How To Revive A Lithium Battery

Lithium ion batteries are highly effective, and intelligent batteries that are used in many devices all around the modern digital world. There are so many different devices these batteries are installed on, but the most popular example is the mobile phone.

Most of the times, the batteries inside the car too are lithium ion.

If your lithium ion battery died, here are some facts that you should know:

Is it possible to revive a dead lithium battery?

It is more than possible to revive a dead lithium battery. This is because lithium batteries are usually protected by a circuit, that oftentimes prevents the battery cell from getting damaged. Some lithium batteries come with a single level circuit protection, while others come with a multiple level protection of the battery.

What this means is that most of the times, the problem is not with the cell of the battery, but with the circuit of the battery itself.

By changing the circuit, chances are that you might be able to revive a dead lithium battery.

But before you begin, here is a tip that everyone should know:

Pro Tip: Be super careful around batteries

Batteries are very prone to explosion. This is because the main purpose of batteries is to store & distribute charge. Charge is the quantity of matter which represents how much electrical energy is stored inside a material. This electrical energy can be converted into raw energy, and if that leaks out, you could have the battery explode on you. The explosion can cause anywhere from a minor to a fatal injury, so be careful when trying to revive a dead lithium battery.

Can you jumpstart a lithium battery?

It is possible to jumpstart a lithium battery, provided that you are willing to do the effort of reviving it.

There are multiple methods to jumpstart a lithium battery, but here are some of them:

Tool Battery Method

The tool battery method is a very effective battery method where another similar lithium battery is your best ally.

You will need to jumpstart your dead battery with a working lithium battery. This can be done with the help of two wires which are connecting the two batteries.

The overall idea of this method is to move a charge from the working lithium battery to the sleeping/dead battery so that it can start working again.

Connect two insulated wires to matching polarities of each battery, and let the batteries exchange cells from one another for at least 5 minutes.

There are great chances that if this doesn’t work, nothing will for the battery.

Car Battery Method

The car battery method works similar to the tool battery method, but this time, instead of another similar lithium battery, you are using the raw power of your car’s battery. Boot up your car charger, and crank it up to 20 Amps. Connect the wire of the car charger to the dead battery, with both wires in respective positions: positive to positive & negative to negative.

How do you revive a lithium battery?

If you couldn’t get the battery to start working, even after trying to jumpstart it, here are some methods that might help:

Use a battery charger

Take the battery out of your specific device and attach the battery directly to a random battery charger, while keeping the nodes checked: positive to positive &negative to negative. Connect this small circuit with a voltmeter to measure the current of your lithium battery’s input & output.

The voltmeter should help you find if there is anything wrong with your battery. If the voltage is above 0V, chances are that the lithium battery is only just sleeping, and you need to wake it up manually. To do that, actively charge the battery through the battery charger, and let it stay this way for quite some time.

If it still doesn’t boot, let the battery charger try and charge the battery for several hours.

Freezing the battery itself

Sometimes it is better if you freeze the battery itself, because freezing is the polar opposite of burning, and we don’t want the battery to burn. Anyways, jokes aside, freezing & then de-freezing the battery should help the battery find out about all the dead cells, and the active cells currently. This weird technique actually works for quite a lot of batteries, especially laptop batteries, but you can try with mobile phone batteries.

Before beginning, be sure to properly wrap the battery in plastic covering, so that no water or moisture is able to enter the battery. Electricity and water don’t go together, and this point should definitely prove that exposing a battery to water will either cause the battery to explode, or ultimately stop working permanently.

Try to charge battery itself

Be sure to always try & charge the battery to 100%. If your battery does work, but doesn’t go up to a 100%, unplug the battery and use a manual charger to manually charge the battery without having the need of a complex and uncomfortably strong power brick.

Store the battery in room temperature in case you want the battery to be as efficient and strong as possible. This technique applies to batteries of all types, not only dead lithium batteries.

Sometimes it just doesn’t work

Sometimes trying to revive a dead lithium battery doesn’t work at all. You do not need to lose hope. You can just buy another battery from your local store, or just order the same model online.

Do not tinker around with the battery too much, or like we mentioned earlier, it could get to be quite annoying. It could even prove to be lethal.

Conclusion

Whether you are looking to repair a lithium battery, or just wanting to check if the battery still actually works, these methods should be your DIY solution. If that doesn’t work, the best way to get out of any sort of trouble is to get a second battery. Secondary mobile phone power banks are able to store quite a lot of energy.