Leaving Battery In Charger Long Term?

[DerbyDad03]

Think back to the many discussions in this group about Smart Chargers and whether it's OK to leave the batteries in the chargers "long term".

I just received a 24V B&D Trimmer as a gift.

The instructions say:

Storage Recommendation

1. Store trimmer: a.) with the battery removed and on the charger b.) in a cool dry place c.) out of reach of children

2 . For prolonged storage such as over the winter, the battery should be fully charged and then removed from the charger. It should be charged again just prior to using it in the Spring. Store as referenced in a, b and c above.

So, let's assume the last line is a typo/oversight. (You can't take the battery out of the charger and then store it as "referenced in

*a*" which says it should be on the charger.)

Let's assume that they don't want the battery to be charging all winter, but that it can be left on the charger between uses, even after it is fully charged. There is a LED on the charger that goes off when the battery is fully charged, so it must be a Smart Charger, right?

Other than the waste of electricity (the charger uses a wall wart) why do you think they recommend removing the battery from the charger for the long, cold winter?

[Roy]

=3D=3D Contact B & D support. =3D=3D

[Bob F]

Either the trimmer draws some current when unused, or they are concerned about your children hurting themselves with it.

[DerbyDad03]

Huh?

You do realize that I'm talking about leaving the battery in the charger vs. not leaving the battery in the charger, right?

Neither the trimmer nor children have anything to do with this discussion.

[DerbyDad03]

Now what fun would that be? All I would get is some corporate-speak answer.

I'm sure this group will produce a much livelier discussion. ;-)

[notbob]

Cuz if you leave it in, it'll kill it dead.

I left my AEG (Milwaukee) screwdriver:

....battery in the charger for about 6 mos over one particular Fall/Winter. Deader'n a doornail come Spring. Hadda buy new battery ($30). Same happened to a Canon camera battery ($40!). I no longer leave batteries in chargers for more than about 12 hrs max.

nb

[hrhofmann]

Maybe they want the battery not to be in a freezing environment.

[Bob F]

Oops. My error.

[Steve B]

I don't know. What I do know is that there are lots of different batteries out there, made by different companies, and lots of different chemical and metal configurations. Generally, each manufacturer will tell you what they think is the best thing to do with their product. And they vary wildly as to what you can and cannot do and get away with.

I have a charger that is for AA nimh batteries that I use for photography. They get heavy use, as some days I take 500 photos. They get recharged a lot. Sometimes they get too hot to hold, even though they have the red light that "should" go out when it is fully charged, and the charger shuts off to that bay.

I would say that they recommend it for some reason that it might overheat and be unsafe if you left it plugged all winter, or the charger doesn't have that good of performance when it comes to sensing the fullness and effectively shutting off.

Man up. Follow the directions. But I'm with you. Sometimes it makes no sense. You do it right, and they don't charge right or at all. You do it wrong, and they hold a charge for two weeks.

Go figger.

Steve

visit my blog at

A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult.

[Steve B]

Maybe they want the battery not to be in a freezing environment.

reply:

Wasn't a trick on the old NiCad batteries to put them in the freezer overnight before charging them to get them to hold more juice?

[mm]

I'm sure he did. If you read your question and his answer again, I don't know if he's right but I hope you'll see that it's an answer to your question. :)

You asked "Why?" That opens the door to anything he thinks is the answer, including children and trimmers.

[tnom]

It's not a typo. For prolonged storage keep the battery off the charger. If you anticipate using the trimmer keep the battery on the charger.

The battery will self discharge reactivating the charger. This continual topping off or partial cycling the battery is not good for the battery.

[mike]

There is a LED on the charger that goes off

How did you reach that conclusion? I've seen MANY chargers with lights that go off that are DUMB chargers. A typical older, that's all I ever get, garden appliance or tool has a thermal cutout that opens when the battery gets HOT. the charger remembers that it happened. Ignoring all the bad stuff about that...I've had several occasions where the battery was ruined when the power glitched and the charger "forgot" and decided to fast charge a fully charged battery until it got hot enough to open the cutout. Unfortunately, it vented first.

[ransley]

B&D has a history of telling everyone that keeping tools in chargers wont hurt batteries, start back with the dustbuster that always kept charging the battery, and all died quickly. You have to test the batterys condition to know if it stops charging, one indication it doesnt is if it keeps the battery warm but a voltmeter is better, if each 1.2v cell is kept peaked at 1.3-1.35v then its cooking the batteries to an early death. I dont trust chargers until I test them, Voltage peaking chargers are the most accurate but temperature is also used and those sensors can be wrong. My Ryobi charger is not top line it over charges, my old makita and sony do not. To be safe I would not keep a battery in any charger as well the charger will be a constant cost if left plugged in. Id say test voltage and temp but unplug to be safe and save electricity. Tool companies make more money by selling you a new battery every 3-4 years, but by taking care of my packs I have 15-18 yr old Makita packs that can still run some screws. This "leave in the charger its ok" statement is risky and I feel its wrong

[LSMFT]

If you are not using something, put it away. You don't have to follow their recommendations. Leave it in the charger if you prefer. They just wouldn't want your battery charger on if you got sick and went to the nursing home for the rest of your life with the battery charging all the while. It could short out and start a fire after a few years.

[DerbyDad03]

re:

Me: "so it must be a Smart Charger, right?

You: "How did you reach that conclusion?"

Didja notice the question mark after "right"?

It wasn't so much a conclusion as an assumption that I wanted verified

- thus the question mark.

[DerbyDad03]

re: "It's not a typo."

Pehaps you misunderstood what I wrote - which was copied from the manual.

For long term storage it says the battery should be "removed from the charger" - which we all agree with.

However, the last line of the long term storage section says "Store as referenced in a, b and c above."

If you reference "a above" (from the short term storage section) it says to leave the battery *in* the charger between uses. I don't see how you can remove the battery from the charger for long term storage

*and* store as referenced in "a" which says to leave it in the charger.

"Store as referenced in b and c" (cool, dry and out of reach of children) makes sense, but "Store as referenced in *a*, b and c" doesn't. That's why I say it's a typo.

re: "The battery will self discharge reactivating the charger. "

How long do you think that will take? I think this is key to proper storage.

The manual says to store the battery in the charger between uses, but B&D has no clue how often or for how long any given user will operate the unit. Desert dwellers might use it once a month while rain forest folks might use it every day. City folk might trim for 30 seconds while 2 acres of landscaped gardens might need the full run time. Mix and match those 4 scenarios and you've got all sorts of storage/run time combinations. Even their time frame of "over the winter" is not well defined. "Over the winter" in Northern Canada is a lot longer than "over the winter" in North Carolina.

Knowing how long the battery will take to slightly self discharge and restart the charger is really the only way of knowing how long it can safely be left in the charger.

[DerbyDad03]

Feel free to agree, but I showed the manual to 2 other people - without telling them what I thought - and they both had the same reaction that I had.

Consider the fact that Paragraph 2 is related to "prolonged

*storage*". First they tell you how to handle the "charging of the battery prior to and following prolonged storage", then they tell you how to *store* it.

Why would they tell you (again) how to store it for short periods in the paragraph dealing with prolonged storage?

If "and then" are implied words, and are actually repeated instructions for short term storage, then where are the instructions on how to *store* the battery for a "prolonged period"?

[tnom]

It's not the long term storage section! It's section #2 which deals with both long term storage and the begriming of the season storage.

[tnom]

It's not a typo

Section one deals with storage of the trimmer

Section two deals with storage of the battery