When you look at the charger you instantly think something must be wrong…Makita isn’t much better-but at least their flashing light is green. Metabo HPT decided that a flashing Red light would be a good standard of operation with no battery inserted. Preferably, I’d only see a solid green light when a battery is fully charged. This strikes us as backward since I want to only see a light when a battery is inserted. Hilti, Ridgid, and Bosch have green lights on at all times (with no battery inserted). Some manufacturers decided to initiate solid or blinking lights for no reason at all. There are, apparently, no standards with respect to LED lights on battery chargers. One thing we noticed once all the chargers were together was that some were…really annoying. On others, where the circuit board was too close, we used a Southwire heavy-duty cable tie to secure them to our plywood. This further solidified the fact that a small manufacturing tweak could have added this feature. For some, we actually took them apart and drilled our own keyhole mounting points. In order to mount these chargers we did a combination of “tricks”. Here are the notable offenders (That’s right, we’re calling you out!): As it turns out, many of these battery chargers don’t include keyhole mounts for wall mounting. We can’t run them all at once-but we’ve never needed to. This gave us plenty of current for simultaneously recharging multiple packs from different manufacturers. On the back of the plywood, we mounted two industrial power strips which we connected to two separate 20-amp circuits. When we started collecting them all, we decided the best way to serve our particular needs was to mount them to a piece of 3/4-inch plywood. Since we do literally hundreds of hands-on power tool reviews each year, having access to every charger was critical. Packs and chargers that use air cooling efficiently include Makita, Metabo, Metabo HPT, Husqvarna, EGO, and Bosch Core18V battery packs. Consequently, chargers with fans that don’t actually circulate air through a pack aren’t really doing much to speed up the charging process. Running air over a sealed battery pack doesn’t do much. Obviously, the packs need to be designed with venting to facilitate this. Some of the fastest chargers on the market, however, use fans to pull air through the battery packs. Some manufacturers employ heat sinks and other physical technologies to help dissipate heat in packs. Yes, even though that light is on, your battery is just sitting there. If you just completed a high torque/high-speed application, that battery pack may not truly start charging for as much as 10-30 minutes. This is an issue as many packs hit the charger immediately after use. No lithium-ion battery pack can be recharged until the temperature is down to a safe level. For any Pros and power users wanting to increase productivity, this could rock your world. Knowing that can decrease your charging time should you choose to purchase a more advanced model. If the battery still can’t be recharged, you'll likely need to replace it.Also, there are chargers that exceed the capabilities of the basic models included with tool kits. If it doesn’t take a charge, repeat the jumpstarting only this time, leave it connected to the car charger for 10 or 12 seconds. If it does, leave it in place for an hour or until it’s fully charged. Place the dead battery into the tool’s battery charger to see if it starts charging. Now, plug the charger into an electrical outlet, but only charge the battery for five or six seconds. If necessary, use smaller jumper wires to make the connections. Again, be sure to connect positive to positive, and negative to negative. Set the car charger to no more than 20 amps, then connect the charger to the terminals on the dead battery. This jumpstart method is similar to the one mentioned above, except that you use a car battery charger to revive the dead tool battery. If the battery can’t be recharged, you can try jumpstarting it again, but chances are the battery is beyond help and must be replaced. This YouTube video gives a good play-by-play on how to attempt this method. Leave the battery in the charger for an hour or until it’s fully charged. If the battery starts receiving a charge, then the jumpstart worked. Wait about five minutes or so, then disconnect the wires and place the dead battery into the tool’s battery charger. What you’re essentially doing is transferring power from the live battery to the dead one. Then, take two short insulated wires and connect them in matching polarity between the two batteries: positive to positive, and negative to negative. Play icon The triangle icon that indicates to play The Tool Battery Methodįor this first method you’ll need one fully charged battery, which you’ll use to jumpstart the dead battery.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |