Kobalt 80V Battery Recovery and Teardown - ElementalMaker 

in case you don't have a power supply you can use the working 80V battery and a resistor to burn down the shop

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.

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).

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!

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!

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.

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 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.

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."

Just bought one of these (along with the mower) and came to RU-vid to find out what's inside. Now I don't have to tear it down myself. Thanks for the video!

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!!

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.

This was just what I needed. I have EXACTLY this problem with a KOBALT lawnmower battery.

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.

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.

always good too see a video from this dude ! keep it up mate, greetings from iceland

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.

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.

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.

Where can i get a power supply like what you used to recover the battery

I've charged em up with a low wattage incandescent lamp a brige rectifier and a literally plugged in the wall. Charge to about 70V then pop in the charger to charge normally. Definitely take it apart and measure the cells to make sure you don't have a flat cell or two.

I've got the same weedwhacker plus the lawnmomer, chainsaw, and 4 batteries. They all work quite well.

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

Word on the street AVE has a hell of a tongue.

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.

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.

Sounds like you need a suicide charger. It requires a 25-ish watt incandescent light bulb, bridge rectifier, and an AC mains plug. You hook the bulb in series with the bridge rectifier. The bulb limits the maximum current and the bridge converts the current limited AC into pulsating DC. The name of the device is self explanatory.

Yes. Snapper has electric garden supplies. My Briggs and Stratton batteries are dead/totally not charging properly. I’m going to try out your trick.

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

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 ?

GreenWork is absolutely identical, except position of those two rails closer to bottom. So it won't fit until you remove the rails

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 that EXACT same wrench! It's great!

@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.

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

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

May I suggest checking cell level voltage first always before even attempting to charge. You say you are interested in building a wall. You May benefit with more knowledge on handling lithium. Be safe. 🎉

I like that PS - mine won't go that high. One of my 80b 2AH batteries is wack. When I try to use it , it will power the tool (mower, chainsaw, blower, etc) for 1-2 seconds, then I get the dreaded BEEP BEEP which generally means it needs a charge. Oddly the light all 3 lights are on. When I place it on the charger, the fan comes on, and light #1 blinks. Which is also strange since it showed near full-charge. It after about 10 minutes, all 3 lights go out, but the charger fan continues to run- Which should never happen. And it acts the same in the tools no matter what. I tried it in the blower on very low power hoping to coerce it to work at low current but no joy.. My plan is to try to DISCHARGE it- I've had some success in the past getting a good DEA battery, and after that it worked. Sorta the opposite of your success here..

I too felt excited for you when that worked...I need this power supply :)

How do you get away with digging in the Lowe's recycling bin? Every time I dig through the recycling an employee fights me off with a broom like a raccoon digging through the trash

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

I've got that same wrench! I just bought it at an indoor flea market for $3!👍🏼

I really appreciate this video. Thank you very much!

The Kobalt & Greenworks batteries have different slots so they will not fit each other unless you modify the tool or battery housing. There is a vid on how to do it. Good vid. Thanx.

Completely professional and personal individual care !!

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.

You said you got batteries from the lowes return bin? Do they charge for them? Do they say anything about it?

I just asked about recommendations for a power supply. By chance, do you ever perform this service. That I could send my battery to you for fixing?

what are the l ittle pins you plugged into the battery?

Can you send me a link to that power supply? Thank you.

Recovery worked just as you said. However, the battery only works for about 5 -7 minutes before needing to be charged. The LED's show two lights on. Any suggestions ? You are doing a great job. Keep it up !

I have a 2.5 Amp 80v Kobalt that shows full charge but as soon as I put it in a tool and turn it on, it goes to zero, no lights at all. When I put it back in the charger, it goes right back to showing full charge or two lights and soon full. Dead cell(s)? Electronics gone bad? It reads 80.7 volts showing three lights and showing no lights. Oddly enough when I try to turn on a tool and the lights all go dark, they light back up as if full charge again when I take the battery out. The chainsaw shows bad battery and will not turn on at all.

So you could have used the good battery as a supply feed to the bad battery right?

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.

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?

What type of gloves are you using? Want to make sure I buy the right protection gear.

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

I fucking love your channel thank you so much for the hard work putting the videos out

damn i expected a radioactive Cobalt Battery, i am supriesed you handle these normal topics xD

Nice video - thanks. My 80v Kobalt is dead - won't charge. I think its below the voltage threshold, don't have have a DC power supply but I do have a second 80v Kobalt battery. Clip them together and perhaps it will raise the voltage where it will start charging again. Episode 2..?

Activated carbon vid 👀 came from your comment on Cody’s lab, can’t wait for it lol

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?

Would've been nice to know what brand and model the cells were. Thanks for the content!

Are those just nitrile gloves or are they some kind of special electrical gloves?

I’ve got an 80v push mower, mower runs 5-10 minutes. It dies, put on charger, charges to full. Same thing, works 5-10 minutes then stops again. Advice?

I hooked up the batteries for less than 60 seconds and the dead battery has a burnt smell now... Is this a bad thing?

Thanks you saved me from buying anther battery.

What power supply did you use? I have this same issue with my battery!

So, I have a battery like yours, holds a charge but dies at 77 volts. Got any ideas for this?

Thanks for video. Very informative. I'm not very handy. To which business type does one go to to get this service done?

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

They are rebuildable, the knew batteries are way better. But you really scored

What kind of power supply did you use?

wow, that is a nice wrench

best to test then charge each cell individually and if they don't recover simply weld or solder in a new fresh cell.

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.

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.

Mines 78v but won't stay running in a tool for more than 2-5 seconds, any ideas?

Cool content as always

Hell yeah

Nice video!

What kind of power supply do you use?

Nice video, very informative. My DC power supply is 30 volts I think. If I get the Red light, I’m down to one battery, I put it in the freezer for 10 minutes or so, and it charges right up. I only started this process this week. Now the other battery is at 81.3 volts, + to - or Charge to negative. That battery does the typical Start the Motor, then the Mower Motor dies. I took it apart trying to look for any thing obviously loose, nothing to the naked eye. All tiny surface mount, ad a few processors. I’m pretty sure I dropped one of the batteries, waist high, you think it would be this one. Again I don’t see anything loose. Can individual cells get “weak” so I see the 80+ volts but they fail under the load of the motor? When placed on the charger, all lights green no fan as you would expect with a fully charged battery. Thanks for reading.

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 kept putting it in the charger over and over and eventually it got up to 68volts and has 1 bar on the battery, but it doesn't seem to go any higher than that. Just red flashing light, I'm to the point of just throwing it out lol

loved that awesome battery i wish to have one of those

Dang, my battery is at 65v and the charger still has blinking red light. I think the bms is causing my battery to not charge using the bench power supply. :/

What do you put in the battery to hook to the alligator clips?

What size spade would you use to charge this from the power supply?

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 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?

So I have a green works battery that died (as well as a 3rd party one). They both died when trying to use with my weed wacker. My guess is that there was a fault in the week wacker. I noticed in your video that you mentioned a fuse. Do you think that just got blown and all I need is a new fuse?

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.

What is the trick to remove that 80V max Battery from the charger port?

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?

It's a good source you have for batteries where you are :-) Taking cells from the recycle bin from a shop in the uk would be considered theft,.

Kick ass video and channel man!!!!!

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?

does lowes gust let you take old batteries

Grease that wrench! I have a twerpy 80V greenworks that will only be jumped to to two bars, still blinks red. Any suggestions?