m18 battery fried?

BTW this battery is not working, will not charge, yet charger registers as "fully charged"

Thanks,
Rob
ASC Building Solutions

betrbilt99 said:

I found a recent post from another user, and could not find the thread after joining Contractor talk. ANYWAYS- I have a M18 XC which if I hold down the fuel meter button, a series of flashes emits from the LEDs. Although the flashing lights would look great for a contractor's Christmas party this year, I would like to find out if anyone knows anything about the location of a code key for such a conundrum? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks, Rob ASC Building Solutions:blink:

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Not sure I understand what you mean by a code key.

I've had problems with Milwaukee, I took it into there shop right here in town. They hooked it up to a machine and could tell when it was first charged and replaced it on the spot, no questions asked. I have nothing but good things to say about Milwaukee customer service. Bosch is the same way. I had 360D radio take a dive and they sent me a new one within a week.

Mike, if you hold down the button for three sec. (button for checking batt level) it will send up a series of flashes; those will be the same series every time, each batt seems to be different, so it may be a "manual" code for testing without the "machine" they hook batts up to. Not sure, but I gather that would req a code key to decipher message.


Thank you for input, I will see about taking battery in to service ctr.

Rob
ASC Building Solutions

I've had mine for about 3 years and not had any problems.

CO762 said:

I've had mine for about 3 years and not had any problems.

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Same here.

Between me and another guy we've had two of the old non red lithiums quit but my 4 red lithium ones have gotten far more use and are still fine. Also still have two old style ones that are still kicking and in use.

To answer the original question if its a bad cell or cells you can buy the exact cells that they use, but it's probably not worth it.

every battery pack I have dissected had the cells spot welded together. I have not figured out how to get around the need to spot weld them back.

maninthesea said:

every battery pack I have dissected had the cells spot welded together. I have not figured out how to get around the need to spot weld them back.

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You don't need to weld them; soldering will work just fine. For better durability, use wire instead of the flat tabs.

You do need to get the soldering done relatively quickly, so you don't overheat the cell. :thumbsup:

Tinstaafl said:

You don't need to weld them; soldering will work just fine. For better durability, use wire instead of the flat tabs.

You do need to get the soldering done relatively quickly, so you don't overheat the cell. :thumbsup:

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I could not get solder to stick to the cells. Crome plate??

maninthesea said:

I could not get solder to stick to the cells. Crome plate??

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Jim I've soldered many subc cells, sand them first and hit them really hot and really fast. I've even soldered them in a series stick configuration without tabs or pigtails, just flowing solder between the cells.

Thanks to all

I appreciate you all giving your input on this issue, I will probably see about purchasing a reconditioned M18 saw kit from CPO. they are the most reasonable supplier I have found to date. any others you might recommend?

maybe I need to get a high watt iron. all I have is a couple small ones (5 watt I believe). I had tried sanding, fileing and fluxing.

btw I received an email back from Milwaukee this morning regarding the flash code. "the flashes are of no significance"

Just make sure you replace with appropriate cells. There was a guy on a forum thinking it was a good idea to use high capacity cells designed for laptops, which use the same size 18650 cells. The latest m18 batteries use samsung inr18650 20r cells at 2 amp hours and there is just about nothing better for tool application.

maninthesea said:

"the flashes are of no significance"

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I finally had a tool go dead on me with the m18--but thanks to the charge LEDs, I figured it'd be out before I finished what I was doing, so I brought another battery with me.

When I push in the charge light, just one would blink, so I figure that means "it's out". I've never had one be used to nothing before as I always have one in the charger and I plan/think ahead. I have some of the originals and some of the "red" ones and all work fine.

Why break into a battery and toodle around, trying to see if you can somehow fix it.....when you can buy a new one for $70 or so?

Milwaukee batteries are not that great, the're getting better but the first m18s sucked.

I just noticed that HD has two-packs of the compact red lithium batteries for 79.99, and the compact M18 drill with one battery for $85. Just thought i would pass that along.

Probably because they are getting phased out. Both those batteries (replaced with 2 amp hour) and the drill.

Golden view said:

Probably because they are getting phased out. Both those batteries (replaced with 2 amp hour) and the drill.

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Where did you find out about this?