Technical Milwaukee charger warning

Oh, shit! I'm headed out to unplug mine too. I once left a cigarette lighter phone charger on and it smoked!

 

Hello,

It is an ongoing problem with all electrical chargers. Our supply of chargers for the Bosch tools, the Ryobi portable tools and such get a good workout with the first set of batteries. I have the spare charging the moment I walk into the garage, knowing the project may take an initial battery and then some.

I have never left the battery or batteries charging overnight. We do not want to be awakened with the sprinklers going off in the garage to put out a fire on the countertop. So, I have them sitting there, but unplugged until I get there the next morning. Sure, it seems like a safe thing to do, plug them in overnight. But, one experience with a warm, then hot battery, then smoking battery connection did a number on the psyche and they no longer get charged unless I am there.

Jnaki

It is not just tool recharging, but the laptop sitting in front of you gets used and the battery gets warm as it is being used for word processing, art drawing or even for searches. So, it can be hooked up when the low battery light and warning comes up during a session.

But, the next time the warning comes up, hook up your corded battery charge brick and plug it in. Now, feel the brick minutes later. I was worried and the warranty covered a replacement corded brick battery charger. Now, I have two.

The old one got hot when plugged into my powerful laptop. But the new replacement did not get hot until an hour later. But they both can still charge my battery. Since I am on the laptop, being warm to hot is not a factor. That is what batteries do when in use. YRMV

Just don’t leave them charged unseen overnight…

Note:
Here is a thought that we have implemented, over the years of garage work. For every cordless/battery powered tool, there is a corded backup or original one from the tool drawer. Cordless is handy and portable, but sometimes, a corded tool is necessary. YRMV

 

I have a bank of (6) DeWalt 20V chargers that have been plugged in for 4 years straight. Sometimes I leave the batteries in them for weeks at a time. The chargers have "maintenance mode" feature that turns off the charger when the battery is fully charged. I mounted them on an shelf made from aluminum sheet on my garage wall and they're connected to a power strip with a built in breaker, and that is plugged into a GFCI outlet in the wall. All of the cords are spaced from each other as well. I feel this is a safe way to keep from any potential electric fire from happening in my garage, and if it does there are breakers that should trip before it gets too bad.

 

I just built this rack for my chargers as I was tired of looking for them and taking up space. I was going to leave them powered on, but didn’t really like all the flashing and blinking lights. I also read somewhere that leaving batteries in the chargers after they’ve been fully charged is not good for them. Anyways, always a good idea to leave stuff unplugged if not in use where practical.

 

I know of two guys that lost their garages, cars, tools, and parts because of dewalt chargers. My old work had the shop office burn down because of one as well.

Old cell phones stored in a drawer or wherever are also a risk. I had a few on a shelf that I forgot about. One day I looked at them and two of them were swollen to the point that they shattered the screens.
After watching the lithium batteries my neighbor runs in his RC cars (another thing to keep an eye on if your kids or you have them) burn a hole through a metal bucket I am more aware of lithium batteries.

 

I think another thing to be leary of is our own mental attitudes.

I've had guys tell me they've been leaving their batteries in chargers for yrs and that's probably true, BUT what "we" forget is the batteries we used 2 years ago are NOT the same batteries we are buying now.

As tools get more powerful, so does the batteries and the more this technology is pushed and pressed to do more so does the use/abuse of the batteries.

It's like taking a small block and never seeing over 4k rpm then 2 yrs later we expect that same small block to turn 7k, all the while still using alot of the same technology we used to build the 4k small block.

Push technology beyond its means or expect it to work at the very top edge of its envelope and bad things are going to happen, sooner or later. And with Dewalt, Milwaukee etc each trying to out do the other and the use and building of less quality products to save a dime and I only see it getting worse...

...

 

I use dedicated outlets on a timer. That way, the charge is only active for the minutes that you select.

The shop battery chargers are on metal shelving. The electric chargers for the landscaping tools sit on a metal shelf in a metal building.

Go to the Home Depot or Lowes website and search for "electric countdown timer", there are several options.

 

I would like to add that anything can start on fire while plugged in.

Years ago one of my kids got a spinning light ball as a present. One night the smoke alarm went of and I went in to their room and found the ball smoldering. The switch on it was off. They were sound asleep as this thing was smoking. I grabbed it and tossed it out the window on to the front yard. Good thing weren't away and I woke up to the smoke alarm.

Everything in life has it's danger.

 

I am a Fire Investigator and I can tell you we are seeing more and more fires related to battery chargers and lithium ion batteries. They burn extremely hot and even the smallest of batteries can cause devastating fires.

I have 2 battery chargers for my drills and drivers and I never leave those batteries charging unattended. I HIGHLY recommend you do the same. If you have batteries charging in your garage for your drills/tools only charge those while you are present.

 

My air compressor wiring inside the pressure switch melted last year. We can't win.

 

Devils Advocate.........

If there is a problem with Milwaukee, I'd think there would be a recall. That doesn't mean that any tool by any manufacturer can't/won't fail when thousands and thousands of them are sold. Doesn't mean that a power spike of some kind didn't get to some of them, or that one component didn't get damaged during its manufacture and was subpar . Think about all the things we have in our homes that draw power 24/7 and only get a break when our power goes out. What about those security systems and security lights many of us have? My phone chargers(home phone) work or at least are plugged in and have current to them 24/7..........should I unplug them every night? The TV's all have power, the refrigerator, and the garage door openers and even electric water heaters......... Should I unhook the battery in my car every night because it provides some power to the car in my attached garage? Car fires do happen for no apparent reason. What are people going to do when we are forced to drive electric vehicles and they are charging overnight?
If there is a product out there that actually has a systemic failure possibility, we all want to know about it, and we expect the manufacturer to become aware and notify the public. Beyond that I don't plan to worry about the law of averages coming down on me.

 

My boss had a GooLoo battery jump starter pack recharging on his work bench last year in his garage and during the night, it exploded and anything combustable within a few feet of it was burned black. He was really fortunate that it did not take his whole house with it. I charge mine outside now............

 

I'm funny about anything electrical. Car batteries, I'll charge outside the garage. Power tool batteries I do in the kitchen so I can keep an eye on them. It doesn't take long to charge one up.

It was around 1990 and I had a small fan in my bedroom almost caught fire. It was an oscillating one and my wife woke up to the smell, she wakes me up. I jump up, the fan is trying to run, the cord is glowing orange. I grab a shirt off the floor and pulled the cord, it was like silly putty.

 

One of my colleagues at work is an electrical engineer who specializes in fire investigations. He's the first to warn you about charging batteries like these or any battery unattended and leaving anything unnecessary plugged in. Unplug your chargers and any electrical appliances that don't have some kind of off switch when not in use.

 

I put my charger on a timer just because of capacitor hiss. But, it prevents something like this too.

 

How many of you worry- warts have a doorbell transformer , transformer in your furnace or ac , battery tenders , garage door openers , etc . All transformers , all can fail .

 

Hope you checked your house wiring , fuses , breakers .... Something wrong there .

 

And that's not even all of them. Electric stoves/ranges, microwaves, in fact anything with a clock or digital display as well as anything with a remote that turns the appliance on/off. LED lights. All contain small transformers of one sort or another.

With that said, lithium batteries are known for self-combusting. And who's to say it was the charger that went bad? It may have been the battery malfunctioning that took out the charger. They are touchier than the NiCads they replaced, the cost of progress, particularly as battery voltages go up.

There's literally millions of these chargers in use, handfuls of antidotal reports doesn't necessarily make an epidemic. One thing they could do is use a metal enclosure rather than plastic, but that will run the cost up.

 

I hang mine from the ceiling, with the leads dangling down to the battery. If it ever shorts out there is nothing in close proximity to it to ignite.

 

To be picky there were NiMh between NiCd and the lithium batteries, but you are absolutely right the Li/ion and Li/pol batteries are way more sensitive and can fail in way more spectacular ways.

As for chargers vs. other appliances there's one significant difference. The general appliance only has to have major fault protection on the high voltage input side, as that's the only place power can go into them.
A charger has that, but also the risk of a battery backfeeding into the charger, and with modern day lithium batteries that's one very significant power source.

I've seen several cheap smart chargers for car batteries have an internal short on the output side, causing the battery to burn the insulation of the 12V wires. The only thing stopping it would have been the copper traces on the circuit board eventually melting. Some time later I saw that the new chargers they sold had a fuse on the output wire... It should have been there from the beginning, but someone thought it would be better to save a few cents by leaving it out.

Imagine the same charger issue but with a fire prone lithium battery without any built in protection circuit (many are protected, but not all). In that case it's not just the wires and charger that could catch fire, the battery might also do that because of the overload situation.

I really don't like charging batteries unattended. If I have to I want to place the charger and battery somewhere they are unlikely to cause further damage in case they fail - which is a good practice even if you are keeping an eye on them.

 

To the guys implying "No big deal" you're right. Right up until it affects your family, your tools, or your home. Then you'll be on here crying about your personal misfortune. It doesn't cost anymore to use a little common sense than it does to show your ass on a message board. Just sayin....

 

If you reckon the hiss is coming from a capacitor (usually an electrolytic type, cylindrical with the rating and voltage written on the shrink insulation), I would recommend to stop using it, and quickly. Electrolytics fail by the electrolyte heating up and letting off volatile gasses, and the can expands and goes "Bang!". Cleaning up this crap is real fun.
The noise you are hearing is probably loose transformer laminations (no big deal) or if it is a switch mode supply (the new fangled lightweight type), the sound may be the high-frequency oscillator used inside, also quite normal.

 

How do you tell the difference between the bad hiss, and the normal hiss? My M12/M18 charger hisses, and I've always been leery of leaving it unattended.

 

A capacitor will hiss for a few seconds before it goes "Bang!". Like a gas coming out of a small nozzle. If it hasn't thrown it's guts yet, it's something else.

 

I finally remembered to unplug my Milwaukee chargers tonight.

 

"Anythings" can & do happen to everyone , regardless of their " common sense" efforts to ward the them off , you'd have us disconnect every electrical device that can't be monitored & lock all said devices in fire proof containers when no one is around to watch them . C'mon man, lighten up ! Turning a teenager loose in a car by himself flies in the face of common sense yet most of us do it anyway , more than once.

 

The wiring was all new at that point. Something was wrong with the fan motor, it seized up for some reason. My BIL looked at the breaker after, we switched it for a new one. No problems since with the circuit.

 

Well, without killing the main breaker in your service panel, a little thought about what happened to others, albeit probably the minority of consumers, should be a wake up call.
I’ve never had a space heater cause a fire, but it’s one of the leading causes of fires. I unplug them when not in use while I’m not there.
I’d never heard of the charger (unloaded) burning up before.

But will be safe, rather than sorry from now on.

 

since this thread has been up another ebike fire happened at a train station. luckily it wasn't on a train otherwise it might have been a different outcome. i keep hearing about these ebike fires but no one will let claim on what model/brand it was. i want to know if they are all the same or different ones? remember a few years ago you had those two wheeled boards catch fire in peoples houses/garages but i haven't heard anything bad about those lately since some of them were recalled. sounded like it was a chinese battery problem? if i recall correctly.

kitchen fires. they claim the toaster is the main reason for kitchen fires but i bet most of us keep our toasters plugged in. i don't anymore. i have the microwave and toaster on the same strip and turn that strip off when not in use.

a few years ago around half a dozen supercars showed up at a copart yard. same owner. they were all burnt around the battery area, some seemed minor but others were burnt pretty bad melting the fiberglass bodies. turned out every car that he had a battery tender on caught fire when a lightning strike hit a line and it back fed thru the tenders to the batteries in these cars. yes, it wasn't just a malfunction like we are talking here but it was an extra jolt of unexpected electricity that took out these cars. my dad had batteries on tenders and after seeing this, he still used tenders to keep the batteries up but they were no longer just kept in the car.

i can see a charger burning up if it was plugged in and took an extra jolt of electricity from some type of power surge. or maybe a charger that got wet from a recent flood or heavy moisture content that was plugged in and not dry first?

i know i lost like 4 or 5 items in my house during a lightning storm once, they weren't in use but they were plugged in at the time.

 

I have seen one minor fire that resulted from the battery or charger and have read about a lot of others. I have seen others reported where the batteries themselves spontaneously caught fire. I no longer leave the chargers plugged in, and if I see someone who does I let them know what I have seen. Its no different than making sure oily rags and other flammable things are taken care of in a safe manner.

I did see what I thought was a good idea. Someone was using a metal mailbox to keep their batteries and chargers in. Kinda like a metal safety can for oily rags. Just a thought.