On Sun, 15 Jul 2018 18:38:22 +0100, G r o g
wrote:

My Parkside drill charger has suddenly come over all poorly.
It worked fine 2 weeks ago when last used but now it won't charge.
I checked the voltage of the charging and it read +- 13.8 volts. It's
an 18 volt charger.
It has 6 security screws holding it together so I wondered if there
would be anything in there that I could fix/replace.
It's been a good drill and I'm reluctant to throw it out so does anyone
know if the charger might be repairable?
I know a replacement would be cheap enough but I don't want to throw
away a perfectly good drill for landfill.
Grateful for any help.
TYIA

The output Voltage might not be the best indication. It might be
difficult but try measuring the current through the battery first.

The battery is the weakest link.

If you cannot access the chargers "gubbins", the drill battery should
have the rating marked on it. a foolproof way of proving the battery
is to use a resistor or load such as a small bulb and feed the battery
from a DC supply of a little over the battery Voltage. Select a
resistor/ load to drop the charge current to 10% of the battery
capacity and charge for 14 hours.

Keep an eye on the charge current and be prepared to tweak the load a
little.

After 14 hours the battery should give an output for a reasonable time
although as it's old it wont have the claimed capacity.

If it does, Toolstation stock security bits although beware as a lot
of the screws are at the bottom of a deep recess and require a single
thinnish driver.

If the battery has not charged, you can try discharging it fully and
recharging, repeat until you find an improvement or loose interest.


If the charger is faulty, you can make a 14 hr charger with a load,
but use a simple transformer and rectifier, not a smoothed PSU.

AB