How do you guys manage tool batteries and charging?

[Cujet]

Dude. I've never seen anything like that.

I've seen mounts wear out.

I've never seen cases disintegrate like that. I guess if you got a decade out of them they don't owe you anything, but mechanical before chemical failure is new to me.

Common on Dewalt batteries. I took pictures of my remaining intact batteries, and my hack job hot glue gun repair the worst one just to keep the cells from falling out. Yes it was that bad! You'll love my quality repair But when you need that battery ASAP, that's what happens.

 

[IndyIan]

Common on Dewalt batteries. I took pictures of my remaining intact batteries, and my hack job hot glue gun repair the worst one just to keep the cells from falling out. Yes it was that bad! You'll love my quality repair But when you need that battery ASAP, that's what happens.

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wow, what kind of temperature do these see in your storage? I try not to use my drill and battery as a hammer, but sometimes at the top of the ladder, it is the closest thing I've got!

 

[UncleDave]

wow, what kind of temperature do these see in your storage? I try not to use my drill and battery as a hammer, but sometimes at the top of the ladder, it is the closest thing I've got!

At first I thought I had to be looking at drop or strike damage, but I dont see the impact point and Cujet isn't fessing up to that.

 

[Snagglefoot]

Nothing fancy here. Two Dewalt chargers, one for the 5AH marked 15 and one for the two 3AH marked 12.They are just the default chargers that came with the tools. I run the tool until it’s dead and charge the battery to 100% and take it out when I remember.

I also have a Milwaukee that does both 2 and 3 AH 3- cell compact batteries. Same practise. If I finish a job before the battery is done, I throw it on the charger to 100%, then take if out when I remember. No battery failures in 6 years of occasional non-pro use.

The chargers are on a wooden shelf.

 

[UncleDave]

Nothing fancy here. Two Dewalt chargers, one for the 5AH marked 15 and one for the two 3AH marked 12.They are just the default chargers that came with the tools. I run the tool until it’s dead and charge the battery to 100% and take it out when I remember.

I also have a Milwaukee that does both 2 and 3 AH 3- cell compact batteries. Same practise. If I finish a job before the battery is done, I throw it on the charger to 100%, then take if out when I remember. No battery failures in 6 years of occasional non-pro use.

The chargers are on a wooden shelf.

Curious if your dewalt chargers have fans? Just had a contractor leave a ton over here and none had fans I was really surprised.
The freebies in kits dont often seem to.

Most people leave stuff on chargers as storage either flashing green or unplugged -problems in this mode are quite rare and people have gotten totally used to trouble free charging and using chargers as storage between sessions.

 

[Cujet]

At first I thought I had to be looking at drop or strike damage, but I dont see the impact point and Cujet isn't fessing up to that.

I won't claim they've not been dropped, but the plastic case degradation is due to materials failure. I'm 100% sure FL heat plays a role. However, my garage is airconditioned.

 

[Snagglefoot]

Curious if your dewalt chargers have fans? Just had a contractor leave a ton over here and none had fans I was really surprised.
The freebies in kits dont often seem to.

Most people leave stuff on chargers as storage either flashing green or unplugged -problems in this mode are quite rare and people have gotten totally used to trouble free charging and using chargers as storage between sessions.

No fans on these.

 

[UncleDave]

No fans on these.

This is interesting to me. Even the contractors out here use fanless deals and big surprise they consistently lose batteries.
Your average guy wont but extended hot cyclical kills them.

Almost all of the milwaukee's lack blow through cooling architecture - actually only their very latest 3 batteries do.

Ive been used to fans and batteries with blow through architecture for almost 20 years now.

The XGT chargers dedicate a fan to the battery and the circuit board.

 

[UncleDave]

Common on Dewalt batteries. I took pictures of my remaining intact batteries, and my hack job hot glue gun repair the worst one just to keep the cells from falling out. Yes it was that bad! You'll love my quality repair But when you need that battery ASAP, that's what happens.

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It seems just the act of sliding the tool around and setting it down cracked the shell. If they bake in a garage then thats going to add to your pain.

Makita molds in a wear surface with a few MM of thickness.
These 2 are from 2018, so a few years younger than yours for sure - they came in a kit with a single charger.
These remodeled two houses and dont owe me squat, still work great.

They are worn but not beat and I'm certain they have lost capacity but still offer great performance and still my go to for any long outreach or overhead type work. I cut hundreds of twisted nails (nail screw combo) out of my floor with a grinder using these.

 

[dlundblad]

No fast charger for my Dewalt or Milwaukee. My Dewalt blower with the 60v battery came with a normal slow charger. My Milwaukee SDS came with the rapid charger and I won’t use it. Not a fan because I feel they are harder on batteries. I have enough to last me so recharge speed has never been an issue.

Uncle Dave. You have many batteries. More than I have ever seen. You have no reason for a fast charger. Lol

 

[UncleDave]

No fast charger for my Dewalt or Milwaukee. My Dewalt blower with the 60v battery came with a normal slow charger. My Milwaukee SDS came with the rapid charger and I won’t use it. Not a fan because I feel they are harder on batteries. I have enough to last me so recharge speed has never been an issue.

Uncle Dave. You have many batteries. More than I have ever seen. You have no reason for a fast charger. Lol

I'm with you. Aside from time, I've never been punished by charging anything as slow as possible and I make that part of my strategy whenever I can employ it. With my 18"s I've only ever had the fast chargers , that said I keep and charge them in a cool place.

I have a bunch for sure -I think I'm at 25 now split between 18 and 40V. This was result of having a great local shop that made sure I was always in on some kind of deal whenever I bought anything.

There are a few scenarios a year where I do need to fast charge.
All of these involve multiple people working at once typically spring and fall, and maybe a special project or two in between.
Sometimes the wife and I will double team trimming the wild part of property and well use brush blades on the trimmer heads - one of us will take the 40 and the other the 2x18 - Its not uncommon to have 3 sets of 2 or more on and off the chargers running like this.

Charger wise Ive got 10 ports split evenly between 2 voltages.
LXT (18V) 1x 18 fast single + 2x18 fast duals - so 5 ports of high speed 18V
XGT (40v) 1x40 slow single + 2 single bay fast fasts - and 1 dual port fast - so also 5 ports of 40 charging.

The XGT chargers will charge LXT batteries with an adaptor, but I've only got one " slow charger" - this is about .5c and the fast ones about 1C so regardless of brand chemistry happens and I do what I can to charge them slow. I also pull them off at 80% if I catch them in time.

 

[Albin]

The Ridgid and Milwaukee chargers are on a shelf I built for them. The Hercules charger I just bought hasn't been installed yet; it's just sitting the bench.


BTW, speaking which: I have an extra Milwaukee 20v charger that I'm not using. Anyone wants it; I'm 10 miles north of the AL/TN border near I-65.

 

[Bart_9]

How does your charger indicate it's at 80%? Which brand are you using?

Agree - I'd pay more for the ability to pick my finished State of charge.

I got no notification of your reply so sorry for late reply, if i had not checked i never would have seen it, argh.

None indicate it, i do it manually, i check the voltage and have measured how long it takes to charge to that voltage, effectively how many hours to get to 80% charge or 4V per battery. So for my 5S Ryobi packs 20V is about 80% charge and they charge at about a volt an hour, so if its at 16V then 4 hours to get to 20V.

 

[UncleDave]

I got no notification of your reply so sorry for late reply, if i had not checked i never would have seen it, argh.

None indicate it, i do it manually, i check the voltage and have measured how long it takes to charge to that voltage, effectively how many hours to get to 80% charge or 4V per battery. So for my 5S Ryobi packs 20V is about 80% charge and they charge at about a volt an hour, so if its at 16V then 4 hours to get to 20V.

No prob. It makes sense if you just pull it at a fixed time.

All my Makita chargers have an 80% indication - its the light sequence on the 18's and a blinking to solid blue on the 40V chargers.

Pretty sure a few of the Dewalts have an 80/20 indicator bar on them.

 

[Donald]

The most important thing is to have the charger in a place where wife can put back the Milwaukee M18 battery to charge after using handheld blower. I keep all the batteries charged. And I only buy Milwaukee or Ryobi brand batteries. No aftermarket ones. Been there, done that.

My charger is on a low shelf on the path to take my dog outside. So I see it every time I take her out. Maybe 15 to 20 times a day.

 

[SupremePossum]

No prob. It makes sense if you just pull it at a fixed time.

All my Makita chargers have an 80% indication - its the light sequence on the 18's and a blinking to solid blue on the 40V chargers.

Pretty sure a few of the Dewalts have an 80/20 indicator bar on them.

Now you mention it, the newer Milwaukee M18 chargers do the same thing!

 

[SupremePossum]

The most important thing is to have the charger in a place where wife can put back the Milwaukee M18 battery to charge after using handheld blower. I keep all the batteries charged. And I only buy Milwaukee or Ryobi brand batteries. No aftermarket ones. Been there, done that.

My charger is on a low shelf on the path to take my dog outside. So I see it every time I take her out. Maybe 15 to 20 times a day.

Yep, aftermarket batteries are a house fire waiting to happen

They are a false economy

 

[UncleDave]

Now you mention it, the newer Milwaukee M18 chargers do the same thing!

What is the mechanism they use to indicate it to the user?

 

[SupremePossum]

The light on the chargers is the following

* Flashing Red = Waiting to Charge
* Red = Charging
* Flashing Green = 80%
* Green = Full

 

[UncleDave]

The most important thing is to have the charger in a place where wife can put back the Milwaukee M18 battery to charge after using handheld blower. I keep all the batteries charged. And I only buy Milwaukee or Ryobi brand batteries. No aftermarket ones. Been there, done that.

My charger is on a low shelf on the path to take my dog outside. So I see it every time I take her out. Maybe 15 to 20 times a day.

I would guess the most commonly cycled battery in most guys houses/garages is used on the blower.