Originally Posted by
Tourist in MSN
If the phones are really old, maybe you can access the battery? Some Li Ion batteries that drop below a certain voltage level have a circuit inside to prevent them from taking a charge in the future, that is a safety feature. If your battery is really low, you may have reached that point.
I store some of my Li Ion battery devices and spare batteries in the fridge (not the freezer), as I think they self drain slower that way. I check them twice a year to see if they batteries need to be charged up some. And one of my Li Ion batteries would no longer take a charge when I checked them a few weeks ago. Added it to the others that I need to take next time I go to a place that recycles them.
Last spring I replaced the battery in an old laptop, the battery was swollen, which means that it was at the dangerous level to use. Photo below:
When you see stories on the evening news about a laptop computer catching fire in an airplane, it is the batteries that look like the one above that are the problem.
The batteries were fine. They charged perfectly well with any other charger I used. I am well acquainted with batteries, and have replaced the one in my old Macbook Pro four times. My lack of knowledge is not what is at issue. What is at issue is the specific Goal Zero panel I own.
Additionally, the panel would not charge a known to be good power bank. As I said before, I love the concept of solar charging, but I am speaking specifically to my experience with Goal Zero. I have not had good luck with their solar panel. Others I know also have had bad luck with them. My experience with them is a few years old though, and I have not tried a newer model, mainly because I feel I wasted my money buying the panel I have. Their newer panels may be better. I do not know. For me, and what is more important for my touring needs, is that power banks make more sense for my use, since I can carry extras and have plenty of power for my needs.