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paulz
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# Posted: 7 Feb 2024 11:35am - Edited by: paulz
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The battery that powers both my chainsaw and leaf bower, my two most used stuff lately, went dead. Weird, don’t know why, been reliable for a few years. Put it on the charger, nothing, charger won’t even light the charge light or start the fan. No lights on battery, always stops the tool when it gets down to two lights.
Put a VOM on it, zero volts. Hmm, maybe it finally bit it. In desperation (I have a ton of branches to hack) I jumpered two car bats in series to it (it’s an 80v bat) for a few minutes, then shoved it in the charger. Vroom, charge light and fan! An hour later I was at full charge! That was last night, still full charge and tools running today. Yahoo, so far. Still clueless as to what happened. Maybe left it in a tool running? Would have heard that. Never under 40f here.
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FishHog
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# Posted: 7 Feb 2024 11:40am
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Some batteries can go into a sleep mode once charge gets too low and require a wake up charge to get them going. Glad you got them working again
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Brettny
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# Posted: 7 Feb 2024 04:26pm
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I would take it appart and check the cells or for any type of fuse.
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gcrank1
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# Posted: 7 Feb 2024 04:32pm
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Sounds like the BMS shut it down when the voltage dropped to the Low Voltage Cutoff.
Wonder how many folks just buy a new battery and junk the old one......
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909
Member
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# Posted: 7 Feb 2024 08:45pm - Edited by: 909
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As cells age, they "get tired", slowly self discharge, and just won't hold as much charge.
Congrats on the jump start.
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paulz
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# Posted: 8 Feb 2024 10:24am - Edited by: paulz
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Thanks guys. So yesterday I cut firewood, ran the bat down to when the saw stopped running, still 2 lights, charged back up and repeat. Seems to run and last as well as before. This morning it still has the two lights. I will monitor before charging again, no time to cut today. Maybe it is wearing down, had a lot of use. Not like buying new ones at the dollar store.
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gcrank1
Member
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# Posted: 8 Feb 2024 11:21am
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That's the way I do it with cordless tools. Eventually they don't run more than a few min. or don't have enough beans to do their job, then its pay if ya wanna play.
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paulz
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# Posted: 14 Feb 2024 05:16pm - Edited by: paulz
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Well I got a few days chainsaw work, but finally bit the big one and bought a new battery. The old one, oddly, still shows 3 lights, measure close to 80v with a VOm, but will run the saw for about3 seconds and shuts off. Plug it in the charger and the red (fault) light goes on with a click, no charging.
So I did what any red blooded American man would do: took it apart. Surprised to see 18650s. I don’t see a ‘flip this switch’ sign anywhere and it looks kinda complicate. Oh well, it did me good for lots of work.
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FishHog
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# Posted: 14 Feb 2024 06:26pm
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like Lead batteries, they can charge up to voltage, but fail load test very quickly. Likely one bad cell in that battery, usually the rest are fine.
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909
Member
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# Posted: 14 Feb 2024 08:07pm
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I agree. Usually just 1 bad cell. Manufacturers make it so hard to tear the pack apart, you basically have to destroy it to get access.
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paulz
Member
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# Posted: 15 Feb 2024 10:40am
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Well the thought of just replacing one cell got me excited, would make a great spare battery, but you’re right, they are covered in special screw heads, glue, solder.. no plug and play access there.
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909
Member
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# Posted: 15 Feb 2024 10:49am
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Yes. Just so they can overcharge us hundreds of dollars for cells that cost tens.
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paulz
Member
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# Posted: 18 Feb 2024 06:26pm - Edited by: paulz
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On another note, I recently bought two new batteries for my old B&D saws. $25 a pair, brand new, delivered! They aren’t Li though, rather MIMH old tech. Much shorter on grunt but doing the job for me. I’m shorter on grunt myself these days anyway.
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darz5150
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# Posted: 18 Feb 2024 08:11pm
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I recently bought one of those little 6 inch chainsaws, that I figured would be slightly better than useless. But it turns out, its really very handy. I used it for about an hour the other day clearing some face slapping branches off the trails and some other misc. crap laying around. Worked better than a recip saw. I cut a landscape timber in about 20/30 seconds no prob.
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gcrank1
Member
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# Posted: 18 Feb 2024 11:31pm
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I was looking at those with that style handle thinking it would work better for me than some of the other designs.
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paulz
Member
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# Posted: 19 Feb 2024 07:53am
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Yeah that's a nice unit, especially for branches as mentioned.
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darz5150
Member
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# Posted: 19 Apr 2024 07:17pm
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I put the mini saw to the test. Had a pretty big top get knocked off in the storm last nite. About 8 inches thick at the bottom and probably 20+ feet long. The mini chopper worked well, and didn't run thru one battery. Still full speed at the end.
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gcrank1
Member
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# Posted: 19 Apr 2024 08:34pm
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Yer making me wanna hit the BIN......
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old greybeard
Member
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# Posted: 27 Apr 2024 02:06pm
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Have had Dewalt lithium batteries fail to charge. I applied 12v to the positive and negative terminals for a few minutes with a low power 12v supply, it boosted the internal voltage enough that the battery would charge normally when put on the correct charger. Imagine its a sign they are getting old.
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paulz
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# Posted: 28 Apr 2024 09:45am
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Was just given this Delta drill kit. Missing charger and they are dead Nicads. Looked around a bit, you can find Li battery adapters but at this point it seems the batteries and charger are the bulk of the value in these small tools. Probably just pitch it.
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gcrank1
Member
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# Posted: 28 Apr 2024 02:00pm
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If it is about 12vdc remove the bat and make +/- leads to clip onto a 12v battery
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paulz
Member
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# Posted: 28 Apr 2024 03:21pm
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Good idea, but I’ve been using those cheap HF drills, $20 including li battery and charger. I have 3, one in the cabin, one in the shop and one in the truck, so I have one everywhere I go. They’ll drive screws or cut small holes, any more than that I’ll fire up the inverter.
https://www.harborfreight.com/power-tools/drills-drivers/cordless-drills-drivers/3-8- in/12v-cordless-38-in-drilldriver-kit-57366.html
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paulz
Member
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# Posted: 4 May 2024 11:48am
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Last Wednesday I did some chainsaw work for a woman down the road. On the last cut the saw battery started giving up. It would start and run for a few seconds then die. I managed to finish. Got back to the cabin, next morning I stuck it on the charger. Got the dreaded ‘red light-malfunction’ light instead of the green charging light. Uh oh. Still showed two lights on the four light battery status bar.
This is the new battery I bought earlier in this thread. So I went back to Harbor Frieght. Turned out it was 80 days into the 90 day warranty so they gave me a new one. Super! I think the ‘dead Lfp recharge with another batter jump’ might have got it going. I asked if I could keep the old one, they said it had to be sent back. Oh well.
The lesson may be to quit the saw first time it dies with low battery, I probably got a dozen shorts bursts out.
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gcrank1
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# Posted: 4 May 2024 12:23pm
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I think you may be right about that 'stop when it stops' thing. The cheap bats probably dont have much of a bms much less a smart one to recover a lvd.
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paulz
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# Posted: 4 May 2024 07:10pm
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Hope so. Odd that it still lit two of the four status lights. Maybe being a 40/80 volt battery has something to do with it. $150 ain’t really cheap, maybe for a Li tool bat. Well I’ve got another 90 days at least..
I’ve never bought a HF ‘extended service plan’. Thinking about it, they have one or two year coverage. Can’t find an online price, or if they even cover batteries.
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