Interesting Note on Festool Li-Ion Batteries

[jonny round boy]

At the UK mini-FOGfest, we learnt a lot from the Festool rep; here's another bit of info he gave us that hasn't (I don't think) been posted so far.

The warranty on the drills (and the cordless Carvex) covers the batteries too, for three years or 700 charge cycles, whichever is sooner.

He revealed that all Festool's Li-Ion batteries have monitoring circuitry that records info every time it's plugged into a charger. When batteries are sent in for repair or warranty claims, they can download this info and know exactly how many times it's been charged and for how long.

 

[chrisrosenb]

It is my understanding that in the USA, the Li-Ion batteries are covered by the same 3 warranty as the tools.

I am not sure I believe the black box recording part.

 

[Alan m]

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they are every where
they can see every thing.
not ever our power tools are safe.

ok enough fooling

i beleive they can do this . they wouldnt put a warrent on the batteries if they couldnt prove it was your fault

 

[Ken Nagrod]

The battery internal info is nothing new.  My Makita NiMH's had that years ago and I know Milwaukee did that for their warranty claims to tell the charge cycles, age and other conditions.  Don't worry.  It's not like there's an internal spy cam watching and recording that your lazy butt didn't work as hard as you should have today!  [wink] [smile]

 

[Frank-Jan]

I did know the batteries of the festool and protool drills were covered with the 3 year warranty; but not about the charge cycle limit. (which seems high enough).

The battery info thing is a good feature, we have bought 2 of the makita 14.4 Li Ion impact drivers when they just became available here, and after 1.5 years one of the batteries died; I took it to my dealer, where they could see it had only done 50 cycles. They sent it to makita and I got a free replacement, allthough officially it was out of warranty. (the warranty at the time was 2 years for the tool, 1 for the batteries).

 

[grobin]

Pro video batteries have been monitored for years.  I bought Anton Bauer batteries back in 2003 and they had internal monitoring and a cell and life indicator.

 

[Ken Nagrod]

Frank-Jan,

Something funky was going on with Makita's original Li Ion batteries.  They did have a warranty, didn't last long (total life).  My friend replaced 4 of mine total, the last 2 he put on the Makita testing rig.  It said something ridiculous about how many charges they had over their life.  I seem to recall one showed 4 and the other 16.  I could do that amount in less than a week.  The new ones worked much better and seemed to have more stable output till they needed a recharge.  The Makita badging on the battery seemed to be the visible indication whether you had an old or new version of the battery.  The Makita logoing if you want to call it that had blue in it and the new was all in white.

 

[joiner1970]

The Makita li-ion batteries have done that for years theres a chip in the battery and the charge recognizes each battery and level of charge needed its supposed to make them last longer. One of mine is starting to die i think they are about  3 or 4 years old used every day apart from weekends so not bad going

 

[Deansocial]

hilti also have this and can update the firmware on the battery aswell

 

[jonny round boy]

Yes, I know battery monitoring is not a new thing in general, just fairly new for Festool.

I just  thought that the 700 charge limit was info worth passing on...

 

[joiner1970]

aparently the Makita batteries will do 2000 cycles

 

[Rick Christopherson]

aparently the Makita batteries will do 2000 cycles

Unlike previous battery technologies, the number of cycles of a lithium-ion battery charge does not effect the life. Other technologies have limitations on the number of times the chemical reaction can be reversed. However, this is not to say that Li-ion doesn't still have a similar limitation, just slightly different. For Li-Ion, the life of the battery is determined by the length of time it spends with a charge on it. For example, if you leave your laptop computer plugged in all the time (as most people do) the battery life will be shorter than if you unplug the computer when the battery reaches full charge. Keeping your tool batteries "topped-off" for the next use reduces the life of the battery.

 

[slb]

Indeed, the makers have done this for years.  The most extreme case I have heard of was a friend whose Sony camera crapped out during a trip to Alaska.  When he took it for repair, they told him that the battery **automatically disables itself** after 500 charge cycles!  Nothing about that mentioned in the manual or any of their literature.