What voltage does your Ryobi charger output?

The two original batteries for my Ryobi 12V cordless drill either don't take a charge anymore or if they do, poop out relatively quickly. I'm all set to send off the battery packs to have them rebuilt by Primecell when I figure it wouldn't hurt to check to see if the charger itself is working properly.

Ryobi 12V Drill #CTH1202K2 Ryobi 12V Battery Packs #1400652 Ryobi 12 Charge Plus charger (the large one), output 14V, 2.0A #1400666

There are three contacts inside the charging well -- looking down in the well from the top and using a clock face for directionality, there are two contacts opposite each other (positive = 12 o'clock and negative = 6 o'clock) and one at 9:00.

With the charger plugged in, touching the positive and negative contacts with the probes of the VOM meter shows 24.9 volts. Connecting either the postive or negative contact to the third contact at 9:00 yield no voltage.

Are these voltage readings normal for this charger?

As a related aside, checking the depleted batteries by touching the positive and negative terminals with the probes of the VOM show 7V, as does touching the positive and third contact. Touching the negative and third contact shows zero voltage.

I don't know enough about batteries or chargers to evaluate what this data is telling me. While I wouldn't be surprised that new batteries are in order, if the charger isn't working properly and must be replaced also, then that alters the cost criteria sufficiently that simply purchasing a new drill is better value even the current drill is still just fine.

Voltage readings from your charger and any related advice requested.

Reply to
Ladd
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I'll check mine tomorrow when I can get to it (it's in a out building) and get back with you.

My 12 volt Ryobi is still working but loaned it to a neighbor and they ran a battery to low so I only have one good battery for it. Not wanting to lay out big bucks for a battery for an 8 - 10 year old drill I bought a new 18 volt Ryobi which was a big disappointment. They 18 volt batteries don't hold the charge near as long as the old 12 volt did and it doesn't seem to have the power which is probably because the batteries are fading so fast. Think I know why Ryobi has backed off on the price of new 18 volt batteries, guess they figure you wouldn't be so upset with their product if the batteries weren't so high.. Rob Mills ~

Reply to
Rob Mills

Ran into a similar issue with a Milwaukee battery. Someone left it in the bag (attached to the drill) and didn't lock the drill in the "off position. Bag shifted, trigger engaged and battery was run flat dead.

The battery charger refused to start ... so I connected the battery to a current-limited power supply and charged the battery for 30 minutes at about

100 mA. At that point, the Milwaukee charger would start ... it recharged the battery and we've been using it ever since.

Now, I don't imaging you're going to have a labratory-grade power supply lying around ... so:

take your good battery, a pair of 12 volt lightbulbs (fog lamps work great) and a pair of jumper clips. Connect the negative lead from the good battery to the bad one. Connect the positive lead of the good one to the first fog lamp, connect the other lead of the fog lamp to one lead of the second. Take the second lead from the second fog lamp and connect to the positive of the bad battery (You are connecting two lamps in series to serve as a current-limiting resistor). By watching the filaments on the fog lamps you can determine if any current flows. If the lamps glow very dim, you've got a reasonable chance to recover your battery. Don't walk away ... let it sit for 10 minutes or so, then try the bad battery in the charger. If it starts charging, disconnect your good battery from the fog lamps, and put everything away. Don't forget to charge the good battery once you're done.

Note: You don't have to connect the fog lamps to the positive lead ... but you do have to connect the positive of one battery to the positive of the other. The physical structure of the batteries are identical ... just choose a reference point, identify the closest terminal on both and connect together. The rest will follow.

If this works ... pay homage to JOAT and send him the usual retainer.

Regards,

Rick

Reply to
Rick M

My Ryobi 14.4v charger has a 24.2 open voltage.

P.S: Top-posting corrected, turkeyRob.

Reply to
Larry Jaques

Ahhh, that's good to hear. A data point that indicates that my charger is most likely still working properly and that it is the batteries that are the issue.

Thanks!

Reply to
Ladd

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