Motorcycle Charger on DeWalt Battery?

[Russ Filtz]

Bought a 12V drill with no charger off eBay cause I thought my other drill was 12V, but it turns out mine is 14.4V. Can I use my 12V "smart" motorcycle charger on the 12V battery pack? Also, anyone know which prongs on the DeWalt packs are +/-?

[Ralph Barhorst]

The charger for your motorcycle battery was designed to charge at a faster rate (more current) than the charger for your 12 volt battery. It would be dangerous to charge your 12 volt battery with the motorcycle charger. (It could explode! :mad: :eek: This could ruin your whole day. It would be better to buy a replacement charger from Dewalt or a similar one from Radio Shack.

[Bob_Hammond]

All of my Dewalt chargers charge 9.6 ro 14.4 batteries. I didn't know they made one that charges only 12v.

Bob

[Russ Filtz]

I'll have to check that. Mine's bolted to the wall so I couldn't read the label on the back!

[Byron Trantham]

Russ, Ralph is right DON'T! :mad: Could be very dangerous. To answer your question about which terminal is plus or minus, get a digital volt meter. Touch the terminals. It it reads PLUS 12 V then look at the black lead, that's minus and of course the red one will be the positive terminal. If the DVM read MINUS 12 volts then the reverse is true, the black lead is positive and the red one minus.

[Chris Padilla]

Bryon, the Red/Black assumes, of course, they are plugged in color matching! :eek: :confused:

:p

[Byron Trantham]

Bryon, the Red/Black assumes, of course, they are plugged in color matching! :eek: :confused:

:p
If you own a DVM and don't know the difference you should put it in the garbage! ;)

[Russ Filtz]

Yea, I thought of using the VOM. I've got both a digital and old analog. I prefer the analog actually. The digital seems squirrely when it comes to plus/minus. It's OK for continuity. Was just lazy and was posting at work so I couldn't check it out. Guess I'll try the DeWalt charger. I doubt the 14.4V would explode a 12V at low current, even if it wanted to!