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How to Revive a Nickel Cadmium Battery

A nickel cadmium battery is rechargeable, so the cell should be reusable for more than 100 charges under consistent use. Three things that adversely affect battery charging are letting a cell become completely power depleted, putting the cell on a charger too soon and overcharging. Crystals can form inside rechargeable batteries that prevent them from holding a charge, or keeping a charge for a normal length of time. Sometimes, a nickel cadmium battery can be revived and returned to normal service.

Things You'll Need

Power-adjustable battery charger
Hammer

Instructions

Shatter Treatment
- 1
  Turn the battery upside down with the flat, negative end facing upward. Hold the sides between the edge of a workbench and your secondary hand.
- 2
  Smack the bottom once with a smooth hammer head. Contact the base squarely with a firm jolt, but avoid using enough force to dent the base or crack the sides of the battery.
- 3
  Charge the cell as usual to see if it will hold the appointed charge. Field test the nickel cadmium cell to see how long the charge lasts. A fully revived cell will perform equally as well as a new one.
Zap Charge
- 4
  Place the dead cell in a charger with a power setting feature. Set the charge for 20 times the normal battery capacity.
- 5
  Turn the charger on for a split second, and then leave it off for more than a minute to let the cell cool. The high jolt of current can break up the crystals preventing the cell from holding a charge.
- 6
  Repeat the split-second zaps and follow each with cooling time. Make at least 10 attempts at bringing the nickel cadmium battery back up to its rated charge.

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