Leaving a drill battery in charger

[GMU]

I have one of those cordless drills that has a 24 volt battery. I was wondering what would happen if I unplugged the charger from the wall, and left the battery in it. Will the charger discharge the battery if I dont pull it out of the charger?

Also, someone gave me an 18 volt drill that has the identical looking battery, except the battery is an 18 volt, not a 24. That drill did work when he gave it to me, but his charger died, and he just bought a new drill. Can I plug that 18V battery in the 24V charger or will I damage the battery? It does fit into the hole on the charger. I dont think 6 volts is that much different, but it may be for the battery.

GMU

[Paul Franklin]

Remove the battery from the charger if you are going to unplug the charger. Whether or not the charger will discharge the battery when the charger is unplugged depends on its design, but why take the chance?

Don't use a 24 volt charger on an 18 volt battery unless you want to ruin it. Note that some chargers are designed to be able to charge several different voltage batteries. But if it doesn't clearly state on the label or in the instructions that it can do this, don't do it.

HTH,

Paul F.

[ransley]

Old chargers or chargers that dont measure the limit of the battery ruin batteries by slowly cooking them. Most all chargers now made measure the peak voltage of a battery my monitoring just when the volts drop or temp rise, I guess shuttng off at a certain temp. If the charger measures temperature it should work, if it measures a voltage drop other than 24 it should work, if it goes by 24+ v it wont. [Actualy it might be near 28v ] My new 12v Ridgid charger does 9.6.12 and 18v . If you know the + and - leads and hooked up a digital V meter to it while the battery was charging and measured the charge you could see if its ok by what happens. The 18v should peak higher than

18v [near 20v] and the point at which the voltage actualy starts to drop, indicates full charge, that is also the point at which battery temp rises. At full charge you must stop or the battery cooks itself by converting the energy into a mechanical energy, raising its temp. You can use a higher v to charge, you just have to know when to stop. A 1.2v nicad is fully charged at maybe 1.36v. So if the 18v is 15 cell you need more than 20v to charge it.

[DerbyDad03]

Here's a thought: Call the manufacturer and give them the model number of the charger and batteries. I'll bet they know the answer to both questions.

[Jim Yanik]

DerbyDad03 wrote in news: [e-mail]:

they might even have the manuals online. RTFM.

[ransley]

innews: [e-mail]:

A question like that might get you nowhere as phone reps are directed to sell products, tech support or a repair facility might get you the real answer.

[DerbyDad03]

innews: [e-mail]:

- A question like that might get you nowhere as phone reps are directed

- to sell products, tech support or a repair facility might get you the

- real answer.

What a bunch of crap.

Do you really think that if I call DeWalt Customer Service and ask them which batteries their model DW9116 charger will safely handle they're going to try to sell me something? At a minimum they are going to transfer me to tech support or an on-line manual. At best they will get the information themselves and give it to me.

Here, try it: 1-800-4-DEWALT

Let us know what they try to sell you.

[Jim Yanik]

DerbyDad03 wrote in news: [e-mail]:

IMO,one should check for an online service support site BEFORE phoning them. It aint that hard these days.Heck,you're already online making these posts.Instead,some would rather have others do their research for them.

Also,READ any manual you have at home,first.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Yes, but that involves talking to real people.

[DerbyDad03]

innews: [e-mail]:

-- IMO, one should check for an online service support site BEFORE phoning them.

Why?

[KC]

I agree with you Jim. I'll do all I can to keep from talking to those foreign tech supporters who can't comprehend what I'm asking and don't have enough english vocabulary to explain the answers I'm looking for.

KC

[Rudy]

The DeWalt chargers have the battery voltage(s) they will charge written right on the device so you don't have to call.

[Jim Yanik]

DerbyDad03 wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Because then the guy learns to answer his own questions,and learns more from it. You'd be surprised at all you can learn just from RTFM.

It also conserves the phone support resource for truly necessary questions from deserving people.Checking online sources,FAQs first requires no time from company personnel. Aural spoken-word bandwidth is far less than even dialup.

[Jim Yanik]

KC wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I didn't even cite this reason to DerbyDad! Good one!

[terry]

Agree some models (Bosch for example) appear to use the same charger for several voltage ranges. e.g. 13.8, 14 and 18 volt. But you can't assume that and you could cook the the batteries or with certain types overcharge them so they won't discharge properly. (memory effect).

[Jim Yanik]

terry wrote in news: [e-mail]:

generally,OEM battery packs are keyed in some manner so they can only be inserted in appropriate OEM chargers.

[willshak]

on 10/6/2007 9:31 AM Jim Yanik said the following:

After reading your post, I tried putting a Ryobi 12v battery pack into a Ryobi 18v charger, The 12v battery neck is exactly the same size and configuration as the 18v pack, and fit into the 18v charger. However, the charger lights did not come on with the 12v pack, but did with the

18v pack (as they should).

[DerbyDad03]

innews: [e-mail]:

First, let's start with the fact that I have, and have read, every manual for every tool, toy and vehicle I've every owned. OK, maybe I've finally thrown away the manual from that old '66 Rambler, but I think you know what I mean. Add to that the fact that if I buy or am given something that didn't come with a manual, I'll look it up and download it.

However, that w- It also conserves the phone support resource for truly necessary questions from deserving people.

Then in another post you agreed with the following sentiment, calling it a "Good one!"

"I'll do all I can to keep from talking to those foreign tech supporters who can't comprehend what I'm asking and don't have enough english vocabulary to explain the answers I'm looking for."

So which is it? Are the CSR's a precious resource to be reserved for truly deserving people or are they to be avoided because they can't speak your native language? I don't believe you can have it both ways.

[GMU]

No manual. I bought this thing (USED) at an auction. It's some off brand (no-name) drill. But for $20 I cant complain, especially with 3 good 24v batteries, 2 identical drills, plus a charger.

Then I got that 18volt drill that uses the same shaped battery (also an off brand).

I'd think that ALL drill batteries should or should not be left in a charger, which is why I am asking. What is the recommendations? Can the battery voltage drain from being in an unplugged charger? I like leaving it in the charger so I know which battery was recently charged. Otherwise it's a guess...... (the drained ones are set near the charger). Otherwise it comes down to putting masking tape on the battery and labelling it by charge date.

[GMU]

Even if I could locate an actual company for this drill....... Long distance calls are expensive in my area, and most companies put a person on hold for a long time these days. I end up running up a $5 phone bill and wasting a half hour.

And if anyone has any experience with emailing companies lately, 9 out of 10 companies never reply. In fact I just called a company today that I emailed 2 months ago, and never got a reply. (not related to the drills). I wonder if I will get a return phone message?