Sal Bandini]

Li-Ion and Ni-cad use different charging algorithms. Do not attempt to chrge the niCad on that charger.

 

[stikman56]

Depends on what it is...Snap-On can if it's a CTC620 charger and the batteries are CTB6185 or CTB6187. That charger charges both ni'cad and li-ion's, HOWEVER, there's differences in the batteries, the bulb like thing that's in there on the ni-cad, you wouldn't have that just putting cells in a li-ion case, so what you most likely need to do is get the battery you need and be done with it.

 

[GSteg]

There is little chance you'll be able to swap to nicad. SubC cells takes up more space than 18650 li-ion, and you'll need more of them to make up the voltage difference.