"Anthony" wrote in message
...
On Jun 1, 6:11 pm, "Robert Green" wrote:
"Anthony" wrote in message
...
I got this battery last summer, all went fine and after season being
over over for using it, put it in my colder/cooler basement during the
past 2 seasons, as I was instructed.
I'm confused. Last summer #= two seasons. How old is the battery? How
many trime cycles? I've looked at the Worx and the battery seems quite
small for the job. It may already be at the end of its useful life.
A month ago, i recharged it for
the first time this season and all went fine. After using it, i
recharged it again as instructed...This has worked fine for 3 times
( weekly )..now yesterday i tried to use it again after a week, after
the usual recharging and it started briefly and stopped it kept doing
that each time i depressrf the "on" button. Could someone tell me
what, if anything i did wrong before i ever have to buy another one?
BTW, this was used on the Worx trimmer...a very fine trimmer but
sadly the batteries are a joke.
Got a voltmeter? It sounds like one of the cells in the Lith-ion pack has
gone bad. Not an unusual occurrence. I saw an ad for the Worx trimmer just
the other day - shortly after I bought a Toro with a lead-acid battery.
Looks far more functional than the Toro but reviews I read said because of
the extra features (shrub guard and vertical mode trimming wheels) it
became
very hard to hold after a short while? Did you notice that?
Have you checked with Worx about the battery? My Roomba Dirtdog has on
board charging and battery monitoring circuitry that sometimes gets
"confused" and will not operate correctly until you perform a battery
conditioning "ritual" to get it back to operating condition. Maybe Worx
tech support has a similar recommendation.
But a voltmeter is the first place to look. Even if the unit read full
voltage, it may not have enough actual power to drive the device. I would
determine what the proper voltage should be and then test the battery on a
fairly high current drain (for 12VDC lead acid cells I use an old car
headlight - you might have to find a different piece of test equipment
depending on how many volts) to see if it can deliver both the voltage and
the current required to power the trimmer. I just got fooled that way with
my cordless mower. The battery read good but failed under load. Symptoms:
The mower would spin for a second and stop.
--
Bobby G.
Sorry, thanks for the input but i am NOT tech savvy on batteries and
i do not own a car. A voltmeter is useless for me wouldn't know even
how to use it or read it. I'm a senior if that means anything. ..in my
80's..
Hey, you're out trimming your own lawn - don't give me that senior stuff!
grin If you want to learn, I could mail one of my shirt pocket meters to
you long enough for you to learn how to operate one. I own at least 20 of
them (in various configurations) because I use them at least once a day in
this battery-operated world we live in. There's one in every toolkit - even
plumbing - and in every glove box. They are simple to operate and
completely safe when measuring low voltage, battery-powered devices like
your trimmer.
Since you don't have a car, I'll let you slide - this time. g If you've
got a Radio Shack within range they'll have a volt meter and will cheerfully
measure the battery pack for you. I am not sure what I can recommend you do
without a meter to read the battery voltage or even whether it would help.
A battery can seem to have good voltage but not have enough oomph to start a
motor. That's why I suggested an old car headlight - which is good that you
didn't have since the battery's 18V, more than a headlight is designed for.
Anyway, motors often takes quite a bit of startup current.
OK - we have to retrench. No problem. Let's see whether there's anything
else we can do.
i bought the trimmer last year so it was only used the one
summer, almost weekly for 2 months. and just stored it in my cool /
cold basement, where i was told to leave it there. I have no
complaints about the trimmer...I love it and it does all that is shown
on the commercial ..this is my first trimmer though via batteries, and
that was the reason i specially enjoyed it.I'm recharging now and just
in 15 minutes the recharger says its fully charged by the green light
coming on from the initial red start. Not looking good at all.
The fact that it comes on and then stops could indicate a number of things.
The batteries seem to be taking a charge, but without a voltmeter (and load
tester) we can't say. The unit could also be experiencing some kind of
safety shutdown. During the brief moments it starts up, does it stall?
(Stop turning) Does it come up to speed and then kick out? Can you restart
it right away by cycling it off and on again?
I think this is the time to check out their tech service.
http://www.worxgt.com/
The above site appears to have a contact point although I take issue with
"unlike other cordless electric weed trimmers that start losing power from
the minute you turn them on, The new WORX GT Trimmer/Edger provides 100%
power throughout the life of the charge." Every battery technology I know
of starts to lose "power" when they are being used. Methinks they meant
"voltage dropoff is not as steep as other technologies."
Contact Worx - if anyone's familiar with the symptoms you've described, I'll
bet it's their tech support. They say "long life" on their website and that
it is an 18V lithium ion 1.3AH battery - that's pretty small for a trimmer -
my Toro is 12V/8AH. Yours *should* have lasted longer than a year, so I
would definitely contact the manufacturers. Tell them the Usenet Home
Repair group is watching! (-:
--
Bobby G.