Bill Noble wrote:
"Ivan Vegvary" wrote in message
...
I have a Makita cordless 18v drill (gift from family) that uses 18v Lithium
Ion batter packs. Battery model BL1815.
BTW, this is one of those 'quick charge' batteries that only require about
12 minutes.

Short story. Battery fell into water during an outdoor plumbing repair.
Recovered within 15 seconds. Battery charged OK 2 more times and now,
upon trying to charge, is shown as "defective" by the intelligent?
charger. It will not charge.

Took battery apart. Unlike older storage packs these batteries come apart
by simply removing 4 screws. Inside is a small circuit board with many
components, a battery pack and hint of silt from the dunking.



The chip and stuff on the circuit board is a small computer (of sorts) that
manages the safety of the battery pack, and if I remember right, many can
send the identity of the pack - as others pointed out, any crud that
provides a conductive path can mess it up.

You can also try the honest approach to the manufacturer - this pack fell in
water, bla bla - charged ok two times and now is defective - can you help
me? they may offer to replace or offer discount - I've had good luck this
way


Since Li Ion batteries can explode if mistreated, the small pc board
stuff can do several things: Like detect how many charge cycles (let
me tell you that Dell laptop batteries have this, and it errs on the
"safe" side, causing apparent failure of perfectly good units); like
detect any kind of open circuit or current leakage (the likely situation
with yours), etc.

If the ckt board says the unit is toast, the pak is screwed, as the
things don't self-heal or reset.... You may find something by
googling hacking (brand) batteries, but good luck with that... /mark