Using the wrong brand cordless batt charger

Nov 28, 2007 6 Replies
A

I bought a complete kit of cordless tools at an auction. The tools do work but the batteries are nearly dead. They are 14V. The kit was used, but complete except for the battery charger. Later in the same auction I bought a cordless drill, also 14V but a different brand. That one has the charger. The batteries from the first kit dont fit in the charger, but I opened the charger and it would be easy enough to run a few wires out of it, and I could easily make a wooden thing with a few pieces of copper strapping to make contact with the batteries. Of course I know the polarity must be correct.



My question is whether these chargers are all the same as far as current (amp/miliamp) output? Obviously the voltages match, so is there any reason not to do this? You dont need to give me a speech about safety. I know to do the work with the charger unplugged from the wall outlet, and how to check for proper battery polarity with a meter.



Thanks



Alvin


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T

Hi, There are few different kind of batteries with diferent characteristics for charging. If they are same kind, why not?

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C

On Tue, 27 Nov 2007 20:42:08 -0600, snipped-for-privacy@notmail.com wrote Re Using the wrong brand cordless batt charger:

Not very likely. Also the required charging charastics of the batteries may be different.

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S

Cordless tools typically have nicad, or lithium ion batteries. If the charger and the tools are both nicad, it should work just fine. Or if they are both lithium ion.

Might be worth buying one tool to get the charger, or maybe find another charger on Ebay. I had a look a while back for my 14.4 volt Miluakee drill, and folks are selling chargers on Ebay. If you got a good price on the tools, maybe just go buy another charger?

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R

Some old chargers dont measure the peak v of a pack and overcharge, some measure temp and that cant be done if you move the pack. Buy the charger needed unless you can figure out how your charger works to measure peak voltage. the best way is a seperate v meter on the pack that you watch and stop charging just when voltage drops, that is when heat increases, heat ruins packs. But is it worth all that trouble.

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D

Not to burst your bubble, but you might find that after all your work, the batteries might still be unusable. If they haven't been discharged/recharged on a regular basis, they might not charge/hold a charge very well. The fact that the batteries were nearly dead when you bought it at an auction could mean they haven't been used in a while and their usable life has past. That's just a word of caution in case you think your modified charger didn't work.

Perfect example follows...

I just spent the weekend at my dad's house (300 mile drive) doing some repair work for him. I didn't get the full specs on the job before I left home, so I didn't bring many of my own tools. I was stuck using his Ryobi 18V circular saw from a kit that he doesn't use very often. Every 20 minutes or so I was swapping the dead battery for a "fully charged" one. I had my Dewalt 18V drill, but didn't think I'd need the circ saw, so I didn't grab it. Probably doubled the labor time of the project.

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A

So how does one determine what kind of batteries are in the pack?

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