Li Ion Battery Rebuilder

[Peter Stahl]

Does anyone know of a company that rebuild Li-Ion batteries way cheaper than new ones?

[Curt Harms]

This was probably over a year ago but Battery Rebuilders was asked this question. He said he hadn't figured out a way to come up with either better or cheaper rebuilds than new batteries from the manufacturer so he wasn't offering anything Li-Ion. I wonder if this will change as manufacturers discontinue Li-Ion batteries for superseded models but the superseded tools still function fine. At that point there may be some demand for Li-Ion rebuilds. Li-Ion tools probably haven't been around long enough for this to happen yet.

[Jerome Hanby]

Just theorizing here, but this seems similar to the idea of refilling HP ink jet cartridges. They have the "print head" and associated electronics built into the ink cartridge, one reason HPs generally have better print than their competitors. But this thing is engineered as a consumable, so just because you can refill it with ink doesn't mean that the "print head" is going to hold up. If you are one of those that get your HP cartridges refilled, I'm sure you run into the occasional cartridge that fails the initial test they run before refilling them.

Back to Lion batteries, they also have on board electronics. And, while they are not quite as a "consumable" as ink jet cartridges, I would imagine that the electronics in the battery are designed with eventual dispose and replace in mind. To really rebuild a Lion pack, I would think you would want to replace the electronics too else risk a failure that kills the battery (or maybe a risk of fire, I don't know for sure). "Regular" batteries are pretty simple and are nothing but individual cells and connections, thus the rebuild is pretty simple and effective. Any "brains" are in the charger. All of that leads up to a more sophisticated technician needed to evaluate and rebuild the Lion packs, a lot more components needed (whether stocked or ordered as needed), and possibly worries over liability if the electronics fail in a rebuilt battery pack.