Harmony One Battery Repair

If you have a Harmony One universal remote you may have ran into the problem of the defective lithium batteries that would bloat and become so large they you have to pry them out. This risks ruining your expensive remote that will control everything from a Blu-Ray player to a gas log to your grandpa's pace maker.

Pictured is the battery that came out of the remote. You can see the damage it received from being pried out from the remote with a pocket knife and how it has bulged out.

The battery sold for this remote by Logitech will run $25 to $35. In addition to that, this model of remote has been replaced by a newer version and I'm not sure whether or not they use the same battery.

The cheap battery pictured here was $8. It says Logitech on it, but that's likely a counterfeit sticker. As you can see it will not charge with the charger base that comes with the remote so you must buy a separate charger. It's a pain in the butt. Who wants to remove the battery from the remote every time it needs a charge? Not this fella.

Open the battery case of the bloated battery and have a look at the circuit with the charge terminals. Next, very carefully open the case of the cheap replacement battery. Carefully because you'll be reusing that case later. Notice it doesn't have a circuit at all, just a few terminal pads.

Using a knife or a pair of metal snips remove the circuit and leave yourself plenty of the metal ribbon to reattach it to the new battery terminals.

The new battery had a thin layer of cardboard to insulate the positive battery ribbon from shorting out on the negative terminal (which is the entire outside of the case). Clean the terminals and apply a bead of solder. Then attach the ribbons to the new battery.

You can reapply the case and keep it in place with super glue. I didn't have any on hand so I sealed it back together by melting the case together.

Slip the battery into the remote, throw it on the charger, and provided you got it soldered together well, you'll have a remote with a battery that functions properly for less than half the price of the official battery.

Happy remote controlling.