Festool battery charger

[Steven in Iowa]

Have any of you guys had a Festool battery charger go bad after a number of years?  I have a C12 drill that only holds a charge for 20 -30 seconds and I hate having to find a box and ship the whole thing into Festool to take a look at.  Both batteries exhibit the same thing after a full night on the charger so I doubt the batteries are the issue, coincidence that both batteries failed at the same exact time very doubtful.  The drill worked fine until I went to use it and the battery went dead after seconds, I switched batteries, same thing.  Charged both up overnight, but same thing happened the next day.  I'm debating on just buying a charger and seeing how my luck is.

 

[tbellemare]

Isn't there someone around with a charger so you could test the theory?

Tom

 

[ccarrolladams]

In the real world of battery charging, almost always it is the battery that stops accepting and holding a charge. The OP did not specify what kind of battery is involved.

NiCads have a memory problem. If they are re-charged before they are nearly out of charge, they function as if their capacity is the partial charge. When very expensive NiCads, such as the ones used with professional video cameras and movie cameras, "burp" chargers are used. Those cost thousands of dollars and use a computer to alternate charging and discharging the battery so it has maximum capacity.

LiO batteries originally had a limited lifespan, used or not, of about 2 years. More recently LiO batteries have a longer lifespan, but that is hardly infinite.

 

[tjbnwi]

Voltmeter set to DC.

Tom

 

[Rick Christopherson]

I have a C12 drill that only holds a charge for 20 -30 seconds

Given the symptoms, yes, the charger is the most likely cause.

Voltmeter set to DC.

Tom

No, a volt meter will not detect whether the charger is operational or not because the charger will not output any power until it has identified the battery.

 

[luke1984]

Hi all I had the same problem with my t18 sent it back to festool and they repaired the charger.  A electronic thingy had broke! They also tested my batteries and the charger had broke them both so festool sent me two new. The up side was old battery's were 2.6 ah new battery's were4.2 ah result .