How to find the dead cell in a stick pack?
 

One of my better stick packs ( 6 cell Integy 3300's ) will not take a charge. Everytime i start to charge it 2 minutes it's done and no charge.... I put a meter to each cell and 1.24 to 1.27 and a total 7.53 on the pack.

I have a CE Turbo 35 BL and have tried to chage it at 5 and 6 AMPS with no luck so I'm assuming it's a dead cell some where.
When I tried to cycle it on an Integy 16x3x2.5 charger nothing.....There are no loose connections and I was hoping to find a simple way of doing it.

The last thing I want to do is tear apart the stick pack and test each cell, I have the sinle cell holder but have not attempted to try it out yet ( have not had a need yet and need to find the instructions on how to do it also).

All help will be greeted with open arms as I do not want to throw this pack to the great battery discharger in the sky

:D :D :D

the problem you have sounds more like false peaking.
If there is a dead cell,it would easily show 0V.
also,even if 1 of the cells aren't taking charge,the whole pack(minus the dead cell) will still ccharge right up to 3300(or whatever the capacity).

How to find the dead cell in a stick pack?
 

Guys;

From past experience a pack with 1 bad cell:

1) Will usually end up with a substantially higher ending voltage.
This is because as the cell is ending it's life cycle, the I.R. is increasing inside.

2) Runtime (or Charge time) will be considerably lower that what you've seen in the past. The bad cell will cause the entiire pack to false peak. Raising the Delta or Amp rate only risks damaging the entire pack.

3) The voltage meter test is not sufficient to weed out any bad cells.
The only way to test for a bad cell is to disassemble the pack and cycle each one individually then record the numbers. The bad cell(s) will be obvious with much lower (time) numbers.

Unless you are using Matched cells in your packs, charging at more than 5 amps is asking for an early failure.

***I should comment that the 'Integy' cells are matched at 20 Amps instead of the normal 30 amps. This has a tendency to NOT weed out weaker cells as well as the 30 Amp cycling. (this is from experience) ***

SO far very good info... These are matched batterys
Integy VECS
Labels: Runtime: 526
Zapped at 90VCD 3.8 KA
Avg. 1.19
Cutoff: 0.90V
CHR 5.0A Maximum
DIS 20 AMP

So my 30AMP Integy will not work... Right?????

So I guess I must charge them at 5.0 and discharge at 20 AMP....
I guess I'll try that next..... I thought there was a dead cell......

The charger/discharger should not matter. What IS important, that EACH cell be cycled individually (at the same rate) to find a suspected bad cell in a pack.

If you find that it is time to replace the pack. Try Fukuyama batteries. Top quality cells at reasonable prices, you won't be disappointed.

I agree with popsracer. I hav Fukuyama batteries and i've conditioned and reconditioned each cell. All are the same. I've had them for around 5 months now and still running very strong. GET FUKUYAMA'S TO LIVE!!:lol:

If you think you have a bad cell you have to disassemble it to fix it. I would take it apart to be safe. A bad cell can cause a mess if not found. Besides it doesnt work now anyhow.

Its simple
 

You have to charge the pack to start with no matter what. If you can charge it even if its 2 minutes at a time, go for it. Just keep restarting the charger. Then when the pack is warm from charging, put a load on it with your turbo 35 or what ever you have. 20 amps would be great. Even a light bulb dishcarger will do the job. NOW test each cell with a voltmeter while they are discharging. Make sure you observe polarity of the cells because a bad one could show that is reversed. If the numbers of each cell are close to each other During Discharge, then the cells are OK. If your cells sat or have not been used for a few weeks they can false peak.

What are you using for a delta peak voltage? Charging at 5 amps is fine 6 is as high as I go.

David Root

Re: Its simple
 

Charging at 5.9 .04 cutoff... Ran a low amp cycle last night and the pack heated up this time, going to check it out nonight...
And these packs have been sitting around for awhile...

try charging the pack at 2-3 amps with a 30- 35 overall cutoff, but keep a eye on it to make sure it doen't get to hot

Integy is BS as far as numbers on their packs go.

They take their average voltage at like 300 or 330 seconds. Also, at 20 amps avg volts always look better. 1.19....yeah right.

I am not dissing you or your pack, just that they match way different than the industry standard 30 amp discharge with 5000 run out. I think alot of people are thrown off by this.

On the T-35 use the long lockout feature under the charge menu. This will prevent false peaking. It forces the charger to ignore the delta settings for the first 10 minutes of a charge. Do not use this setting on packs that are already charged to prevent overcharging. This setting must be activated each time you want to use it and will not be saved when you save your charger settings (a safety precaution). To me this is one of the handiest features of the T-35BL.

Why are you using stick packs? :confused: