Bad cell in matched pack?

[mugenX5]

I recently purchased 6 matched packs of Peak / Sanyo RC3300 cells. I have one pack that supposedly charges but when I went to run it for my first qualifier, there was absolutely no power at all. After, I figured out it was the pack and not a hung brush which was my first thought. I charged the pack again , this time checking the temps. Four cells are temping right around 90f while two cells are temping 140f.

These 6 packs range from 1.12 - 1.15. Not the best numbers, but they're new and better than what I was using. Plus, they were on sale.

Could I have purchased a bad matched pack? Could these packs have been sitting on the shelf for the last 3 years and somehow gone bad?

Any help is appreciated.

[SS Pede]

I guess if the packs were sitting around for a while and were discharged unevenly, a cell or two could reverse themselves.

[highroller]

RC3300 are old anyway depending on which generation they are. There was the regular Sanyo 3300 (very low voltage output) and the Sanyo 3300HV (higher voltage). Any cell will loose some of it power sitting around, sometimes they don't charge very well the first couple of times.

The proper way of determining if cells are indeed bad: first discharge the pack and if you have a equalizing tray place the pack in it until the bulbs dims or each cell is near .05 volts. Allow pack to cool for an hour or two and now charge, while the pack is charging take a voltage reading of each cell for a good pack voltage should be no more than .03 volt if voltage varies more than that there is a problem allow pack to peak and find the voltage at peak divide peak ready by number of cells should be around 1.45 or higher. Now discharge the pack and take voltage reading of each cell - all should be very close if a cell or two are lower that is your bad cell. Usually if you take voltage after pack has charge cells may not show and differences - differences in temperatures is sometimes an indication but not always. It's will cells are charging or under loads when you can cell problems.

As certain cells were changed and improved the market was left with thousands of cells that couldn't be sold, so you see lower prices on them which is good for the basher or person who can't afford or need the higher priced batteries. You can still buy what you think is the newer generation of cell and be stuck with an older version that they had sitting on shelf. That's what happened to me, purchased what I thought were GP3300 third generation cells and ended up with some that were the older cells.