I think I prevented a fire today! WARNING!!

[Brian Hale]

Last night I put a battery for my drill in a charger on my old bench. A
few minutes ago I smelled something hot, not smoky, just hot. Then I
noticed the battery (it's the one from my 16+ year old 18 volt Dewalt) didn't
quite look right. Not sure what happened but the battery case and the
charger were hot and melted out of shape. Had to pry them apart with a
screwdriver.

No foreign material on the contacts or anything like that and i can't tell if the battery or the charger was the cause. Not sure if would cause a fire but it sure scared me.

I'm thinking i'll get a seperate power strip and timer for the chargers and set it so it's only on during the hours i'm normally in the shop.

As a side note, I asked for and got an A/B/C fire extingusher for the shop for Christmas.

Brian :)

[Ellen Benkin]

Thanks for the warning. I've never heard of this and I leave the battery in the charger until I switch batteries. I guess it is time for a timer.

[Brian Hale]

I might just wire a receptacle into the circuit for the lights and put all the chargers on a power strip so when i turn the lights off and chargers won't be getting power.

[Pete Bradley]

I don't believe this is a general thing. Is your charger the model referenced in this recall?

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml01/01057.html

Pete

[Brian Hale]

I don't believe this is a general thing. Is your charger the model referenced in this recall?

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml01/01057.html

Pete

As a matter of fact, yes......

I wonder if they'll replace the battery also.....

[Chase Gregory]

Dewalt will replace both the battery and charger . This happened to mine a year or two ago.

Mine actually killed two batteries (the first didn't weld itself to the charger). I had already thrown out the first or they'd have replaced both batteries.

Auto shut off in the charger dies causing this.

Chaser

[Bill White]

Now THIS is the kinda info that makes our site sooooo valuable. I'm goin' to the shop as soon as I get home to check this out. Thanks a BUNCH!!!!!
Bill

[Rich Bybee]

Bump :)

I have a 9106 Dewalt charger, so I guess I'm in the clear. (This effects the 9107 and 9108 chargers....)

[Rob Will]

Thanks Brian, the timer is something we all need to do anyway.

As is the fire extinguisher.

Rob

[Paul Joynes]

I had a 12V XRP battery that burned down my shop. I believe that the contacts had shorted out on a tool or steel wool or something. I made sure that the replacement drill that I purchased was a Bosch, the only brand that came supplied with caps for the battery terminals at the time. Since then, there has been a trend for all rechargeable batteries to come with these caps standard. I have never bought a yellow and black tool since that day.

Regards,

Paul Joynes

[Joe Cipriano]

Pete:

Thanks, man. I never even heard about the recall, and I've a 9108 in the date code range.

Guess I'm fortunate (or WAY too paranoid) - I've never left the charger unattended (it's on my bench), and I've always pulled the batteries when they're finished charging.

Time to make a phone call...

[CW McClellan]

For $6 as a CONTRIBUTOR !!!
I a few weeks ago had hot batteries --reading your post -checked the nos. on my 2 chargers --I got 2 of the suckers -My friend you may have saved many dollars -life -or hardship in my case--they will be returned but they are 43.15 mi. away one way to ser.center--THANKS:D:D

[Chase Gregory]

For $6 as a CONTRIBUTOR !!!
I a few weeks ago had hot batteries --reading your post -checked the nos. on my 2 chargers --I got 2 of the suckers -My friend you may have saved many dollars -life -or hardship in my case--they will be returned but they are 43.15 mi. away one way to ser.center--THANKS:D:D

I mailed mine in rather than drive to a service center. Much cheaper than fuel even 2 years ago... It would have been 100miles one way for me!

Chaser

[Justin McCurdy]

I might just wire a receptacle into the circuit for the lights and put all the chargers on a power strip so when i turn the lights off and chargers won't be getting power.

That is exactly what I did and it works like a charm, especially with the Makita L-ion charger @ 15 minutes charging time. I do, however, inadvertantly shut the lights off on my 1 hour Ryobi charger sometimes.

[David G Baker]

The practice of leaving batteries in the charger was covered not long ago on SMC and most suggested not leaving batteries in the charger for various reasons.
I have had a few issues with leaving things in chargers but that was with Skil powered screwdrivers. It killed the batteries and on one set, melted the plug-in-transformer. I no longer leave things connected to chargers or batteries in the charger. I do have a timer setup that has a spring loaded timer that a specific time can be set and when the time elapses the contacts are opened. I use this in case of a senior moment as a safety backup.

[Dick Strauss]

CW,
Use one of those USPS bulk rate boxes to ship the chargers and batteries to Dewalt Service and save your gas. Under $10 and only requires a trip to the PO.

[Dennis Hatchett]

My parents' church in Oklahoma City suffered millions of dollars in damage and 2 years of services in a gymnasium due to a faulty charger and the resulting fire. Wiring a safe solution or a timer setup seems more than a prudent step.

[Lee Koepke]

I had a 12V XRP battery that burned down my shop. I believe that the contacts had shorted out on a tool or steel wool or something. I made sure that the replacement drill that I purchased was a Bosch, the only brand that came supplied with caps for the battery terminals at the time. Since then, there has been a trend for all rechargeable batteries to come with these caps standard. I have never bought a yellow and black tool since that day.

Regards,

Paul Joynes
just curious. you post got me thinking.

if you leave the batteries out of a machine, does that increase the risk of compromising the contacts???

does it protect the contacts if you keep them in a maching?