Kobalt 80V Battery Recovery and Teardown - ElementalMaker
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- Опубліковано 27 бер 2019
- Found this battery at the recycling bin at the local hardware store. Here is my shot at recovering it and taking a look at the inside. This battery is identical to the greenworks 80V and the 82V Briggs and Stratton. I mistakenly said snapper in the video.
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in case you don't have a power supply you can use the working 80V battery and a resistor to burn down the shop
I like your style 👍👍👍
Where can you buy a power supply
Me sitting here who caught the whole table on fire with a 9v battery 👁👄👁
Wow what lowes give away free dead batteries? I can't find a lowes or home depot that will let me take dead batteries.
What value resistor?
Don't know if this was posted here, too many replies to sort through but, the Kobalt and Greenworks batteries are essentially the same and will work in each others tools. Their battery case has grooves slightly different from each other so initially one brand battery won't slide into the other's battery pocket. I took a wood chisel and removed the one offending ridge on each side of the battery pocket on my Greenworx chainsaw, leaf blower and snow blower to use a couple Kobalt batteries my son gave me. He did the same thing with his Kobalt mower to use Greenworks batteries. We also modified the chargers by removing the upper ridge to allow either battery to charge in our respective chargers. Two years now with no issues.
made by the same company.
Dumb question over here.. why didn't you just exchange batteries?
Worked for me. 80v battery left in blower, was down to 40v, wouldn't charge, charger flashed red. Took 2 12 gauge wires and just held them connecting + to + and an other - to -, after a minute the low battery would take a charge. Nice!
always good too see a video from this dude ! keep it up mate, greetings from iceland
This was just what I needed. I have EXACTLY this problem with a KOBALT lawnmower battery.
Same issue, did you ever resolve?
I have a Kobalt 80V lawn mower and my experience is when the mower stops because the battery is discharged none of the green LEDs light when the button is pressed and the battery is down to 65.5V. Putting the battery on the Kobalt charger can sometimes result in nothing appearing to happen for a while other than a red light. After a further while it comes good and starts to charge fine, I my case I just need to exercise some patience. Thank you for the video, I was trying to disassemble one of these packs who's cover did not want to come off after I'd removed the 4 security screws. Your video gave me the courage to tug a bit harder (which worked).
@@realdeal1841 Replacement packs are extortionate. Cheaper to buy a new tool that comes with a brand new battery when there are special deals on, like today Memorial day sale.
As for being cheap Chinese designed to fail, I have to disagree. Most Kobalt packs are made with Samsung brand cells made in South Korea. They are designed for 250 cycles. May not sound like much but if you do yard work 25 weeks per year that's a 10 year battery life.
The important thing is to take good care of the battery packs. Don't let them run too low on charge and store at 50% during the winter months. During the summer I cycle between 25% to 100% state of charge, and store at 75% if possible.
Also, thanks for the tip! I had a Kobalt battery reading 56V and being rejected by my charger. I fired up my dual-30V bench supply, put both channels in series, managed to charge it up to 61.5V, at which point the fast charger would take it. Looks like I saved $150 at least for today, plus a trip to Lowes. Thanks!
Hopefully it lasts for you, unfortunately mine only lasted another season after rescuing it. I may replace the cells and charging circuit though, since it seems like the oem kobalt charging circuit is what's killing the cells
@@ElementalMaker Yeah... it worked for awhile, but eventually died again. Hard to tell if it was actually a worn-out battery, or if the prolonged low charge level killed the cells. I wound up shopping around and found Greenworks batteries for substantially less. Sure, they're keyed differently, but if you take the battery apart, and put the Greenworks cells in the Kobalt case, it works just dandy. I know some people route the plastic instead, which is also a possibility. I imagine they use the same molds with a different insert depending on who's battery they make. Bastards!
No bs edited proof! One person’s trash is a working person’s treasure. You remind me of Ave Boltr. Thank you for keeping it ad free.
That's awesome, especially since I imagine that big ol honking pack can't be cheap. Pretty cool design too. I buy and repair DSLR cameras all the time, and they end up coming with usually dead batteries. They're not that exciting, usually only two cells. It's typically one cell that gets below the cutoff and kills it. I just pop them open, ease the low cell back up, charge the pack to full at a low rate, then just do a couple full load cycles before I'm comfortable putting it with the camera when I sell it. But that's friggin awesome. That 80 volt is a nice haul even if you're just at it for the cells alone.
Great video! Very informative. Thanks to another comment about connecting a good battery to an unchanging one I was able to revive my second battery. If anyone is wondering I used 14 Guage wires for about 5 minutes.
How did you do this? Did you use a resistor?
thanks dude! i don't have a current source, i don't have a proper resistor, so i have to try the jump start with another battery. a bit scary though because there's spark.. i know I should've used a resistor.. anyway, two touches and the voltage of the dead battery boosted to slightly above 20V, and now it starts charging! you are awesome!!
Absolutely works. Charge up the good one and then jump positive to positive, neg to neg to the bad battery. It is easily displayed on the battery case. After about 10 minutes the power button on the bad battery lit up. Then put it in the charger and it charged right up. Works fine now!!
Just bought one of these (along with the mower) and came to UA-cam to find out what's inside. Now I don't have to tear it down myself. Thanks for the video!
They seem like pretty good batteries! Just don't run them totally dead on hot summer days and the batteries should last you some time. 👍
@@ElementalMaker
So when you run it totally dead at high temp, then as it cools it goes below to low voltage cutoff? Is that correct, that causes the situation you had here, where the voltage is too low to let it charge? I'm on an ongoing quest to understand Li-ion batteries...
You are absolutely spot on Jeremy. Very well said. The cutoff voltage seems to be right around 60V, and if it drops below there it bricks the battery unless you have a good power supply you can manually raise the voltage with.
ElementalMaker
Cool, thanks for the info!
@@ElementalMaker Have you ever tried finding replacement circuit boards for that type of battery? I've tried the jumper method and while I can get the voltage back up it will wont charge on the charger and it will only allow the mower to start up and then die. My briggs and stratton 82 volt batteries aren't lasting, i've had 2 that die.
I have a dead 80v that was dead. It was down to 35v. I woke it up by using a good 80v battery. Just used a couple of 14 gauge solid core wires to jump it for 5 minutes.
It didn’t get hot, and now takes a charge. Thanks for the video.
In the future I would highly recommend using a resistor between the batteries, otherwise you could cause some serious damage to both, something like a 100ohm power resistor (100w would work), to limit current to about 1 amp.
@@ElementalMaker I'd go for a much lower charging current for this. Li-ion batteries, as you probably know, are best charged at constant current up to about 3.9V (depending on the chemistry), then constant voltage. Do it wrong and you damage the cell. But they don't get any significant damage from a trickle charge. So put 100mA or less into it and you're probably pretty good... it takes longer, but it's less stress on the battery.
I forgot to keep 2 of these batteries charged over winter and they read around 3 volts. With a cheapo 60v power supply from Amazon, and about an hour or so, I revived both batteries. My advice if you do this project, be aware of Constant Voltage and Constant Current settings on the power supply and practice with the supply before you use it. Aside from that, Great video and Good luck!
I've got the same weedwhacker plus the lawnmomer, chainsaw, and 4 batteries. They all work quite well.
Remember seeing this video ages ago. Was going through the garage mounting ally 80v chargers and 3d printed battery holders etc. Had one 80v battery crica 2017 that would not charge and no lights. Took it apart hooked up the power supply set it to 80V 2A and let it go. A few minutes later I had green lights tested iton a charger and it was golden.
I can't believe I found this video on my first attempt. I received a cordless Kobalt 80V weedwacker for my birthday this week. My daughter who works at Lowe's brought me a returned battery from the back, unsure of it's condition. It showed dead in the charger and when I pushed the button on the battery. Thank you for proving that these batteries can be recovered. Now I need to get a power supply.
By the way, the 19th century wrench you showed us on your video looks exactly like one I inherited from my grandfather. He called it a "monkey wrench."
@@realdeal1841 I've had Kobalt 80v yard tools (mower, leaf blower, bush trimmer, weed whacker) for over 3 years now and haven't had any issues with the batteries or the tools and I've abused them thoroughly.
@@realdeal1841 Not all Li-ion batteries are the same. These are probably using Lithium Manganese Oxide (LMO) cells, which offer a higher specific power than the typical phone/laptop Lithium Cobalt Oxide (LCO) cells. They are optimized for high power, not high specific energy. And yeah, unfortunately, LMO batteries don't last as long as LCO batteries, but as well, you're probably not weed-whacking 10 hours a day, every day.
Keep in mind, 18650 is just a physical spec for a battery size, no indication of what's inside. This is also why, if you wanted to replace the 18650s in the Kobalt/Greenworks battery, you'd need to really do your homework. You can find 3-5Ah 18650s, but they're probably all LCO, not capable of the peak power needed by electrical tools.
I am 70 and have worked on a lot of machinery, My father who had a 1932 ford had a wrench just like that and he said it was called a "Ford wrench". Don't know if that was all it went by alot of tools have different names depending where they come from. Great looking.
I really appreciate this video. Thank you very much!
One of the downsides to cell balancing circuitry is there's always a wee bit of leakage current. On a lithium ion battery pack with battery protection circuit, and cell balancing, there's always the unlikely possibility that the user would use the battery until the battery protection circuit prevents further discharge, then the pack gets lost or otherwise doesn't make it back to the charger, and the balancing circuitry leaks each cell's voltage so low that the total voltage is so low that the charger blinks the red light.
Page 3 of the charger manual goes into detail on "False defect note" (what to do when the red light blinks), and "Low voltage charging" (recovering the battery pack from extremely low voltage) The thing is, the manual doesn't mention what the led indicators do in this extreme low voltage charging condition. Please also note that the manual was written in a geographic location in which English is not the primary language.
It might be worth investigating whether when the battery pack is extremely low as in this video, and is inserted into the charger, and the charger's red light blinks, measure the battery current and confirm that it's not charging at all. In the case of the pack in this video, the pack voltage may have been so low that there's some liability involved in attempting to charge it.
Where can i get a power supply like what you used to recover the battery
I too felt excited for you when that worked...I need this power supply :)
Word on the street AVE has a hell of a tongue.
@ElementalMaker I don't have a Power Supply, can you advise if it's possible to use one good batter to charge another one the way you did with the power supply? Also, what type of connectors were you putting in there that allowed the clip on for the Power Supply? They looked like they worked really well.
Try paper clips for connector or solid conductor wire; 12AWG should do it. One good battery to bad should be done using a resistor in series (such as 25W rated capacity with aluminum heatsink).
Completely professional and personal individual care !!
Is there a way to charge the kobalt battery slowly?
Sometimes I need to charge it but not at full speed so the battery doesn't degrade as quickly.
My Kobalt 80V batteries charge up fine, but after 4 years the batteries have a shorter run time with the same equipment used. Can the 18650 be swapped for new ones ?
I have this exact 80v Kobalt battery. I was wiring up a electric Reel mower conversion and accidently blew the fuse on the back side of this battery. Do you happen to know what size fuse this battery pack requires?
Thanks for video. Very informative. I'm not very handy. To which business type does one go to to get this service done?
My 80v Greenworks shows 1 light. Blinks Green for about a 1/2 hour or so then starts blinking Red. I had accidentally left it on the charger for the whole winter and that's what Greenworks says messed up my battery. I thought about taking a battery tender and hooking it up to see if it would slowly charge it. Thoughts?
I've got that same wrench! I just bought it at an indoor flea market for $3!👍🏼
I think you may have deleted it, but I saw you left a comment wanting the Black & Dicker battery. Let me know if your still want it 👍shipping should only be a few bucks. I just need to double check the cell is still good. I think it had like 19V still
@@ElementalMaker Yeah, after I posted it and read it, it kinda sounded (to me) like I was trying to bum a battery from you lol. I appreciate it but I don't have the $ at the moment for the shipping. Maybe a month or so down the road when I get caught up on things, and am able to pay for it, I might check back with you and see if you still have it.👍🏼
Cool content as always
So, I have a battery like yours, holds a charge but dies at 77 volts. Got any ideas for this?
I fucking love your channel thank you so much for the hard work putting the videos out
Using just a computer grade capacitor, I too am a battery rejuvenating person. And of course variable power supply for any batteries that are not nicad. Been very good for me and now have many good batteries, especially the litium ion ones from pc batteries.
loved that awesome battery i wish to have one of those
Just recovered a 2 year old 80v Harbor Freight Atlas battery ($110) that would start the trimmer, but immediately shut off recovered using this method. Put it on the charger, flashing red. Checked voltage, 38+v each leg. Press the test button, 3 lights. Put it on the charger it would start the fan, then flash red. Connected same aged charged battery to each leg for some minutes, same issue. Connected a new, fully charged 40+v per leg for 5 minutes each leg and this time it charged.
Will a 30v power supply work to charge an 80 volt battery? Where do I get the terminals that stick into the battery, that the power supply clips, clip onto?
What size spade would you use to charge this from the power supply?
I am hoping someone might be able to give me some advice. I have a battery that when you push the button, all 3 lights come on as if its fully charged. But when I put it in a mower it doesnt work. When I put it back on the charger, none of the light come on at all. What could be the problem? Thanks for any help or tips.
Easiest fix on these batteries is to simply jump them to another good battery for a min or two then charge it. I have done this multiple time and it works great
I AGREE WITH YOU " I GOT ALOT OF THEM BACK IN SERVICE...BUY JUMPING THEM... HE'S RIGHT" IF THE BATTERY IS SO LOW" IT WANT REGISTER IT EVEN SITTING IN THE CHARGER" ....I USE THESE BATTERIES TO RUN MY E - BIKES 🤭🤫😂👍☑️☑️☑️
Hey, I have one of these 80v batteries that charges well, but cuts off after about 30 seconds of use. Then if I wait another 30 seconds or so I can run a few more seconds. If I switch the battery tool works fine. Any ideas? Thanks!
I have a 80v 6ah battery reading 74.8v. When put on the charger it will seem like its charging for abiut 20 mins or so then the red light on the charger blinks any idea which is bad?
I have the same issue with the battery in this video (2ah). @ElementalMaker can you add some light on this issue?
My charger begins to charge as normal but then after a minute or so it stops charging and the red light comes on. I check their voltage and they read 64 & 65 . Could the charger be bad?
I have 2 dead 80v's. Is there a resource that goes into detail how to test/repair them? One of my 80v was like yours, would not even light up on the indicator. I have another that shows 2 green lights but will blink red on the charger after a few seconds. I actually have one of those power supplies but I am not confident on how to use it. I would love to save some money here, much appreciated if you can help.
On my 80V Battery I get on (+) and (-) the Voltage, but no amps. I I'll test the battery with a tester, the voltage breaks down to 0. I'm pretty sure, there need's somthings to to with the midle pins, but I've no PinOut of the Battery. Could you help please?
GreenWork is absolutely identical, except position of those two rails closer to bottom. So it won't fit until you remove the rails
I have that EXACT same wrench! It's great!
Can you give more info on the power supply? Where to get one, make, model, that kind of thi9ng. Do you set the amps the same as the battery amp?
what is the name of that power supply?..or if you have an affiliate link to it would be better.,...amazing video btw, thanks a lot.
I have one of the 80v trimmers and mowers. Now I just need a way to drop the voltage so I can use it on the 24v tools.
You would need one hell of a buck converter to accomplish that. That would be a tricky conversion I'd think.
what bit is needed to open it? searching my inventory and cant seem to find the right fit.
i left my 80v battery on charge too long over the winter, now all i get when i try to charge it is red and it won't charge is there any way i can recover this battery.
Hi, I was wondering if there is a tool to test the capacity of this type of battery pack without dismantling it? I purchased an aftermarket one on aliexpress, and on the description, the capacity is 12.0 Ah. But I just want to make sure. Thanks.
Bought mine last month (40v trimmer), used the trimmer twice, never below 3 green and just received the blinking red light of death. Still shows three green when test button is pressed. Where's a good place to get the adjustable voltage charger you're using?
I would take it back to Lowes. I believe they are warrantied for a year.
My kobalt 80v has an issue. When i put it on the charger, the green light on the charger flashes, and all of the lights flash on the battery. After about five minutes, the battery lights go out and the charger lred light flashes.
Do i need to.perfomr your process to het it to work? And where do I find a power supply like yours? Also, ehats the approximate cost of that power supply?
Just put battery in my Kobalt string trimmer today and it has no charge. Put back on charger and nothing. Great video. Now I have to find a way to get this back up to 60v threshold for the charger.
Maybe you should start a business on the side. Mail in service for resurrecting these batteries. Just checked and Lowers want $199 for a new one. I pay only $179 for the whole trimmer last year.
Activated carbon vid 👀 came from your comment on Cody’s lab, can’t wait for it lol
Working on it! I was putting together an apparatus for steam activation, I still may try to do a different way (don't want to show something too similar to Cody), but I'm definitely going to do the chemical activation method. Should be pretty cool!
My batteries only blink red when its extremely hot out (I'm in south Florida) but after about 10min on the charger they start charging just fine.
I've had my batteries for 5yrs. I'm just starting to have a problem with 1 of the batteries.
It lasts about 10min but when I put it on the charger it shows 2/3 charged and only takes 10min to charge to full.
I have one with a laking battery inside. Do you have any recommendations on replacing it or is that better left alone? (Looking for a place to purchase a replacement and some basic instructions)
It's certainly the safer route to leave it alone and recycle it. The leaking cell might be able to be replaced, but it's a pretty difficult job if your not familiar with electronics repair, and requires a battery tab welder, or a very experienced touch with a soldering iron. Personally I'd replace it if it's got a leaking cell
I have an 80 volt battery that is sitting at 71 volts but the charger won't recognize it. Any ideas?
How can I find something similar to the power supply. Have a bunch of snap on battery packs that might be save able
Amazon has some 60v power supplies. I got this one for $25 on Craigslist, but on ebay this one usually goes for $300 plus
Can you please tell us what type of voltage meter you use and what type of power source you use so we can buy one and where you buy them from
I need to replace the battery pin connector of the positive side of a Kobalt 80V battery it burt a little, any help or references to go about it?
The battery still connects and does send power to the battery holder and equipment
Any help is well apprciaed.
I have the Snapper 60V same layout. I have two batteries that read Zero voltage and it will not charge even with a jump. How do yo get the batteries separated from the riveted connecters. I just want to replace the two cells that are dead. If you look at the top or bottom of each battery you will see a little double rivet on the plate. Thanks
Pry them off carefully
Having the same problem with Kobalt 60v. Don’t have another battery. Where can I get a similar power supply box?
I have a kobalt 80v 2.5ah battery that shows fully charged. When i put it on the charger it appears to be charging, then after about 15 minutes the charger flashes red. When i put the battery in the tool, it functions for a second or two and stops. Any ideas on what could be wrong?
Same exact problem for me also. If I remove and re-insert into the charger it will eventually charge to a green light. But I'm getting horrible run time with my leaf blower, and the cycle where it dies in a few seconds, wait 10 seconds and retry, repeat like 10 times, and then it works a bit longer.
Hello, Does anyone know why the 80-volt Kobalt lawn mower works for a couple seconds before stopping? Even though both of the two batteries have fully finished charging,
What could be the problem if the third led doesn't light up anymore? I have 81 volt measured on the +/-. Thank you very much.
Probably just a bad solder connection for the LED. If the battery is still working and charging okay I wouldn't even worry about it.
My dad developed back problems. Had these batteries sitting for a few years. Wouldn’t charge. No red light on charging dock. I hooked up plus and minus and charged it for a minute. Then put on the factory charging dock. And it is charging. Thanks.
There is a 20 hour "recovery" charge noted in battery manual
Kick ass video and channel man!!!!!
Thanks a bunch Charles 👍glad you enjoyed
what are the l ittle pins you plugged into the battery?
What kind of power supply do you use?
What kind of power supply did you use?
@ElementalMaker i just got a 4ah 80v greenworks battery off ebay that i think has this problem, i need to do what you did in this video, i dont have a dc power supply but i have a 2ah model 80v battery. What kind of wires do i ask for at my local home depot so i can jump the big battery off the little one? I saw another video of that being done, but this video is basically play for play what my 4ah battery is doing.
That's a very very dangerous way to go about it. You should have some kind of current limiting resistor in series to prevent an major malfunction. Even better would be to return the defective battery if you don't have the correct equipment.
@@ElementalMaker Unfortunately the battery was bought on ebay for about 1/3rd the current sale price on amazon/the greenworks website. So Greenworks won't do anything about it. I can send it back to the seller for a refund, but I just feel like it's salvageable and I need to at least try. When I put the battery in the charger, the charger turns on and the green light flashes and it acts like it's charging... but if you leave it charging for longer than 5 minutes it turns off and the light begins flashing red. So I shouldn't use a smaller battery of the same voltage to jump it, what power supply would you recommend in order to do what you're doing? Like, what am I looking for? If its like a $200 piece of equipment then I may as well send the bunk battery back and buy a brand new one, because at that point i'll have spent more than the 4ah battery costs. lol
So I work in an industry that uses 18650 lithium ion batteries those batteries according to the color of the wrap look like Sanyo brand batteries which is a damn good battery which they are a 3450 mAh 10A IMR those would be a damn good battery for a powerwall love your videos keep up the great work
So many success stories. I had a 60v Greenworks that wouldn't charge. Took apart and had 10 cells .5v below others. I charged all to match at 50% level, but still charger blinks red. It works in tool, but just will not charge. Any thoughts as what to do next?
You said you got batteries from the lowes return bin? Do they charge for them? Do they say anything about it?
I was curious about this a year ago.... Still wondering, but I think they removed our bins.
How long to charge it on power supply before you see a increase in power
what type and brand of cells its there?
What type if power supply is this. I have a 40v I need to do
Nice video!
Recently did the same thing with a Dewalt 60V battery I rescued from the return bin. Sadly one cell was dead fully and wouldnt recover. So un clipped it and soldered in another that matched specs and for about 4 bucks I got a new battery. Haha
Nice! Can't beat that deal!
Would've been nice to know what brand and model the cells were. Thanks for the content!
What is the power supply model you have. I like and would like to get the same one
Where can I get that power supply?
I wish you'd showed more clearly what settings to use on your multi-meter and power supply. Maybe add to the video description please
I'm having trouble with an 80V max 5ah, it charges no problem there "apparently" tested its voltage it registered 79 when I put it on my mower it lasts less than 20 minutes. Going crazy and they're expensive, when I put it in the charger no issues all green lights. Any ideas anyone?
does lowes gust let you take old batteries
Are those just nitrile gloves or are they some kind of special electrical gloves?
What metal pieces do you put on the + and - on the battery to hook up to the power supply?
Were you able to get a solution? Don’t have a charger and need to get it powered up
Those batteries in that 80 volt pak are exactly what is in the PC batteries. I have about 50 of them and have bought VRUZEND caps and made many different voltage battery paks. For my 12 volt, paks, actually a bit higher
Do you know what cells are in them?
So do homedepot and lowes just allow anyone to scavenge batteries from the recycle batteries box?
I want to try this.
I asked the store manager permission, and explained why I'm scavenging used 18650's. I also made it clear that I would be returning faulty cells.
Where did you get that power supply?
wow, that is a nice wrench
Can someone suggest a power supply for situations like this? I ordered a Jesverty 120v 3a but I'm not sure it is doing what I need.
I left mine charging in the cold and tried to use it with the chainsaw, went blank and died right away, think I messed it up... Curious to see if I can fix it... Very annoying but lesson learned
damn i expected a radioactive Cobalt Battery,
i am supriesed you handle these normal topics xD
I have several pipe wrenches varying in sizes from the size of your hand to the size of the one you own all look very close to yours my grandfather collected them from yard sales and swap meets
This is a different subject than you were talking about here but wondering if you may be able to help me. I have a new Kobalt 80v battery that says it is fully charged but when I put in the chainsaw it will start the chainsaw but then stops. If I charge it again it will just do the same thing. Do you know what the problem is?
Sounds like it may be a circuitry issue if the battery is new. Do you have any other batteries to test the saw with to be able to check that it's the battery and not the saw? If other batteries work, I'd say bring that one back to lowes while it's new and tell them you want a replacement. If another battery does the same thing in the saw, I'd guess there's some debris jamming up the output shaft causing the battery to sense a current overload and shut down the battery to prevent damage. I'd strip. The saw and be sure nothing is causing extra resistance on it like a bunch of little vines wrapped around the sprocket