How to Awaken Sleeping Li-ion
Li-ion batteries contain a protection circuit that shields the battery against abuse. This important safeguard has the disadvantage of turning the battery off if over-discharged, and storing a discharged battery for any length of time can do this. The self-discharge during storage gradually lowers the voltage of a battery that is already discharged; the protection circuit will eventually cut off between 2.20 and 2.90V/cell.
Some battery chargers and analyzers, including those made by Cadex, feature a wake-up feature or “boost” to reactivate and charge batteries that have fallen asleep. Without this feature, a charger would render these batteries as unserviceable and the packs would be discarded. The boost feature applies a small charge current to first activate the protection circuit and then commence with a normal charge.
Do not boot lithium-based batteries back to life that have dwelled below 1.5V/cell for a week or longer. Copper shunts may have formed inside the cells that can lead to a partial or total electrical short. When recharging, such a cell might become unstable, causing excessive heat or showing other anomalies. The “boost” function by Cadex halts the charge if the voltage does not rise normally.
Figure 1: Sleep mode of a lithium-ion battery
Some over-discharged batteries can be “boosted” to life again. Discard pack if the voltage does not rise to a normal level within a minute while on boost.
A study done by Cadex to examine failed batteries reveals that three out of ten batteries are removed from service due to over-discharge. Furthermore, 90 percent of returned batteries have no fault or can easily be serviced. Lack of test devices at the customer service level is in part to blame for the high exchange rate. Refurbishing batteries saves money and protects the environment.