Rechargeable battery question
 

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.

Any chance that this can be fixed somehow? It has only been cycled 5 times
total. Son-in-law (who gave me the gift) simply says take it back, or, he
will reverse charges on his AmEx credit card. I won't do this. This is
simply not a manufacturer's defect.

All advice appreciated. Trying to save $ 65.

Ivan Vegvary

Rechargeable battery question
 

On Sun, 05 Jul 2009 02:51:02 +0000, Ivan Vegvary wrote:

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.

Any chance that this can be fixed somehow? It has only been cycled 5
times total. Son-in-law (who gave me the gift) simply says take it
back, or, he will reverse charges on his AmEx credit card. I won't do
this. This is simply not a manufacturer's defect.

All advice appreciated. Trying to save $ 65.

Ivan Vegvary

Salt in the silt will be conductive, and would screw up the operation of
any analog circuitry (which there surely is) on the board.

Swish it (the circuit board) in distilled water, maybe brush it all over
with a tooth brush to get any clinging gunk off, then bake it at about
150 degrees for a few hours to drive out any water.

Then don't be surprised if it still doesn't work. You may not clear the
problem, or the problem may have damaged the batteries.

--
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Rechargeable battery question
 

Tim Wescott wrote:
On Sun, 05 Jul 2009 02:51:02 +0000, Ivan Vegvary wrote:

I have a Makita cordless 18v drill (gift from family) that uses 18v
Lithium Ion batter packs.

(...)

All advice appreciated. Trying to save $ 65.

Ivan Vegvary

Salt in the silt will be conductive, and would screw up the operation of
any analog circuitry (which there surely is) on the board.

Swish it (the circuit board) in distilled water, maybe brush it all over
with a tooth brush to get any clinging gunk off, then bake it at about
150 degrees for a few hours to drive out any water.

Then don't be surprised if it still doesn't work. You may not clear the
problem, or the problem may have damaged the batteries.

What Tim said.
In addition, you can use your Water Pik with a gallon
of distilled water to dislodge silt from between
component legs.

--Winston

Rechargeable battery question
 

Ivan Vegvary writes:

Son-in-law (who gave me the gift) simply says take it back, or, he
will reverse charges on his AmEx credit card.

A chargeback would indeed be wrong. But some AmEx cards provide automatic
buyer protection for just this sort of occasion.

Rechargeable battery question
 

"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

Rechargeable battery question
 

On Sat, 04 Jul 2009 22:41:58 -0700, 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


HP used to be good about this -- a friend of mine sent in a printer for
repair and got a brand new one back for about 1/3 the price of a new one
(they charged for the 'repair'). So when I crushed my HP calculator
(sitting on a briefcase to get it to close is _not_ a good idea when you
forget and leave your calculator in it) I sent it in -- and got a $99
calculator for the $35 'repair' fee.

It can't hurt to try.

--
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Rechargeable battery question
 

On Jul 4, 7:51*pm, "Ivan Vegvary" wrote:

Short story. *Battery fell into water during an outdoor plumbing repair..

To fix it yourself, soak circuit board in the cleanest water you can
find with some baking soda dissolved in it. A toothbrush can remove
'crud'.

Then let it dry for a week if you can.

I poured a cup of tea (milk and sugar) through a portable CD player.
Oops. Fixed it that way. Still works.

Rechargeable battery question
 

Ivan Vegvary wrote:
... 18v Lithium Ion batter ...

IIRC, those batteries have vents to prevent explosions. If so, water
may have gotten into the battery. But there is a pressure relief valve,
so maybe that would keep the water out. Something to consider though.

Bob

Rechargeable battery question
 

Bob Engelhardt wrote:
... those batteries have vents ...

Oops ... I meant LIon *cells* have vents.

But you knew that,
Bob

Rechargeable battery question
 

Ivan Vegvary wrote:

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.

Any chance that this can be fixed somehow? It has only been cycled 5
times total. Son-in-law (who gave me the gift) simply says take it
back, or, he will reverse charges on his AmEx credit card. I won't do
this. This is simply not a manufacturer's defect.

All advice appreciated. Trying to save $ 65.

Ivan Vegvary


First, let me say you have my admiration for not wanting to scam the
manufacturer. If lots more people thought that way there'd be more hope
for this dumb old world of ours.

And anyway, maybe Makita'd have some way of knowing water got into the
pack, like those tell tale dots inside cell phones which turn bright red
when the phone takes a swim.

In addition to the distilled water advice, I'm in the habit of squirting
denatured alcohol on electronics which have taken the plunge and letting
it evaporate.

If all the cleaning doesn't help and you've got some kind of variable dc
voltage source and the guts to try, you might try disconnecting the
electronics from the charger and running some current into the batteries
to see if they'll take a charge and run the drill. That might help
localize the problem to the batteries or the electronics.

Good Luck,

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
The speed of light is 1.8*10e12 furlongs per fortnight.

Rechargeable battery question
 

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