Lessons learned

A couple of things I learned from the events described in my previous post.

1. Cells at zero volts may not be dead after all
2. Cells at zero volts will not charge from a full cell connected in parallel
3. Bloated cells may actually shrink back to size
4. Bloating does not automatically mean internal soft shorts
5. CALB LiFePO4 cells can take hell of a beating

Point number two also casts a shadow on parallel bottom balancing. I think it probably still works if you start with cells in roughly equal voltage, definitely all cells above the bottom balancing voltage, but it will not cause lower voltage cells to rise to a higher voltage (or charge from it's buddies).