Correct me if I am wrong. Essentially if the cells aren't reaching maximum voltage, or if a cell is bad (weaker voltage) then the battery has a shorter duration use. How do you know when to retire the battery? Obviously if the duration is extremely short, but are there voltages that correspond to such poor battery performance? Thank you
You are correct if you have cell imbalance the battery can't reach its full potential. The lower cell will never charge as high as the rest. If they battery is heavily used the cells have poor resistance too and the battery will drain quickly . If this is the case the battery is for retirement. You can live with cell imbalance it's not ideal but not near as bad as cells reaching the end of their useful life.
Funny, I charged all 10 of my batteries and placed them in order of highest voltage to lowest. Interestingly enough they lined up in year manufactured as well. “20 & “21 being the highest with all cells reaching 4.05v and 2013 being the lowest at 3.55v. The decision was made to write “suspect” on the 2013 battery as it feels like I only get 30min of intermittent driving with it before its too weak to sink a screw. Thanks for your video, and a good day to you!
Yeah "but which one" is the first cell, or the second cell.. etc.. You can test them individually, but then you will still have to figure out and determine which one of those you've tested are which inside the casing.
When you open the casing you will see the circuit board marked positive negative 4v 8v you will be able to see where it is in the pack following the connections