No More Magic Smoke....

[crokett]

I went downstairs to finish a project this afternoon and smelled some burning in the shop. I checked and found my Ryobi 18V cordless drill with the trigger fused on and it was smoking. The motor was turning, barely. I couldn't turn it off so I pulled the battery out. I'd been using the drill about 1/2hr before that. I tried it again tonight. Got more smoke, but no motor turning. I guess I need a new drill.

It makes me wonder about storing cordless tools with the battery pack in them. I normally store my drill this way. Do you do this?

[Richard in Smithville]

I have two batteries for my 12 volt. One stays in the drill and the other in the charger. The charger gets turned off when the green light comes on. If I didn't do this, I am sure to lose the batteries.

[Ed62]

I always store mine with the batteries left in. It's probably a rarity that happened to you.

Ed

[herb fellows]

Not anymore! I stopped about 2 minutes ago.

[cabinetman]

I store them not running.
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[crokett]

I store them not running.
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I did. When I put it down the motor wasn't turning. I dunno. Maybe the trigger stuck just enough to arc until it finally welded shut? I can't figure out why the battery didn't drain before the motor overheated.

[Alex Franke]

Weird that it turned back on like that. I always store it with the battery in it. Maybe I'll start storing it with a drill bit in it and aiming at some wood, though -- at least that way if it turns on it can get some work some for me.

[cabinetman]

I did. When I put it down the motor wasn't turning. I dunno. Maybe the trigger stuck just enough to arc until it finally welded shut? I can't figure out why the battery didn't drain before the motor overheated.

Barely running probably puts more load (demand) on the motor than the drain factor on the battery. Loring could likely do a half a page on this.
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[Uncle Cracker]

I have a charger for each of my batteries. When I'm done with the tool, the battery goes back into the charger. Too many times I picked up a tool at a particularly critical moment and found a dead battery in it. No more...

[twistsol]

The HVAC guy that did the new AC for our house stores one of his Panasonic drills buried in the insulation in our attic. I assume the battery is still in it. I lost a Rigid cordless up there as well.

I store my other Rigid hanging on pegboard with battery in it and the other battery in the charger.

[sparkeyjames]

The HVAC guy that did the new AC for our house stores one of his Panasonic drills buried in the insulation in our attic. I assume the battery is still in it. I lost a Rigid cordless up there as well.

I store my other Rigid hanging on pegboard with battery in it and the other battery in the charger.

That is funny.

[dbhost]

I know I am a bit of a wierdo here, but I don't do cordless power tools. I simply don't trust battery technology enough to want to pay the premium for them...

Having said that, at least once, my circular saw became cordless the hard way...

[Bill in Buena Park]

I went downstairs to finish a project this afternoon and smelled some burning in the shop. I checked and found my Ryobi 18V cordless drill with the trigger fused on and it was smoking...

Sounds like a defective unit that should have been recalled; you might want to let someone responsible for recalls know, there could be other "smoking guns" out there.

I store mine battery-in-tool. I switched over to the CMAN C-3 line, have about 5 different tools and 3 batteries - so usually one in the drill, one in the trim saw, and one fully charged in waiting (leaving the the RA drill, jigsaw and worklight empty.) I read somewhere that leaving batteries charging in chargers (as storage) was bad for battery life, so I don't put a battery on the charger until it shows signs of being depleted; maybe that was just for NiCad, and doesn't apply to NiMH or Li-Ion.

[LCHIEN]

i never heard of this happening. Tools that are off becoming stuck on. Maybe there was a Christmas Elf in your shop. Did you find any shoes?

I almost always leave my batteries in my tools.


"I can't figure out why the battery didn't drain before the motor overheated. "

There's more than enough power stored in a battery to smoke a motor before the charge runs out.


"I read somewhere that leaving batteries charging in chargers (as storage) was bad for battery life, so I don't put a battery on the charger until it shows signs of being depleted; maybe that was just for NiCad, and doesn't apply to NiMH or Li-Ion. "
That statement depends a lot on the charger. With slow chargers, the lind that take 16 hours or so to fully charge a battery, they have virtually no smarts so they continue to charge the battery after its full which heats up the battery somewhat. Allegedly the overcharge in benign, but IMHO shortens the life of the battery if left doing this 24/7. For those kinds of chargers I have made a timer/outlet that allows it to chargefor only so many hours then cuts off the AC.

For fast chargers, the kind that charge in 1-3 hours, they have more smarts built in. They charge at a high rate and detect when the battery becomes full (basically the overcharge heats up the battery) and cuts off all charge or reduces it to a very small charge to compensate for leakage that won't damage the battery. In this case, I would think being left on the charger 24/7 would not hurt the battery.

Allaegely you will get more charge cycles from your battery if you use if you wait until fully discharged and then recharge it, but thats not always convenient... you have two batteries say, and you go out to the work site you have one partially charged battery that will be anywhere from 0-100% charge and and another that is 100% charged. Its much better to be able to have two known full batteries, so in that case I would charge the partially discharged one, to heck with the fully discharged business.

[parnelli]

I store them not running.
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quite possibly the best reply ever.