soldering on nimh battery

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My wife has this facial scrubber that won't charge anymore, i tore it apart and found 2 nimh aa batteries soldered onto the circuit board tabs with a solder strip on the bottom making them in series. I don't know if its safe to solder on replacement nimh batteries. I would never try it on a lithium ion battery. Should I ?
 
All batteries will have degradation due to chemistry changes under heat. There is not a volatile organic electrolyte that will break down at low temperatures as in Li-ion. I would do it but be very cognizant still of how much heat youre putting in - it flows axially very fast as it is in the plane of the current collector.
 
Check out cordless phone batteries. I have retrofitted them for many non phone applications.
 
It might be a good idea to be sure there is no oily surfaces by wiping it with some alcohol, and then rough up the surfaces on the batteries with many scratches. Scratches make soldering to a new battery much easier and you will not have to keep the heat on the battery as long as it would take if the surfaces were not scratched.
 
Perfectly safe to do. I used to build my own batteries packs for RC boats and planes use 8-12 NiMH cells and never had a problem but whatever you do stay away from Li batteries
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Best way to do it is with an arc welder but flux welding works as well.
 
I had never heard the wife's instrument being refereed as "facial scrubber" though :)
 
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If you have not bought the batteries yet, mattwithcats is correct about getting cells with the solder tabs already on them.

Also, look for a "Batteries Plus" store in your area, they can sell you the cells with tabs or even make a pack for you. They usually have a spot welder that will make the small spot welds on metal straps and build the entire pack for you.

BTW, one of the things to keep in mind is that if you have bare wire or uninsulated metal straps as the connections between the cells, be sure they can not touch the outer part of the cells.
 
Originally Posted By: JimPghPA
If you have not bought the batteries yet, mattwithcats is correct about getting cells with the solder tabs already on them.




Thanks to both of you! I did'nt know i could get them with tabs!
 
Originally Posted By: Vikas
I had never heard the wife's instrument being refereed as "facial scrubber" though :)

Ya have now ;>O
 
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