Testing 36v DeWalt packs

[Jay64]

I just bought 4 DeWalt packs off ebay that were listed as brand new. The last time I bought new packs off ebay they came in their original packaging. These packs didn't have any packaging. So I want to test them to make sure they are new. Is there a more accurate way to do this besides just charging them up and checking their volts? They look pretty new, but you never can tell now a days.

 

[slayer]

i dont know if somebody will tell you how to tell i would like to know too..
but i can tell you that i bought a new pack in its package from RE NO depot and some used from doctorbass and the ones fom doc they were all balanced (from him of course) and the new pack there we re 3 under 2.5 volts ....so if you check each cells it is possible that even if brand new it is imbalanced

 

[pwbset]

These packs didn't have any packaging.

Pretty standard for ebay sellers to part out the combo kits to re-sell at a profit... batts wouldn't have blister packs then.

 

[Jay64]

yeah, that's true, I guess I should balance them anyways. I just don't want to get stuck with some crap batteries.

I had heard that most of the batts on ebay came from combo packs, that is why I was so suprised that the first two came in packaging, then I thought that they had individual packaging in the combo pack. I guess i am just over worrying for nothing.

 

[Jay64]

Ok, maybe I am not worrying for nothing. I tested 5 of my six batteries. Batt1 was one of the first two that I bought that came in the packaging, Batt2 is still in the packaging. I tested Batt1 with the 4 new ones as a reference. Volts measured before charging from the outside connection. Batt1 33.7v; Batt2 didn't test; Batt3 27.8v; Batt4 28.4v; Batt5 21.8v; Batt6 29.7v.
Since Batt5 was so low to start with I decided to try to charge that one first. All three lights flashed non stop. I guess that means the battery is bad.???
Hmm, I just tried Batt3 and 6 and those ones make all three lights flash too. When I charged my original Batt1, it went to all 3 solid. I checked voltage and read 34.7v. I put it on again and left it on for a while, it came out to 35.0v

 

[Jay64]

Ran all 4 on the charger and all 4 get the 3 blinking lights.

 

[ngocthach1130]

check the manufactured date. YOu might be able to send it back to the service center to get new one.

 

[EMF]

Yes send them in. Man that pisses me! Frikkin ebay low lifes. And those batteries are sooooo expensive.

No worries jay- there is no way in heck those things are out of warranty. Send all of the bad ones at once since Dewalt pays the return shipping.

 

[Jay64]

How do you check manufactured date? It looks like they are 2006. There are some codes in the plastic under the Recycle Me sticker.
Batt3: 628665-00
200612-UO
Batt4: 628665-00
200635-UO
Batt5: 628665-00
200630-UO
Batt6: 628665-00
200629-UO

How long is the warranty on these? I heard that if you send them in to the service center you have to pay shipping one way. That seems kind of f'ed up to have to do that on something that I JUST got.

 

[Jay64]

I guess if worse comes to worse, I do have his return address. It is up in Ohio, there are races up there that I go to sometimes. Maybe I'll pay him a little visit with my breaker bar if he doesn't do right by this.

 

[Jay64]

the weird thing is he has a 99% positive feedback. It just seems odd that all of them would be bad from a good ebay seller. i could see maybe one being bad just by chance, but not all 4.

 

[EMF]

Hell, he probably got em from someone for next to nothing or whatever and does not even use the darn things, or check them either. He just re-sells them.

Those things are 2 years old looks like June 29th etc. So they are still under full warranty.

Dude- the only way I would fool with the ebay guy is if he agrees in ADVANCE to pick up all the charges and ship you 2 more - or however many were bad, I forget. BEFORE you ship him yours back. He might just keep them, then you wont have squat.

If he wont do it, I would let him lknow you will put up negative feedback and then go here: http://www.dewalt.com/us/service/center_finder.asp

Call them up and say you've got some bateries that give you the blink code and tell them you want to get an exchange. As long as you don't crack the cases, they will send you new batteries asap in blisterpacks. I had 2 ebay batteries that I sent in and they gave me new ones. I did not tell them it was ebay stuff, I just told them the truth, that they wont charge. They don't even ask any questions. I UPS'ed them off and in 48 hours I had new batteries. After that, I never had any more trouble. I was a little chicken at first, but after I did it- it was no problemo!

 

[Jay64]

I guess if I send them back to the service center I will make sure that I get brand new ones. If I send them back to the ebay seller, he might send me more that work, but not brand new ones. Even though the ebay ad states 'brand new'.

 

[Jay64]

There is a service center 31 miles from my house. I guess if it comes to it I can just drop them off when I am in the area.

 

[EMF]

There is a service center 31 miles from my house. I guess if it comes to it I can just drop them off when I am in the area.

Sure whatever. I just want to see you get some good batteries for your money. they will exchange them. Just give them a heads up so you are sure they have them when you get there.

 

[Jay64]

Good idea. I was thinking that I could drop them off and they could ship them to me, but if they could just have them there ready when I stop by that would be even better. I will give the ebay seller a chance to come good before I go this route so that I don't have to give him negative feedback, but I'm not going to wait that long to hear back from him, especially since ALL of them were bad.

 

[Jay64]

The lame thing is that I bought these four packs from him in two sets. I wanted to pick up a total of five packs, so I ordered a single pack from him yesterday. I think it might already have gone out, so I don't think I can cancel that one now.

 

[jeffkay]

3 fast blinking lights does not mean they are bad but probably sat, self-discharging for a long time. They do not go to zero. Maybe in 5 years... I bought several from 2005-6 and had the problem. The BMS is set way to high to detect and start charging these. I would get them to sip some volts until they get up to where the charger likes them (this assumes you are not opening the packs). Then, when fully charged, they will balance. THis is my opinion.
Jeff K. "Deep Cycle" has 192 DeWalt cells...

 

[Jay64]

So what do I do, just keep putting it back on the charger over and over again. A couple of them go straight to blinking lights right away. Some seem like they are charging for 10-20 seconds and then go to blinking lights. I thought I had heard something about continuing to put them on a charger to get them to build volts back up. I tried that on one of them and it actually went down by 0.1v.

 

[jeffkay]

The "keep putting them on charger" never worked for me. I had at least one good working batt. I made sure it was well charged. Then I used small wire (to keep current to sparky. Then I put meter on to watch the new or old batt voltage level. Then I "ticked" one wire while holding the other from similar two main terminals of good battery. If the current/voltage was not too far off, then I held the tick longer. Like on/off. So you will see the "bad battery's" volts go up. Keep trying to the charger--eventually it will go.

I forgot what voltage the 36 volt model will kick in at. I think it is like 28 or above? This is under a load.

Keep in mind that some E-Bay jerk might have sold you a battery he killed like blowing the fuse. You cannot fix that and maybe DeWalt will replace it then.
Anyway, you will get some hopefully reading when you do the above trick...
Jeff K.

 

[magudaman]

I over discharged once on one of my pack and also got one that was sat too long. I had to bypass the bms and put in about 400ma and then just had to charge them like normal. It turned out the one that had sat too long was damaged and only would put out 1.6ah, so I contacted Dewalt and they sent me a new one before I could even send out the old one.

Send it back to Dewalt you get a nice new fresh one and then there is no more worries from the fleabay sellers.

 

[Jay64]

Yeah, I really do want to send it back to the DeWalt servic center, to ensure that I have fresh batteries. However, I do want to give the guy a chance to make it right, cuz once I send them in, I feel I need to leave negative feedback. I have to wait until the 5th pack comes in from him anyways before I go down there, so I will see if he responds in that time. One of the cells was measured at 28.4v and another one at 29.7v. Is that too low for these batts?

 

[jeffkay]

They are fine. I had many like this... Don't fault the seller--fault DeWalt for setting the charger detect bad voltage so high!

 

[Jay64]

Is it normal for brand new batteries to have 21v?

 

[jeffkay]

No, but new, meaning not-yet-sold, can mean they sat on a warehouse shelf. As somebody else stated, they probably got them from others along the chain. If you are that worried (and for the cost you have the right), I would have DeWalt replace them...