You may have noticed that battery performance (in any device that uses batteries) tends to degrade from year to year. If you buy a laptop, and use it for around four years or so, you may notice that it needs to be charged twice as often as before. As a matter of fact, most of our upgrades in technology tend to be because the batteries we used in older technology have failed completely, and we hope for better efficiency in the new models.
You must leave it in this completely discharged condition for up to six hours. After around six hours or so, you need to switch on the mains and recharge the battery until it is once again at full charge.
However, battery failure doesn't have to be such a one-way street, and it is possible to reclaim batteries that seem to have failed, or to vastly improve the performance of batteries that have become old and inefficient.
The process of reclaiming a battery is called reconditioning and it is something that you can do right in the comfort of your own home.
This is knowledge that can save you a great deal of money, and also let you get much more use out of devices that you purchase. However, there are more important reasons to recondition batteries than merely personal gain, as many batteries use materials that are extremely hazardous to the environment. Reconditioning these batteries can reduce the ecological impact of using them in the first place.
So, just how much of an improvement in performance are we looking at?
A lithium-ion battery, used correctly, and reconditioned at the right time, will give you twice the lifespan it would otherwise!
As for nickel-metal hydride batteries, they could easily give you service for up to a decade. What all this amounts to is a saving of hundreds of dollars. With careful use of reconditioning, the metal hydride battery can effortlessly last through five hundred cycles of charge and discharge.
Of course, it goes without saying that you're going to need some basic equipment if you want to recondition batteries.
You're going to need a fairly good charger that's specific to the kind of battery that you wish to recondition, whether it is a nickel-metal hydride battery, or the massive lead-acid battery in your car. You might also need various types of safety gear. If you're reconditioning lithium-ion batteries, for example, you're going to need a fire-proof container or a fire-proof bag in which to put the battery during the charging process.
Nevertheless, all this represents a relatively low investment, compared to the price of buying new batteries year after year.
If you become good at battery reconditioning, it also provides you with a valid source of income.
It is easy to acquire used batteries that have been thrown away, and then recondition these so that they are returned to working order. You can then, either use these batteries yourself or sell them to installations that need batteries.
Most people will gladly pay you up to half the market value of the battery, if you will sell them a reconditioned battery that is in perfect working order.
This is not only good for the environment, but a direct benefit to the person buying the battery, and it also allows for a profit margin for yourself. This profit margin can be expanded into a personal business over time.