Skil cordless drill charger

[Joe Pelonio]

I am not writing this to dis Skil, in fact I have been very happy with the quality and power in my 12 volt. About a year ago they had a recall, which I discovered right after my charger melted. As they required I returned the drill, battery and charger and they sent new ones, which were better than the first, as they included a battery-operated stud finder that stores on the drill. Anyway, last week the charger quit. I went to a local tool repair who ordered a new one for $14. I took it home and charge one battery, then put it on the second. Later in the day I saw that the green light was not on and found it had not charged the battery and was in fact dead. I took it back this morning and they are going to send it back for another one. Has anyone else had this kind of experience with Skil or any other make? If it keeps up I will need to buy a whole new cordless and would like to know which ones people have found to last. I don't need more than 12V as it's for home use, I have more powerful ones at the shop that are 3 year old Ryobi, and on those the batteries won't hold a charge overnight, so I have 4 and charge one every day.

[Randy Meijer]

I just do homeowner stuff with my little drill but like the extra power of the 18V drill and don't mind the little extra weight. Years ago, I had a good drill and when the batteries went bad found out that replacinhg them would cost more than a new drill kit which was still pretty pricey. On a lark, I bought an inexpensive($25±) Chinese drill at the "grocery store"!! It lasted about 4 years before the battery quit and then I bought another one.(2nd one cost $19 and is still in use after 3 years) I'm sure these units would not hold up to the needs of daily professional use; but for the homeowner who doesn't subject his tools to heavy use, I think this is a very cost-effective way to go!!

[Brian Lindenlaub]

Joe, I had a similar experience with my 14.4V Black and Decker cordless. The charger quit, so I ordered a new charger (for about $20, including shipping). It only charged about two batteries before it quit too. I took them to my local DeWalt dealer, who also handles B&D, and he told me that a bad battery will fry the cheap chargers that come with many drills. So I invested in the "smart" charger, which supposedly can detect a bad battery and cut out before it ruins the charger. That set me back about $26. So it could be that a bad battery is killing of your chargers.

Brian

[Joe Pelonio]

Thanks, Brian. I just picked up my replacement new charger, and If it is getting killed by a battery I'd rather not do it again. I wonder if there's any way I can tell by seeing if the battery gets hot or something? I have 4 of them, so it may be that only one is bad but how to find out which? I'll try to contact Skil also.

[Corey Hallagan]

Personally, I don't buy top of the line cordless products. I have a Ryobi 18V and Craftsman 12V. From what I have read, many of the top names have problems after 3 or 4 years. Models change, batteries are then different and or cost a fortune to replace. I figure I can spend less than a 100.00 on Ryobi or Craftsman stuff, have it last 3-4 years and be ahead of the game. Then again I do not use them professionally either. Actually I think the Ryobi 18V + one system to be very good. I have been using them for a year and all of Ryobi's 18V batteries made to date work on them. Batteries are $40.00 for 2 of them and I charge them once a week and they are always ready to go, no problem. The craftsman is 12V and seems to work just fine, actually is made by ITT who owns Ryobi and in a recent test it peformed as well as some of the big names. That's my take on Cordless stuff anyway. Maybe I would feel differently if I used them professionally.

Corey

[Jason Abel]

You can check if you have a bad battery if you have a multimeter. If your battery has screws holding it together you can remove the screws and dis-assemble your battery. Set your multimeter to DC Volts. Take the two leads from the multi-meter and put one on each side of each cell inside your battery pack. Each battery should not read below 1V. If it is still in good shape each battery will read 1.2V - 1.3V. If you have a cell that reads 0V or a low value it is dragging the rest of your battery pack down and will eventually overload the remaining cells. I rebuild batteries for a living and have never heard of a bad battery ruining a charger. I'm not saying it is not possible, just that I never heard of it.

As far as temperature. Obviously heat is bad for the battery. A majority of the batteries now have thermistors built into the pack to sense an excessive amount of heat to prevent damage to the pack. However, these thermistors are not set to trip quickly so I see a bunch of instances where the battery gets hot to the point that is basically melts. You can tell if your battery has a thermistor by looking at the connector on your battery and seeing if it is 3 or more conection points. Normally there is a +, -, and then the thermistor.

Hope this helps!

[Andrew Ault]

Thanks Abel.

That's useful information!

- Andy

[Hoa Dinh]

Joe,

I will not buy any cordless tool with a dumb charger, which is nothing but an AC/DC converter. A few years ago, my house was almost burnt out thanks to an overheated Skil charger from a 9.6V cordless drill set. I'm not picking on Skil, but it happened to be the one I had.

From then on, I'd rather spend a bit more money for a smart charger. Most smart chargers are 1 hr type, which is nice. When the battery is full, the charger goes to trickle charge mode (some manufacturers call it maintenance charge mode). This has much less chance of overheating.

If I have to use a dumb charger, I'll put it on a timer.