Free 18650 Torch Batteries!

Following on from my post a few weeks back regarding 18650 rechargeable  batteries and how it's probably not a good idea to buy the cheapest ones.  Fake 18650 Batteries

I found an interesting way of getting good quality cells for nothing! 

Hacking an old laptop battery.....

6 little Sanyo's hiding in the pack

It so happens that I had an old Sony Vaio knocking around doing nothing. It was pronounced as dead a year or so ago and was left down the side of a cabinet to be forgotten.

As memory serves me the battery was in good condition before the laptop died so with any luck I should be able to harvest a few good cells from the stack.

The battery pack was held together with three torx 8 size screws which were easy to remove. Then the outer plastic shell had to be prized apart- this wasn't that easy. It took a bit of careful skill and brute force to get it apart.

Special care had to be taken when removing the batteries from the case. To avoid the risk of a short circuit, I used a plastic pry tool to gently easy each battery free. It's a bit risky using a metal screw driver to be honest.

Once the top cover was off it was just a case of ripping each of the 6 batteries out from their housing. As these batteries are joined together the little metal strips had to be pulled off each.

It's wasn't such a big job in the end. 

Checking the batteries it seems that these are all Sanyo 2400mAh 18650's (unprotected) which seems a really good find.

I checked each battery on my meter and they were all still showing 3.7V ?! They all worked when I tested them in a torch.

Sanyo 2400mAh 18650

I actually got the idea of stripping laptop batteries down from YouTube. It seems that people have been doing this for years and as a sad byproduct, some sell old savaged batteries as brand new ones on ebay.... Dodgy characters.

Each of these batteries needs to be properly tested to see how fatigued they have become since manufacture. - when I get the time.
Free batteries in your old gear....can't be bad!