Thank you for this information. It saved my battery and it's so easy and simple. I'm glad I keppet my battery charger after I quit vaping. I'm basically a certified battery doctor now. Thank you.
I’ve watched one to many battery explosions lol I’m paranoid watching mine charge. Have an older charger, so it just has a light indicator, so I rigged my volt meter so I can keep an eye on the voltage.
This video was awesome! Thanks for saving me over $200 on my M18 HD 12.0 battery. Mine was like the one you showed where it had one flashing light but showed full on the charger. Opened it up and all banks showed around 4.1 volts, except for one that was 3.0 volts. I followed your procedure and the battery works perfectly again. It took all day to charge the one low bank, but it was well worth the time. My battery was out of warranty, so it would have cost me $215 to have Milwaukee service it. Thanks for the clear instructions on how to fix this problem.
I had this same issue and it eventually fixed itself after I drained whole battery and fully recharged it. Thanks for the info on identifying what was causing it.
Just fixed an XC8.0 with a $30 "MiBOXER 18650" charger I had lying around from flashlight games. Definitely important that it's a current-limiting charger, but at 200mA nothing even got warm. Thanks for the video!
I ordered the same charger after watching this video and fixed my 8ah Milwaukee battery charging 2 cells at a time. Thank you for this video, you saved me and others I will help in the future if they ever get the same issue, a good amount of money in the long run.
What's causing that problem is that the internal resistance of the cells are getting mismatched and the bms in the Milwaukee battery is failing to bring them close in voltage. To make matters worse, having higher amp hour in the battery and high amperage draw from the tool, increases the probably of that happening. DeWalt doesn't have that problem cause what makes the cell balancing is the charger itself, not an internal bms in the battery.
The charger doesn't balance shit. Neither does the bms. The bms only manages overcharge and over-discharge. All cells are simply not the exact same in it's quality. That's all. You'll have a bad one here and there. If the bms sees even one cell reach it's max charge, it's going to signal full. THAT'S what's going on. But yea you can balance em back, but because of the bad cell resistance, it's going to happen again anyway in due time
@fixer2u I am currently reviving a dead 9.0 and its working . Got 2 more 9.0 to fix thanks for the great video. Odd thing never had a 4.0,5.0 , 6.0 do this and I have been using them for atleast 11 years
@@Dookie_burner no prob. Glad it's helping! Same... I have 2 4ah and 2 5ah that have been perfect for the last 10 years. I've read that Milwaukee changed brands on the cells and they are not as reliable...
The bigger the battery and higher amp draw tools you use, the more this problem will show up. It's all down to the 50mA resistor not being enough to do balancing during a normal charge cycle. The faster chargers are even worse.
Okay here's the truth about what will happen with these batteries if this is done most the time. There's a reason those batteries are dropping down a lot of the time it's because they are weak because they are made poorly by Samsung. The LG battery that they use as a much better battery but they straight away from them probably for cost reasons. Much of the time that you equalize and balance out these cells you're going to end up with the same problem you need to replace the battery. The biggest part of this that is missing is the balancing. It is a must that you balance these batteries even to have them off by 1 is not okay or even point zero two you need to have them absolutely as equal as possible. Otherwise you're just going to fluctuate them and they are going to be back in the same situation again. Or you were going to have one of the batteries that is higher than the other set within the M18 and that's going to drive it above 4.2 volts which is a big no no and you do not want that. So it is vital to have those cells at 4.1 or as close to as possible throughout all 10 or 15 depending on the amp hour and model of the battery of course. If it's a single road battery then all five of them need to be as close to 4.1 as possible and the reason it's not 4.2 is because one it's lithium ion and not with the impolymer. Secondly if you ever check the charger and the status that it charges it to it will be 20.5 not 21 volts. I think they need to go to 21 volts personally but that's not what DeWalt and Milwaukee do probably so that your battery doesn't last as long as you have to buy more it would be my assumption they say it's because of with your mind should only be 4.1 volts not 4.2 but anything past 4.2 you're going to be running into problems there as well even though the battery will push higher than 4.2 it's not recommended at all. It is a must to balance them I noticed most these videos they do not do it they just get them close as possible reset them and most the time down the road they're going to have the same issue and that battery that was drained before is going to do it again because it's weak and it's not holding a charge well. The other times there's something wrong with the circuit board and it's draining it. I've owned battery businesses for 16 years and work on them every single day of my life I know them like the back of my hand. There's a lot of things that they tell us about these batteries that aren't true also but that's pretty much anything in life isn't it ☺️
Thank you for the info! Since making this video I have had to redo several of the batteries. I have 2 9ah that have had to do this several times and 2 that have never needed this. I should crack the other ones open and compare the batteries in them to see if they are indeed LG vs Samsung!
I believe most of what you say. What I've found to be the case is battery that doesn't accept a charge. Freeze them lightly. Put them in a microwave for 15 seconds. It wants to explode the being cold then being metal and in a microwave they want to explode. Something about the killing the ions with cold and the radioactivity in that binds the 2 ions with lithium
Milwaukee’s M12 and M18 battery systems are widely criticized for issues like battery failure, compatibility issues across tools and chargers, complicated troubleshooting, and battery warranties much shorter than their tool warranties. Considering how complicated and potentially dangerous the fixes are, it’s unsurprising Milwaukee plays dumb and lets these complicated and potentially dangerous fixes pile up on RUclips. Will you trust Milwaukee when you buy your next tool or battery?
@LM-ii6fd well that's going to be a tough argument to win because they are by far blowing out all of the competition around them in the United states. And that's a fact. If you understood how much business they were taking away from DeWalt and all the other competitors you wouldn't have a lot to say I promise you. There's a reason that they are the top of the food chain in the United States for sale and for product and for warranty. They have the longest warranty on the market by a landslide so you tell me how a company has the confidence to give that type of warranty of 5 years when the rest of competition isn't even close if they sell a bad product? I think they stand behind their product. I'm like DeWalt that gives a 1-year warranty free replacement and then a 3-year limited warranty which Milwaukee blows out of the water.
@LM-ii6fd every single company intentionally and unintentionally comes out with flaws because it's planned obsolescence. Also other companies like Samsung Play apart because they have to do their job as well because they make the battery cells or the circuit boards which supply Milwaukee's brand. Flaws happen all the time specially with first generation products. Look at the DeWalt 60 volt battery it has more problems than any other battery I've ever seen on the market. And I literally work 12 to 16 hours on batteries all day long for the last 16 years. So most of the time it is due to the user of the battery or tool is why it fails out because they do not know how to manage the product properly. I think most business owners or suppliers would understand this and agree with this. But yes product does go bad because they want it to. Unfortunately that's the nature of the beast but I get in every type of battery from all different types of manufacturers and companies and I will guarantee you right now that DeWalt has a far less Superior battery and the 60 volt battery I've never seen have more problems than any other battery out on the market hands down. But it is a very complex system but most the time it's something simple like they did not seal their battery correctly so dirt and grime gets in it and that's what stops the connection most the time. But there's also a design flaw that looks like it's intentional on the front right battery of the 20 volt. Where they put aluminum foil on top of the metal so it heats up and breaks apart creating a separation between the connection and that happens more than people would think. Like I said I rebuild them all day long all different types of batteries from all different manufacturers. So I'm working it every single day so I know the product better than most and the ones who just say stuff because they had a bad experience or hear something have nowhere close to experience that I do single day
This worked for me also on my 12amp battery. It saved me 250 dollars for a new one. Milwaukee battery sales are dropping fast because of your great information. Thanks
You saved me $500 my man! Both of my 12.0 batteries were dead, all banks were around 3-3.8v on both of them, charged each bank back up to full, slapped it on the charger to "reset" it and now i have full 4 bars of charge again!
Thank you for sharing your knowledge! I learned a lot from this ! I really hope fixing becomes more popular it helps people in more ways than just fixing something!!! Thanks again 👍
I have an old RC variable lithium charger that I tried with on one of my 8.0 amp batteries that dies very quick but then charges almost immediately. Flashing light recently that won't run a tool and shows green full charge on the charger. I was able to bring up one bank that was below 2 volts. This was a life saver! Thanks for the video!
I have (2) 9Ah batteries doing that same deal, battery needs to be rebuilt or the circuit board is shot. I haven't rebuilt one yet to find out but i did charge each row with a bench PS and it worked fine for a short time before dancing it's jig again! For the price Milwaukee charges I'm rebuilding! Fool me once, shame on you, i will not be made a fool a second time! 😂 You can buy a spot welder, nickle strip and beast cells for less than 1 new battery, only have to buy the spot welder once!
Time will tell on my 8.0 ah battery issue returning. Like you I wouldn't mind rebuilding them if it comes to that. It seemed to take all day at 500 milliamps to get the one bank up from 1.3 volts to around 4 volts. They say their battery system is supposed to prevent draining batteries below 2.5v, but that doesn't work very well. I have a couple 4.0 ah milwaukee batteries from 2010 that still work fine to this day! But apparently the larger the amp hour the bigger the potential for this stupid balance problem. I did rc for several years. As costly as these batteries are I just don't understand why the manufacturer doesn't make these battery cells/banks balance capable. That's basically what we're doing to even them back out.
@@kickford I think a lot of it is to do with more bad batches of cells. They are rushing development so testing and QC lacks! The people have become the testers/guinea pigs and at the price they sell them they are taking the "risk" of potentially having to replace large quantities into consideration already..... Passing the buck right back onto us! That's never been made more evident than with "self checkout"! Shit isn't any cheaper and these companies have the audacity to complain about product loss when they don't pay the employees selling the products 😂!
I used a hobby grade charger Spektrum Smart charger S2200. With the individual cells being 800 mAh a total of 2400 per bank you can safely charge at 1C which would be 2.4 amps. I worked my way up slowly to 2.4 amps which cuts the charging time down. I had 3 out of 5 banks at 3.6v on a M18 HD12.0
Super video and well explained along with the help of some of the commenters. I had to laugh at myself as I had been planning a HD12.0 revival for over a year collecting the various parts and tools you and others described. I have at least 6 with the dreaded 3-bar limit so it is time. I got my operating table ready and ran immediately into a problem! The longer T-10 holes do not allow a bit holder/extension down into the plastic recess...you must have lucked out having the bits you did with the longer reach...Just placed an order on the Jungle website for a set of extra long bits.
Thank you mate - good ide to use home battery charger. Just one question - for how long this has solved the problem for the batteries? DId the problem showed up again ? If yes - when?
You are welcome! For me it has been a year and they are still going strong. I do not use my batteries every day like some so I would guess results may be different for others.
Thanks for the video. Some of the batteries I've been looking at had some bad reviews on them due to this issue. Me being me, I figured the problem was probably pretty easy to fix. Good to know that I can now discredit these reviews because I now know how I can fix them.
Just ordered a "broken" HD 12.0 battery. Listing said battery won't charge and stuck on one bar. I might start buying my batteries like this to boost up my supply. This will probably go into my new Milwaukee packout radio I purchased yesterday.
I have 2 12.0 batteries that charge fully according to the charger and power indicator but they both drain very fast, 20 cuts with a skillsaw and their both dead, what does that mean?
For anyone doing this the top ones are a T8 and the side safety ones are a T10 which is opposite to what this video says. Be sure to get screw drivers as well as the hex ones don't fit as well and the screws on these are tight. Thanks to the creator for the video btw.
would you have to do this every time you charge it or is it a once Ina while thing, like after you do this would it work perfectly fine for a while before you have to maybe do it again
Great question! You will not have to do this every time. I have since had to do this a couple of times since making this video. It takes a while for one or 2 of the cells to drift far enough away from the others in order to need this.
Big thank you, I was able to save my battery with you help. I think the problem is when you run a battery down on a tool until it has no charge left this is what happens.
I have a question, if I do not have a battery charger could I accomplish the same thing if I drain each bank down to balance out the good and bad banks, then put it back on the m18 charger?
From what I have read, not draining the battery until dead dead amd not storing the tool with the battery installed can help with the issue. I cannot answer about fixing the circuit.
When I looked at the battery when pulled apart, I noticed that the terminals were very large on the board... Do you think that the battery may have been dropped, and a crack has formed on the solder connections to the circuit board? They all seem to come back to the board in sets, but if some don't quite make contact for some reason, they may not be charged (thermal expansion, etc).... And the battery is measured via motherboard and output terminals differently. I will re solder all the major joints and retry it. Then try your method of charging if it doesn't work, but it seems to be the heavier batteries that are having the problem. Just a thought. By the way, the new lead free solder is much more brittle, and that may be what they are using.????????
The reason you are having a hard time getting readings is because the HD 12's have a protective coating. I noticed that my 9.0 I could just touch the banks and it worked fine. If you just tough the banks on a 12 it won't work because of that coating. You have to scratch through the coating first. Its very annoying for charging with the Opus as well. That is the same charger I use as well. I have to get the leads to dig in so that I can start the charge. It irritates me to no end that Milwaukee continues to have this issue with such incredibly expensive batteries. The solution to this issue is for Milwaukee to include a BMS that can actually balance the batteries. They claim that it can balance the batteries but it doesn't. And I feel that this is designed this way so people can buy more batteries of course. I have batteries that are from 7 years ago that still work fine. The charge isn't even that bad tbh. But they have gone out of balance several times and I fix them every time it happens and mark each battery when it happens so I can keep track of how often it happens on the battery. A true BMS system that balances batteries would look at each battery and make sure it is at the correct voltage at the end of charging. Vs milwaukees which likes to stop whenever one bank shows roughly 4.1v leaving the rest uncharged. And when milwaukees BMS system shows around 3.2v or so, it shuts down the tool. This is exaggerated when one bank only gets charged to 3.6v when the rest are 4.1. Even though most of the batteries are full, you will only get the life of the battery bank that is lower.
I know what you mean. I have a Traxxas RC truck and the charger for the LiPo batteries has 3 options to charge. Fast, Balance and Storage. I always use the balance option. Milwaukee needs to have at least balance and fast as options for its chargers and that would help a lot.
Hey Michael, great comment and info! I know what You mean and am in full agreement. Not knocking Milwaukee as I am a fan, but the M18 batteries are the only ones I have ever had problems with. I have been a ‘victim’ of the M18 8.0 HO batteries and the full charge only showing 3 bars issue. And as I’m sure You know, don't ever let a M18 battery sit too long on a low charge. This never happens with any of my DeWalt, Makita, Metabo HPT, etc. And Milwaukee, whilst usually real good with their E -Service, aren’t so good with battery warranty claims. Appreciate the comment Michael. Stay safe and well!
@@fixer2u A trickle charger that balances and reconditions old batteries would be the easiest solution. I wonder if the problem was addressed with the new Forge batteries and chargers. I've been holding off on buying any more of these 12ah batteries and still waiting for the release of the new ones which should have been out by now.
@@SteveSherman-jp1dz You are correct, balancing is the answer. I have some LiPo rc batteries and a charger. The charger has the option for balancing or fast charging.
Genius diagnosis & solution. I have a wild thought. Could we simply connect every 4.2v bank in parallel and let them equalize themselves? My XC 8.0 has the same issue too !
I am trying to do this on a M18 9mAhr battery. I am confused though to what a "bank" is, since the metal plate seems to connect many smaller battery cells and I seem to have only three "banks" - they read {4.02V, 4.03V, 4.02V}, seems pretty close to being the same voltage. Not sure why mine wont fully charge, and not sure I am measuring the voltage from the correct banks?
@@EdMacKerrow in an M18 there will be 5 banks. When you have the battery disassembled, on the sides you will see the plastic housing. Look at the bottom on the housing on the sides an you will see + and - symbols alternating as you look down the side. You should see 3 + and 2 - or 3 - and 2 + depending on which side you look on. Thos show you each of the banks.
I have the same set up as you. I charged each cell to 4.2 volts. Battery (The dreaded Milwaukee 9amp) is showing > 20 volts. Battery checker is still blinking 1 red light. Put the battery on the charger and it is showing a green light. The BMS must be smoked. Any ideas how to reset the BMS? Not too keen on jumping battery to battery. Thanks and nice video!
Also, what you referred to as a Bank are just batteries in parallel. The more batteries in parallel the more capacity Connecting multiple batteries or what you refer to in this video as banks increases voltage. Easiest way to explain this especially for those that may not understand with the lithium batteries is showing here is think of car batteries if you get 12 V batteries that are 100 amp hours and you connect them all the positives together and the negative to negative you’d have a 12 V 400 amp battery but if you went from the first battery to the next batteries negative and so on on both sides you increase the voltage to 48 V, but your amperage would stay at 100. You would referred to this battery as a 5S3P. 5 cells in series 3 cells in parallel.
Thanks for the comments. I was referring to them as "banks" in order to help show the viewers how to keep it straight which batteries were with what. Does that make sense? Hard to explain in text.
Do you think MX batteries could be charged the same way? I bought a tool that was probably sitting somewhere for a long time and batteries are so low they won't start charging with regular mx charger. I am thinking maybe I could try something like this to at least bring voltage up enough for the regular mx charger could recognize it and start charging them. Any advice? Thanks!
IT would probably work. I have also seen guys "jump start" the batteries just as you would a car. Hook them up to another MX battery positive to positive and negative to negative to help bring the voltage up so that the charger will charge it.
What did you use to make the jumper cables? Trying this out and although I’m familiar with the battery type, 18650s, chargers, and multimeter, not sure where to find the material to make some jumpers
I am having wacky issues with new M18 5.0 batteries from this Black Friday. Had issues with my first starter kit. Homedepot swapped me out. Same issue with the replacement starter kit but I am trying to work through it. All 4 came with 1Bar of charge (~17.5V). If you stick them on the charger it might give you a red light but 1-2 hours later it might start flashing red/green, had the light go off once, and in this scenario we still have 1Bar and the charge is still ~17.5V. Homedepot replaced the first set after this. I called asking if this would clear up with some charge/discharge cycles and they said shouldn't happen at all. Well, as I've said the 2nd pair of new 5.0 batteries presented the same(1bar, 17.5V). I discharged one of them on the M18 Blower, then charging looked good for the first time. Got up to 3 bars and then the charger starts flashing red/green(signifying battery issue). Now this battery has 3bars and is over ~19.5V. I discharged the 4th one with the blower too and now it's charging. What's going on with these M18 %.0 amp batteries? I'll try your fix on these next if another discharge/charge doesn't get them to 4 bars. On another note. I have another M18 5.0 from 2014 that stopped working about a year ago. It's had light use. Diags say it's been on the charger 46 times, a number of those were likely me testing to get it working a year ago. I opened it up and found two banks @1V. The rest were close to 4V. Think your fix will work on this one? I am going to try it :)
Yeah go ahead on the older ones, but on the new ones, I would just take them back to home depot again. Sounds like a bad batch of batteries. No excise for them to be acting like that right out of the box!
@@fixer2u Thanks for the advice. Here is the rest of the story. The 4th one that was charging last night got a green light but was still dead (1 flashing light). I put it right back on the charger and charger showed red again. Went back to it this morning, green again, but this time the battery shows 4 full bars and is over 20V. First of the 4 batteries to get here. I am also hopeful the next charge cycle for the 3rd battery will get to 4 bars. I believe the batteries are from a different batch. My first kit came from an online order(warehouse), the 2nd kit came from a local home depot and the dates were a couple months older. I ended up in home depot today and told my experience to one employee who sent me to another. Neither had heard of the issue before. Both agreed shouldn't happen. Came up again in conversation with a 3rd employee who said, "they don't make them like they use to".
Dumb question, bit can't you jump these by doing what you have there but instead using another battery? Like when you jump one that has flashing red & green light?
I think you need a DC power supply. Much easier than Jerry ringing a charger. It turns off just the same when the voltage is achieved. I have the NANKADF 30V 10A its very useful around the shop.
How do you fix a 12amp that flashes on charger? There's two bars but won't charge. The charger is fine and terminals and the same on battery. How can I make it charge?
@@fixer2u Red, update I tried boosting but still won't charge. Light still flashing red on charger. I bought the battery used like new on Amazon. When I got it last week it did take a charge but only ran less than 15 mins, for a 12amp that should be 45 mins on a weed trimmer or longer. Should of clued in then. I got a full refund yesterday. I was hoping the batter could be fixed. Lesson don't buy used batteries
@@fixer2uIt was a knock off, the bottom case screws were Philips not torx like the rest. The inside had some weird stuff too on circuit board compared to the real battery. Amazon got a review lol
Great Video! Don't try two slots!! Worked great with just 1 slot/bank. When I tried using two slots to speed up the process it fried my battery charger! 😥
@@fixer2u I got my charger today and was having difficulty getting readings. Apparently there is a thin plastic layer over the connecting tins that you have to scrape away before attaching the charge wire. I put an note in the comments.
I had a cell that was measuring less than one volt. All the other cells were at or above 4 V. I ordered that charger and hooked it up just like you showed. It worked for about two hours and then the display showed to be full. The cell only charged to 2.2 V. Any idea why it did it not charge it to the full 4 V?
@@fixer2u Yeah, I tried it. Said it was to low to charge at 3.84 V . That’s 18V ALL together, Im Only charging 1 Bank at a time. Don’t think it was because of the 18V though. I’ve tried everything with thing. To experience to junk, I’ll just take the good batteries out & charge them & make something new.
I have a 12Amh battery that is just out of warranty and it just plain died after just a few minutes on my blower. Charger won’t recognize that the battery has been put on to charge and not lights on the battery will light up. Any hope for this battery?
so I couldn't buy the exact battery charger but I got one pretty similar. I have been charging at .5amps but it is really slow.. mine can go up to 1.5amps and is there a reason not to go any higher than .5 amps? I have 8 batteries to go through and I wonder if I can save some time by charging them a little faster..
Yes it does take a while. I have tried it at .75 amps but not at a higher amperage than that. You could give it a shot at something higher, but I would monitor it to make sure nothing is getting hot.
@@fixer2u Thanks! also, I have you tried charging multiple cells of the same battery pack at the same time or should I only charge one at a time? I've been charging a cell from 12ah at .5amps and it has taken over 12 hours only to bring it to 70%. I have 5 to go through from each battery x 8 batteries, which is going to take a whole month to charge batteries I have... being able to charge multiple at a time would be helpful for sure.
The individual cells within the battery are going to have a rating for charging current. You have the battery open already, so look for the part numbers and manufacturer name on the cells. Then find the spec sheet for that type of cell. I think you will be able to use higher charging currents, but it depends on those cells.
You are a righteous dude.. thx for taking the time to make the video.. now if you could just tell me how to get my Parakeet to eat my diarrhea all would be good 😂😂
This is excellent. I've got 3 high cap batteries that only work for half their capacity. I'm going to give this a try. I've also got a coworker facing the same issue with his that I'll see if I can fix.
I have 2 M18 12 batteries that only show 2 bars and then show fully charged. I would love to try this but to be honest, electricity and thought of blowing these up scares the heck out of me. The link provided doesn't appear to be for sale but they have the C3400 which appears to be same but next model up. Would love to fix these.
I bought a Milwaukee battery from eBay and it worked fine for a couple months then it was dead and I recharged it with another and it work for a few then I tried again with another battery and now it doesn’t work anymore and with the other one as well. Do you know why both of them stopped working ?
FYI - don't get greedy and try to charge two low banks at the same time. My Opus charger briefly flashed 4400ma as the charge rate as the banks tried to equalize through the charger when I hooked up the second set of leads. Yeah, those banks are still in series so can't hook up to two at once. Charger survived, tougher than it looks. Thanks Fixer, don't remember if you mentioned that, watched this long ago and just skimmed again now.
Thanks for this vid! I bought the same charger to revive two 8.0s. It brought one of them back, but on the other one, all banks read 4.19v but only 3 of the leds light up.
Just a heads up: when you take the casing off, there’s +/- all along the bottom of the banks on the plastic. Clearly indicated. My question to you is: with the banks that are connected together with the metal. How do you know where to put your wires. Wouldn’t it short out the bank that shares the same weld plate thing? That’s a detail that I really would have liked you included. Cheers.
@@fixer2uI realize that. What I meant was, are the vertical banks insulated from each other somehow? Because from what I gather, when you charged the second bank, you slipped your positive/negative leads in the same way. Adjacent the second vertical battery bank. My question was: that whole metal façade… how is it not pushing voltage to the previous bank as it seems it’s all on the same plate. (Except for the 5th one of course) Maybe a dumb question. Sorry. I’m about to do one of mine based on your tutorial.
Does that charger automatically set itself to 4.2 or do you have to manually set the voltage? I just bought a 12amp battery and it’s doing this exact same thing
@@fixer2u I have other batteries blinking 1 bar and I was experimenting and fried my charger. Have you tried to charge cells with another fully charged battery?
Realistically, how long can this prolong a battery's life? I've probably owned my battery for less than 3 years but I didn't think to keep the receipt since I generally take meticulous care of my stuff. I'm imagining having a hard time trying to get warranty help, so I'd like to go this route, I'm just unsure how much longer I can expect to get out of my battery even after doing this. I would hate to do this then just a few charges later, have to do this again, and again etc. Thanks in advance!
My 9ah batteries I did over a year ago now and they are still holding up. So even if it is once a year or once every 6 months, For me it would be a win.
Milwaukee has an awesome warranty. They look it up by the battery or tool itself. You have to take it directly to a Milwaukee warranty store. They have more than most people realize.
what i did was , i took another battery and ran jumper wires to the pos and neg terminals and let it sit for some time and the battery actually started to charge , but i do have others with problems and 1 i tried this with but it still failed with a flashing light and green on the charger, which im suspecting a bad board. thanks.
@fixer2u Thanks, I have done all the banks now. I started with the lowest banks and the lights only came back once I had done all the banks. I now have banks between 4.0 to 4.15. I originally had 4 banks under 4.0 ( lowest 3.2). I have taken a note on the cell level and I'm going to let it sit for a few days before I start using it and re check. When you put the bank that you just charged to full on the charger again straight away it doesn't come up as full straight away it starts trying to charge. Is this normal and it will go back to full with little charging time? I just didn't test it. Note to self is to mark off the bays you charge when you do them as it get confusing
I thought I followed the video precisely on each Bank and got them all over 4 V. But it still blinks like it’s dead and won’t charge. Did I miss something? I checked them again and they’re all still holding over 4 V.
It doesn’t charge or run the tool. The only thing I did was first I used another battery to jump it. And it worked but did not last very long. It even charged one time a little bit, but did not go to full charge just three bars. So I decided to try this method and charge up all the banks and it seemed to go perfect. Each one is holding over 4 V now but it is still blinking on the first bar and will not charge. Like It didnt help anything
How do you automatically get 4.2 if you set it to charge up to 5.00 mah? Also, I'm lost on polarity. So, it looks like the battery starts on negative on bottom left and ends on positive at top right. Series. So when you charge band 2 starting at bottom, should you flip from positive to negative on the next jumper to bank 2? And swap going to the next? And swap against until you end at top right positive? I saw your second charge and you switched the left negative blue 12v ring hole wire to the next one in line. I'm confused. Anyone know how to explain this better? Thanks
4.2 is Volts not amps. The charger is a smart charger so it knows what the max capacity of the battery is. so it stops at 4.2V and its 500mA not 5.00 mAH. I have since tried this on other batteries and have used the 2000 mA. As for polarity. If you look at the very bottom of the banks, it shows you which ones are pos and which are neg. Yes they do alternate each cell. That is why I encourage you to use a multimeter and make the polarity on each one so you can see for yourself how they are laid out. I hope this helps. Feel free to ask more questions.
I have one that only flash red, and when i search it said that the temperature of the battery was too cold or hot. I left it in room temperature and still flash red why?
@@ivallejo1456 That is odd that it would happen again so quickly. I have had to redo mine once every couple of months not right away. There must be a couple really bad individual batteries in there.
@@ivallejo1456 If the battery is that new, I would suggest trying to warranty it. If you still have the receipt from when you bought it, you should be able to get it taken care of!
Ive done this twice to my 9.0 over a year..untill my lab power supply burned up charging a bad ridgid battery ..it keeps going back to the same unbalanced charge after a month or so.. I suspect most if not all will become unbalanced again in short order . They need a way better bms and balancer.
This Man deserves a new Fluke, or at the very least, a new Klein MM. 😊 I am going to try this on a couple of my M18 XC batteries that give the ‘Christmas lights’ when placed on the charger, as well as a couple of my M18 8.0 HO ( expensive ) batteries with the full charge showing only 3 bars. I have a NiteCore charger that will charge LiIon batteries up to 21700 in size, so will try this. I have scrap dowels lying about, so will give it a go. I’m thinking the NiteCore charger will suffice?? What say You? Much appreciated! 👍
Looks like this one will work. I have never used it though. So do a little research please! www.amazon.com/EBL-Discharge-Functions-3-2VLiFePO4-Rechargeable/dp/B0BS6GF5ZJ/ref=sr_1_45?crid=2UA3EDOUC5G33&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.0z1Ap0SDETC7UFpwucj4Rua_8Nv8mXXwxBY-N-1Gs23_wKcE-o9RqAxtU8ZPPIVE5ZNO-QEknY-9CufghrOhLDMtWGleXM1nfaZbLfJ-7Lu2UZFEqvAK_Tc173pY15ZcwldxCNImA-D38gDDpSYVWSRteurpIGkqaMQNwBRGQGlZ001SdpLHdL334Q5VrEsGJudT6REVbcPsNPjcdgL0RMZ7SHvZdeuBVnexArH2h60utXhII4ffbiLKO0gNahct6u0fVCEO7hWLwL_GkPI4XHsQRrFenTsHEexhD9zDmWc.aYOzqHMQVUX206UbQp5lTvyChZX2sit3lcj4K8i_8d4&dib_tag=se&keywords=lithium+battery+charger&qid=1708694983&sprefix=lithium+battery+charger%2Caps%2C126&sr=8-45
Thank you for this information. It saved my battery and it's so easy and simple. I'm glad I keppet my battery charger after I quit vaping. I'm basically a certified battery doctor now. Thank you.
Haha that's awesome, glad it helped!
I’ve watched one to many battery explosions lol I’m paranoid watching mine charge. Have an older charger, so it just has a light indicator, so I rigged my volt meter so I can keep an eye on the voltage.
And the dam lights are still burning about the same. They stay on around the clock.
This video was awesome! Thanks for saving me over $200 on my M18 HD 12.0 battery. Mine was like the one you showed where it had one flashing light but showed full on the charger. Opened it up and all banks showed around 4.1 volts, except for one that was 3.0 volts. I followed your procedure and the battery works perfectly again. It took all day to charge the one low bank, but it was well worth the time. My battery was out of warranty, so it would have cost me $215 to have Milwaukee service it. Thanks for the clear instructions on how to fix this problem.
Wow! You are welcome! Glad it helped!
I had a low bank starting at 3.68 and it literally had to go overnight to charge, not a couple of hours.
@@debandmike3380 Go ahead and set the amperage at 2000. I have since tried this and works just fine.
Great info. Just done a 9ah and a 12ah both with same issue. Both are going fine now. Cheers mate
Awesome! Glad it helped!
I had this same issue and it eventually fixed itself after I drained whole battery and fully recharged it. Thanks for the info on identifying what was causing it.
Ahh interesting! I may try that as well!
Just fixed an XC8.0 with a $30 "MiBOXER 18650" charger I had lying around from flashlight games. Definitely important that it's a current-limiting charger, but at 200mA nothing even got warm. Thanks for the video!
Awesome! Glad it worked!
This just saved 2 batteries for me. a 12 and an 8 ... could have saved 2 x 9ah if i had known earlier .. Awesome job mate.. well done
Thank you! Glad it helped!
Exact same situation for me. Kicking myself for throwing out the two 9ah batteries.
I had to order the charger from aliexpress, but once I got it, hooked it up and saved 2 batteries. Thank you for the video.
Awewome! Glad it worked!
Hey what brand of charger did you buy from Aliexpress? There so many to choose from.
@@thebigbravo3529any one of the thousands on amazon or alibaba
Sounds like Milwaukee needs to fix that issue not the consumer.
Agreed!
they won't fix it, they rather you buy a new battery and make them money.
You'll need to send it to China
@@michaelpouchert4486 haha maybe!
the battery management board is not doing its job
I ordered the same charger after watching this video and fixed my 8ah Milwaukee battery charging 2 cells at a time.
Thank you for this video, you saved me and others I will help in the future if they ever get the same issue, a good amount of money in the long run.
Awesome! Im glad it helped!
Wanna make some extra cash. I’m not too smart I’ll send you my bad batteries it’s 4 of them and pay you to repair them.
What's causing that problem is that the internal resistance of the cells are getting mismatched and the bms in the Milwaukee battery is failing to bring them close in voltage. To make matters worse, having higher amp hour in the battery and high amperage draw from the tool, increases the probably of that happening. DeWalt doesn't have that problem cause what makes the cell balancing is the charger itself, not an internal bms in the battery.
Interesting....
The charger doesn't balance shit. Neither does the bms. The bms only manages overcharge and over-discharge. All cells are simply not the exact same in it's quality. That's all. You'll have a bad one here and there. If the bms sees even one cell reach it's max charge, it's going to signal full. THAT'S what's going on. But yea you can balance em back, but because of the bad cell resistance, it's going to happen again anyway in due time
@@fixer2u👌🏾 but tell em get the warranty
@@Millzlane correct. But so far I have had good luck. Both the 9ah I have used this method on are going on a year now and they are still balanced.
@@fixer2u ok. That's good. It must've been that one high demand use that drove that cell to expose itself. He's hiding now. Lol
I bought 3 12.0 batteries and they all did this. None of the other milwaukee batteries have done this. Thanks for the tutorial i gotta try this
Hope it helps!
@fixer2u I am currently reviving a dead 9.0 and its working . Got 2 more 9.0 to fix thanks for the great video. Odd thing never had a 4.0,5.0 , 6.0 do this and I have been using them for atleast 11 years
@@Dookie_burner no prob. Glad it's helping! Same... I have 2 4ah and 2 5ah that have been perfect for the last 10 years. I've read that Milwaukee changed brands on the cells and they are not as reliable...
Yup, just my 9amp batteries
The bigger the battery and higher amp draw tools you use, the more this problem will show up. It's all down to the 50mA resistor not being enough to do balancing during a normal charge cycle. The faster chargers are even worse.
Okay here's the truth about what will happen with these batteries if this is done most the time. There's a reason those batteries are dropping down a lot of the time it's because they are weak because they are made poorly by Samsung. The LG battery that they use as a much better battery but they straight away from them probably for cost reasons. Much of the time that you equalize and balance out these cells you're going to end up with the same problem you need to replace the battery. The biggest part of this that is missing is the balancing. It is a must that you balance these batteries even to have them off by 1 is not okay or even point zero two you need to have them absolutely as equal as possible. Otherwise you're just going to fluctuate them and they are going to be back in the same situation again. Or you were going to have one of the batteries that is higher than the other set within the M18 and that's going to drive it above 4.2 volts which is a big no no and you do not want that. So it is vital to have those cells at 4.1 or as close to as possible throughout all 10 or 15 depending on the amp hour and model of the battery of course. If it's a single road battery then all five of them need to be as close to 4.1 as possible and the reason it's not 4.2 is because one it's lithium ion and not with the impolymer. Secondly if you ever check the charger and the status that it charges it to it will be 20.5 not 21 volts. I think they need to go to 21 volts personally but that's not what DeWalt and Milwaukee do probably so that your battery doesn't last as long as you have to buy more it would be my assumption they say it's because of with your mind should only be 4.1 volts not 4.2 but anything past 4.2 you're going to be running into problems there as well even though the battery will push higher than 4.2 it's not recommended at all. It is a must to balance them I noticed most these videos they do not do it they just get them close as possible reset them and most the time down the road they're going to have the same issue and that battery that was drained before is going to do it again because it's weak and it's not holding a charge well. The other times there's something wrong with the circuit board and it's draining it. I've owned battery businesses for 16 years and work on them every single day of my life I know them like the back of my hand. There's a lot of things that they tell us about these batteries that aren't true also but that's pretty much anything in life isn't it ☺️
Thank you for the info! Since making this video I have had to redo several of the batteries. I have 2 9ah that have had to do this several times and 2 that have never needed this. I should crack the other ones open and compare the batteries in them to see if they are indeed LG vs Samsung!
I believe most of what you say. What I've found to be the case is battery that doesn't accept a charge. Freeze them lightly. Put them in a microwave for 15 seconds. It wants to explode the being cold then being metal and in a microwave they want to explode. Something about the killing the ions with cold and the radioactivity in that binds the 2 ions with lithium
Milwaukee’s M12 and M18 battery systems are widely criticized for issues like battery failure, compatibility issues across tools and chargers, complicated troubleshooting, and battery warranties much shorter than their tool warranties.
Considering how complicated and potentially dangerous the fixes are, it’s unsurprising Milwaukee plays dumb and lets these complicated and potentially dangerous fixes pile up on RUclips. Will you trust Milwaukee when you buy your next tool or battery?
@LM-ii6fd well that's going to be a tough argument to win because they are by far blowing out all of the competition around them in the United states. And that's a fact. If you understood how much business they were taking away from DeWalt and all the other competitors you wouldn't have a lot to say I promise you. There's a reason that they are the top of the food chain in the United States for sale and for product and for warranty. They have the longest warranty on the market by a landslide so you tell me how a company has the confidence to give that type of warranty of 5 years when the rest of competition isn't even close if they sell a bad product? I think they stand behind their product. I'm like DeWalt that gives a 1-year warranty free replacement and then a 3-year limited warranty which Milwaukee blows out of the water.
@LM-ii6fd every single company intentionally and unintentionally comes out with flaws because it's planned obsolescence. Also other companies like Samsung Play apart because they have to do their job as well because they make the battery cells or the circuit boards which supply Milwaukee's brand. Flaws happen all the time specially with first generation products. Look at the DeWalt 60 volt battery it has more problems than any other battery I've ever seen on the market. And I literally work 12 to 16 hours on batteries all day long for the last 16 years. So most of the time it is due to the user of the battery or tool is why it fails out because they do not know how to manage the product properly. I think most business owners or suppliers would understand this and agree with this. But yes product does go bad because they want it to. Unfortunately that's the nature of the beast but I get in every type of battery from all different types of manufacturers and companies and I will guarantee you right now that DeWalt has a far less Superior battery and the 60 volt battery I've never seen have more problems than any other battery out on the market hands down. But it is a very complex system but most the time it's something simple like they did not seal their battery correctly so dirt and grime gets in it and that's what stops the connection most the time. But there's also a design flaw that looks like it's intentional on the front right battery of the 20 volt. Where they put aluminum foil on top of the metal so it heats up and breaks apart creating a separation between the connection and that happens more than people would think. Like I said I rebuild them all day long all different types of batteries from all different manufacturers. So I'm working it every single day so I know the product better than most and the ones who just say stuff because they had a bad experience or hear something have nowhere close to experience that I do single day
This worked for me also on my 12amp battery. It saved me 250 dollars for a new one. Milwaukee battery sales are dropping fast because of your great information. Thanks
Thanks for the comments!
You saved me $500 my man! Both of my 12.0 batteries were dead, all banks were around 3-3.8v on both of them, charged each bank back up to full, slapped it on the charger to "reset" it and now i have full 4 bars of charge again!
Awesome!
Thank you for sharing your knowledge! I learned a lot from this ! I really hope fixing becomes more popular it helps people in more ways than just fixing something!!! Thanks again 👍
You are welcome, glad it helped!
So do I have to do this everytime when I charge my battery? Seem like it's not worth having a battery power tool.
No you do not need to do this every time. I have had to do this twice in a 12 month period.
You can do this with a car battery or battery charger. Make a jumper and charge both banks at the same time
@@michaelpouchert4486 if that charger is rated for lithium batteries. it is very dangerous if it is not.
I have an old RC variable lithium charger that I tried with on one of my 8.0 amp batteries that dies very quick but then charges almost immediately. Flashing light recently that won't run a tool and shows green full charge on the charger. I was able to bring up one bank that was below 2 volts. This was a life saver!
Thanks for the video!
Awesome! Glad it worked!
I have (2) 9Ah batteries doing that same deal, battery needs to be rebuilt or the circuit board is shot. I haven't rebuilt one yet to find out but i did charge each row with a bench PS and it worked fine for a short time before dancing it's jig again!
For the price Milwaukee charges I'm rebuilding! Fool me once, shame on you, i will not be made a fool a second time! 😂 You can buy a spot welder, nickle strip and beast cells for less than 1 new battery, only have to buy the spot welder once!
Time will tell on my 8.0 ah battery issue returning. Like you I wouldn't mind rebuilding them if it comes to that. It seemed to take all day at 500 milliamps to get the one bank up from 1.3 volts to around 4 volts. They say their battery system is supposed to prevent draining batteries below 2.5v, but that doesn't work very well. I have a couple 4.0 ah milwaukee batteries from 2010 that still work fine to this day! But apparently the larger the amp hour the bigger the potential for this stupid balance problem. I did rc for several years. As costly as these batteries are I just don't understand why the manufacturer doesn't make these battery cells/banks balance capable. That's basically what we're doing to even them back out.
@@kickford I think a lot of it is to do with more bad batches of cells. They are rushing development so testing and QC lacks! The people have become the testers/guinea pigs and at the price they sell them they are taking the "risk" of potentially having to replace large quantities into consideration already..... Passing the buck right back onto us!
That's never been made more evident than with "self checkout"! Shit isn't any cheaper and these companies have the audacity to complain about product loss when they don't pay the employees selling the products 😂!
@@kickford I know what you mean. Very frustrating!
I used a hobby grade charger Spektrum Smart charger S2200. With the individual cells being 800 mAh a total of 2400 per bank you can safely charge at 1C which would be 2.4 amps. I worked my way up slowly to 2.4 amps which cuts the charging time down. I had 3 out of 5 banks at 3.6v on a M18 HD12.0
@@Sheedy1979 Aawsome! That sounds like a great setup!
Super video and well explained along with the help of some of the commenters. I had to laugh at myself as I had been planning a HD12.0 revival for over a year collecting the various parts and tools you and others described. I have at least 6 with the dreaded 3-bar limit so it is time. I got my operating table ready and ran immediately into a problem! The longer T-10 holes do not allow a bit holder/extension down into the plastic recess...you must have lucked out having the bits you did with the longer reach...Just placed an order on the Jungle website for a set of extra long bits.
Ugh! That sucks.... I did get the set I have at harbor freight if you have one near by if that's quicker. Thank you for the comments! and good luck!
@@fixer2u Yep it does...extended bit set arrived today...tonight I operate. Appreciate you.
@@robertleemurrerjr.8245 awesome! Well good luck!
Thank you mate - good ide to use home battery charger.
Just one question - for how long this has solved the problem for the batteries? DId the problem showed up again ? If yes - when?
You are welcome! For me it has been a year and they are still going strong. I do not use my batteries every day like some so I would guess results may be different for others.
Thanks for the video. Some of the batteries I've been looking at had some bad reviews on them due to this issue. Me being me, I figured the problem was probably pretty easy to fix. Good to know that I can now discredit these reviews because I now know how I can fix them.
Just ordered a "broken" HD 12.0 battery. Listing said battery won't charge and stuck on one bar. I might start buying my batteries like this to boost up my supply. This will probably go into my new Milwaukee packout radio I purchased yesterday.
Thank you!
@@Kyosama08 Great idea! I had not thought of that!
After you set the charger to “charge” will it just auto charge to the correct voltage or do you have to keep checking and pull off at 4.2 volts?
It will charge to the correct voltage and say "full" on it.
I have 2 12.0 batteries that charge fully according to the charger and power indicator but they both drain very fast, 20 cuts with a skillsaw and their both dead, what does that mean?
I would check the level of the cells when it says it is dead and see what is going on.
I've got an 8ah that shows 3/4 charge and dies very fast. I'll be opening it up and diagnosing.
@@sarneli_yyc Sounds like the same issue!
For anyone doing this the top ones are a T8 and the side safety ones are a T10 which is opposite to what this video says. Be sure to get screw drivers as well as the hex ones don't fit as well and the screws on these are tight. Thanks to the creator for the video btw.
Thanks for the correction!
Btw dont try 2 banks at a time lol! Smoked my charger! @fixer2u
@@nickb7040 I know! Not good!
would you have to do this every time you charge it or is it a once Ina while thing, like after you do this would it work perfectly fine for a while before you have to maybe do it again
Great question! You will not have to do this every time. I have since had to do this a couple of times since making this video. It takes a while for one or 2 of the cells to drift far enough away from the others in order to need this.
@@fixer2u thank you
@@beanboi7233 You're welcome!
Big thank you, I was able to save my battery with you help. I think the problem is when you run a battery down on a tool until it has no charge left this is what happens.
Your welcome! It seems to happen to mine even when I do not run them down. For me this happens when sitting. Some of the cells slow drain.
I have a question, if I do not have a battery charger could I accomplish the same thing if I drain each bank down to balance out the good and bad banks, then put it back on the m18 charger?
Yes that should work as well!
You're a life saver! gonna try this today!
Hope it helps!
Once you balance the cells, what keeps the problem from occurring again- can the bms circuit be fixed so the battery charges properly on its own?
From what I have read, not draining the battery until dead dead amd not storing the tool with the battery installed can help with the issue. I cannot answer about fixing the circuit.
Would the battery goes bad if I keep using it like that without fixing it?
It would probably get to the point it would not charge again if one cell gets too low. But you could still fix it with this method.@@jonathanglass116
Super helpful! Have the exact same problem. Thanks for the fix!
You're welcome! Glad it helped!
Just curious, can I leave on overnight to charge up? It seems to take a while but don’t want anything to catch on fire TYIA
I have left mine over night. When it fully charges it says full and stops.
Thanks man! Last question - can I charge two banks at once with different wires using different slots?
@@brettdavis2446 No you cannot. It will fry your charger.
@ thanks for your help. Also, I noticed when I opened my battery up, on the bottom it shows you which sides are + and - . Thought I’d pass that along
@@brettdavis2446 It does! I did discover that later on! Thanks for the comment!
When I looked at the battery when pulled apart, I noticed that the terminals were very large on the board... Do you think that the battery may have been dropped, and a crack has formed on the solder connections to the circuit board? They all seem to come back to the board in sets, but if some don't quite make contact for some reason, they may not be charged (thermal expansion, etc).... And the battery is measured via motherboard and output terminals differently. I will re solder all the major joints and retry it. Then try your method of charging if it doesn't work, but it seems to be the heavier batteries that are having the problem. Just a thought. By the way, the new lead free solder is much more brittle, and that may be what they are using.????????
It is hard to say without seeing the battery myself... Did you check the cells to see what they were at?
The reason you are having a hard time getting readings is because the HD 12's have a protective coating. I noticed that my 9.0 I could just touch the banks and it worked fine. If you just tough the banks on a 12 it won't work because of that coating. You have to scratch through the coating first. Its very annoying for charging with the Opus as well. That is the same charger I use as well. I have to get the leads to dig in so that I can start the charge.
It irritates me to no end that Milwaukee continues to have this issue with such incredibly expensive batteries. The solution to this issue is for Milwaukee to include a BMS that can actually balance the batteries. They claim that it can balance the batteries but it doesn't. And I feel that this is designed this way so people can buy more batteries of course. I have batteries that are from 7 years ago that still work fine. The charge isn't even that bad tbh. But they have gone out of balance several times and I fix them every time it happens and mark each battery when it happens so I can keep track of how often it happens on the battery.
A true BMS system that balances batteries would look at each battery and make sure it is at the correct voltage at the end of charging. Vs milwaukees which likes to stop whenever one bank shows roughly 4.1v leaving the rest uncharged. And when milwaukees BMS system shows around 3.2v or so, it shuts down the tool. This is exaggerated when one bank only gets charged to 3.6v when the rest are 4.1. Even though most of the batteries are full, you will only get the life of the battery bank that is lower.
I know what you mean. I have a Traxxas RC truck and the charger for the LiPo batteries has 3 options to charge. Fast, Balance and Storage. I always use the balance option. Milwaukee needs to have at least balance and fast as options for its chargers and that would help a lot.
Hey Michael, great comment and info!
I know what You mean and am in full agreement. Not knocking Milwaukee as I am a fan, but the M18 batteries are the only ones I have ever had problems with. I have been a ‘victim’ of the M18 8.0 HO batteries and the full charge only showing 3 bars issue. And as I’m sure You know, don't ever let a M18 battery sit too long on a low charge. This never happens with any of my DeWalt, Makita, Metabo HPT, etc. And Milwaukee, whilst usually real good with their E -Service, aren’t so good with battery warranty claims.
Appreciate the comment Michael. Stay safe and well!
@@fixer2u A trickle charger that balances and reconditions old batteries would be the easiest solution. I wonder if the problem was addressed with the new Forge batteries and chargers. I've been holding off on buying any more of these 12ah batteries and still waiting for the release of the new ones which should have been out by now.
@@SteveSherman-jp1dz You are correct, balancing is the answer. I have some LiPo rc batteries and a charger. The charger has the option for balancing or fast charging.
Genius diagnosis & solution. I have a wild thought. Could we simply connect every 4.2v bank in parallel and let them equalize themselves? My XC 8.0 has the same issue too !
I actually do not know the answer to that but I have seen guys connect to a bank on another battery to equalize. It just takes longer.
I am trying to do this on a M18 9mAhr battery. I am confused though to what a "bank" is, since the metal plate seems to connect many smaller battery cells and I seem to have only three "banks" - they read {4.02V, 4.03V, 4.02V}, seems pretty close to being the same voltage. Not sure why mine wont fully charge, and not sure I am measuring the voltage from the correct banks?
@@EdMacKerrow in an M18 there will be 5 banks. When you have the battery disassembled, on the sides you will see the plastic housing. Look at the bottom on the housing on the sides an you will see + and - symbols alternating as you look down the side. You should see 3 + and 2 - or 3 - and 2 + depending on which side you look on. Thos show you each of the banks.
Hi ,where i can buy that charger you used to recover that battery , please thank you
Amazon!
Whsts the name of the character please?
There is a link in the description. @@juancaballero8107
I have the same set up as you. I charged each cell to 4.2 volts. Battery (The dreaded Milwaukee 9amp) is showing > 20 volts. Battery checker is still blinking 1 red light. Put the battery on the charger and it is showing a green light. The BMS must be smoked. Any ideas how to reset the BMS? Not too keen on jumping battery to battery. Thanks and nice video!
What happens if you put the battery in a tool and try and use it then hitting the battery checker?
What type of wire to do the positive and negative clips?
I'm not quite sure what you mean?
What type of wire to use to make the positive and negative connections to the lithium ion battery charger
Thank you for replying 👍
I just used a braided copper wire. 10-12 gauge wire should be fine. @@abelgarcia480
@abelgarcia480 16 awg will work just fine.
Great video mate it was very clear and easy to follow. Can't wait to fix a couple of faulty batteries I have here.
Thank you for the comment! How it helps!
Also, what you referred to as a Bank are just batteries in parallel. The more batteries in parallel the more capacity Connecting multiple batteries or what you refer to in this video as banks increases voltage. Easiest way to explain this especially for those that may not understand with the lithium batteries is showing here is think of car batteries if you get 12 V batteries that are 100 amp hours and you connect them all the positives together and the negative to negative you’d have a 12 V 400 amp battery but if you went from the first battery to the next batteries negative and so on on both sides you increase the voltage to 48 V, but your amperage would stay at 100. You would referred to this battery as a 5S3P. 5 cells in series 3 cells in parallel.
Thanks for the comments. I was referring to them as "banks" in order to help show the viewers how to keep it straight which batteries were with what. Does that make sense? Hard to explain in text.
Do you think MX batteries could be charged the same way? I bought a tool that was probably sitting somewhere for a long time and batteries are so low they won't start charging with regular mx charger. I am thinking maybe I could try something like this to at least bring voltage up enough for the regular mx charger could recognize it and start charging them. Any advice? Thanks!
IT would probably work. I have also seen guys "jump start" the batteries just as you would a car. Hook them up to another MX battery positive to positive and negative to negative to help bring the voltage up so that the charger will charge it.
What did you use to make the jumper cables? Trying this out and although I’m familiar with the battery type, 18650s, chargers, and multimeter, not sure where to find the material to make some jumpers
I just used 12 wire and standard electrical end crimps.
Great video! Thanks so much! I am regretting throwing away two of my 5 aH Milwaukee batteries that I couldn't get to hold a charge. Now I know!!!!
Thank you! Sorry for your loss!
I am having wacky issues with new M18 5.0 batteries from this Black Friday. Had issues with my first starter kit. Homedepot swapped me out. Same issue with the replacement starter kit but I am trying to work through it. All 4 came with 1Bar of charge (~17.5V). If you stick them on the charger it might give you a red light but 1-2 hours later it might start flashing red/green, had the light go off once, and in this scenario we still have 1Bar and the charge is still ~17.5V. Homedepot replaced the first set after this. I called asking if this would clear up with some charge/discharge cycles and they said shouldn't happen at all. Well, as I've said the 2nd pair of new 5.0 batteries presented the same(1bar, 17.5V). I discharged one of them on the M18 Blower, then charging looked good for the first time. Got up to 3 bars and then the charger starts flashing red/green(signifying battery issue). Now this battery has 3bars and is over ~19.5V. I discharged the 4th one with the blower too and now it's charging. What's going on with these M18 %.0 amp batteries? I'll try your fix on these next if another discharge/charge doesn't get them to 4 bars.
On another note. I have another M18 5.0 from 2014 that stopped working about a year ago. It's had light use. Diags say it's been on the charger 46 times, a number of those were likely me testing to get it working a year ago. I opened it up and found two banks @1V. The rest were close to 4V. Think your fix will work on this one? I am going to try it :)
Yeah go ahead on the older ones, but on the new ones, I would just take them back to home depot again. Sounds like a bad batch of batteries. No excise for them to be acting like that right out of the box!
@@fixer2u Thanks for the advice. Here is the rest of the story. The 4th one that was charging last night got a green light but was still dead (1 flashing light). I put it right back on the charger and charger showed red again. Went back to it this morning, green again, but this time the battery shows 4 full bars and is over 20V. First of the 4 batteries to get here. I am also hopeful the next charge cycle for the 3rd battery will get to 4 bars.
I believe the batteries are from a different batch. My first kit came from an online order(warehouse), the 2nd kit came from a local home depot and the dates were a couple months older.
I ended up in home depot today and told my experience to one employee who sent me to another. Neither had heard of the issue before. Both agreed shouldn't happen. Came up again in conversation with a 3rd employee who said, "they don't make them like they use to".
@@texasroots Interesting. Well lets hope the "newer" batch works well!
Dumb question, bit can't you jump these by doing what you have there but instead using another battery? Like when you jump one that has flashing red & green light?
Yes you can, it just takes longer!
What causes the certain banks to go lower? Will it happen again?
The Milwaukee charger are fast chargers only and do not balance the cells. Yes it can happen again unfortunately.
Awesome video...I just ordered the next available version of the charger (Opus C3400). What guage / type wire did you use for the leads?
14 gauge braded. I wouldnt go much thinner!
I think you need a DC power supply. Much easier than Jerry ringing a charger. It turns off just the same when the voltage is achieved.
I have the NANKADF 30V 10A its very useful around the shop.
I am not sure you can use a dc power supply on LIon batteries...
If you have an adjustable one, it will work fine. Set the voltage and it will stop charging when you hit. 4.2 volts.
Good to know! Thank you! @@cs-xd9gy
How do you fix a 12amp that flashes on charger? There's two bars but won't charge. The charger is fine and terminals and the same on battery. How can I make it charge?
What color does it flash?
@@fixer2u Red
@@fixer2u Red, update I tried boosting but still won't charge. Light still flashing red on charger. I bought the battery used like new on Amazon. When I got it last week it did take a charge but only ran less than 15 mins, for a 12amp that should be 45 mins on a weed trimmer or longer. Should of clued in then. I got a full refund yesterday. I was hoping the batter could be fixed. Lesson don't buy used batteries
@@anthonymacneil2279 wow that is crazy. Are you sure it is even a real milwaukee battery? From what I have seen, all of them on amazon are knock offs.
@@fixer2uIt was a knock off, the bottom case screws were Philips not torx like the rest. The inside had some weird stuff too on circuit board compared to the real battery. Amazon got a review lol
Great Video! Don't try two slots!! Worked great with just 1 slot/bank. When I tried using two slots to speed up the process it fried my battery charger! 😥
OOOOOF! No good! Thanks for the comments!
I can't tell where you're touching the points. The cell directly or the thin metal which are connecting multiple cells.
Either will work!
@@fixer2u awesome thanks!
@@debandmike3380 You.re welcome!
@@fixer2u I got my charger today and was having difficulty getting readings. Apparently there is a thin plastic layer over the connecting tins that you have to scrape away before attaching the charge wire. I put an note in the comments.
I had a cell that was measuring less than one volt. All the other cells were at or above 4 V. I ordered that charger and hooked it up just like you showed. It worked for about two hours and then the display showed to be full. The cell only charged to 2.2 V. Any idea why it did it not charge it to the full 4 V?
I would try and run a charge cycle again on it... It is possible that one of the individual batteries in that cell is junk...
Hey what settings should i use with a RC car charger ? 7.4V or 11.1 ?.. & charge at what ?
I do not think an RC charger will work as the M18 batteries are 18V.
@@fixer2u Yeah, I tried it. Said it was to low to charge at 3.84 V . That’s 18V ALL together, Im Only charging 1 Bank at a time. Don’t think it was because of the 18V though. I’ve tried everything with thing. To experience to junk, I’ll just take the good batteries out & charge them & make something new.
@@everythingisvibration oh I misunderstood what you meant. I've never messed with an rc car charger so I won't be much help here unfortunately.
I have a 12Amh battery that is just out of warranty and it just plain died after just a few minutes on my blower. Charger won’t recognize that the battery has been put on to charge and not lights on the battery will light up. Any hope for this battery?
Id say pull it apart and see what the cells say.
so I couldn't buy the exact battery charger but I got one pretty similar. I have been charging at .5amps but it is really slow.. mine can go up to 1.5amps and is there a reason not to go any higher than .5 amps? I have 8 batteries to go through and I wonder if I can save some time by charging them a little faster..
Yes it does take a while. I have tried it at .75 amps but not at a higher amperage than that. You could give it a shot at something higher, but I would monitor it to make sure nothing is getting hot.
@@fixer2u Thanks! also, I have you tried charging multiple cells of the same battery pack at the same time or should I only charge one at a time? I've been charging a cell from 12ah at .5amps and it has taken over 12 hours only to bring it to 70%. I have 5 to go through from each battery x 8 batteries, which is going to take a whole month to charge batteries I have... being able to charge multiple at a time would be helpful for sure.
@@jeffjeong9035 Do not try and charge more than one battery at a time, There is a common ground so it will short out the charger and probably ruin it.
The individual cells within the battery are going to have a rating for charging current. You have the battery open already, so look for the part numbers and manufacturer name on the cells. Then find the spec sheet for that type of cell. I think you will be able to use higher charging currents, but it depends on those cells.
Got it. Good info, thank you. I will check next time I have to pop one open!@@stevebabiak6997
Could I do this to any old M18 battery to "refresh/recharge" it?
Yes!
Thank you for sharing this video! It helped me save 2 HighOutput 6.0 battery's
That is awesome! Glad it helped!
Can you put leads from the milwaukee charger if you don't have the fancy charger?
I would say probably not, because the charger will put out 18V for the whole system, not just for each battery.
@@fixer2u Good point, thanks
You are a righteous dude.. thx for taking the time to make the video.. now if you could just tell me how to get my Parakeet to eat my diarrhea all would be good 😂😂
I literally have no idea how to reply to that! LMAO
This is excellent. I've got 3 high cap batteries that only work for half their capacity. I'm going to give this a try. I've also got a coworker facing the same issue with his that I'll see if I can fix.
Awesome! I hope this helps! Let me know if it worked!
@@fixer2u It did! $850 worth of batteries back in action now.
Great! @@trantem
Will this then make it able to charge the batteries in a normal charger after you do this?
Yes sir it does!
The charger appears to no longer be available, can you recommend another on amzn tyvm
Here you go! www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07T941JCF/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I have 2 M18 12 batteries that only show 2 bars and then show fully charged. I would love to try this but to be honest, electricity and thought of blowing these up scares the heck out of me. The link provided doesn't appear to be for sale but they have the C3400 which appears to be same but next model up. Would love to fix these.
Any charger that will do lithium ion batteries will work.
I bought a Milwaukee battery from eBay and it worked fine for a couple months then it was dead and I recharged it with another and it work for a few then I tried again with another battery and now it doesn’t work anymore and with the other one as well. Do you know why both of them stopped working ?
First off are you sure it's a real Milwaukee battery or a fake? Second, have you tried opening it up and checking the cells as I did in the video?
FYI - don't get greedy and try to charge two low banks at the same time. My Opus charger briefly flashed 4400ma as the charge rate as the banks tried to equalize through the charger when I hooked up the second set of leads. Yeah, those banks are still in series so can't hook up to two at once. Charger survived, tougher than it looks. Thanks Fixer, don't remember if you mentioned that, watched this long ago and just skimmed again now.
Thanks for the comments. I did not mention that but found the same thing out!
Awesome video, Do you also have a tutorial for m12 batteries that blink red and yellow and wont accept charge?
@@KuyaKulitgaming-ie2np thank you! So far I have not run into that issue so no. But I think there are others out there that have made that video!
Thanks for this vid!
I bought the same charger to revive two 8.0s. It brought one of them back, but on the other one, all banks read 4.19v but only 3 of the leds light up.
It could also be a burned out LED. Another common problem.
Hrmmm that is odd.... Maybe the 4th LED is burnt out? Does the battery seem to have the proper life?
Just a heads up: when you take the casing off, there’s +/- all along the bottom of the banks on the plastic. Clearly indicated.
My question to you is: with the banks that are connected together with the metal. How do you know where to put your wires. Wouldn’t it short out the bank that shares the same weld plate thing? That’s a detail that I really would have liked you included. Cheers.
The banks run up amd down so where you see the plus minus marks on the plastic, just go straight up.
@@fixer2uI realize that. What I meant was, are the vertical banks insulated from each other somehow? Because from what I gather, when you charged the second bank, you slipped your positive/negative leads in the same way. Adjacent the second vertical battery bank. My question was: that whole metal façade… how is it not pushing voltage to the previous bank as it seems it’s all on the same plate. (Except for the 5th one of course)
Maybe a dumb question. Sorry.
I’m about to do one of mine based on your tutorial.
@@azazelone905 not a stupid question! Yes the banks are isolated because they are wired in parallel but are in series with the other banks.
Thanks bud I tried this and it saved my 12 amp battery. It took about 24 hours to get my battery charged back up. It was totally dead
Awesome! Glad it helped!
Could I use the c3400 cant seem to find that model you have anywhere
You can look up other chargers on amazon that have the ability to charge multiple battery types including Lithium Ion.
Does that charger automatically set itself to 4.2 or do you have to manually set the voltage? I just bought a 12amp battery and it’s doing this exact same thing
I automatically says "FULL" at 4.2V.
Awesome just ordered that same charger thanks so much
@@1408amac You're welcome! Hope it works!
I had 4 of 5 cells low. Charged all of them individually and the battery is like new. Thank you
Excellent! Glad it helped! Thanks for the comment!
@@fixer2u I have other batteries blinking 1 bar and I was experimenting and fried my charger. Have you tried to charge cells with another fully charged battery?
@@michaelpouchert4486 I know you can do it. To me it seemed more efficient to use the charger, but it can be done.
Realistically, how long can this prolong a battery's life? I've probably owned my battery for less than 3 years but I didn't think to keep the receipt since I generally take meticulous care of my stuff. I'm imagining having a hard time trying to get warranty help, so I'd like to go this route, I'm just unsure how much longer I can expect to get out of my battery even after doing this. I would hate to do this then just a few charges later, have to do this again, and again etc. Thanks in advance!
My 9ah batteries I did over a year ago now and they are still holding up. So even if it is once a year or once every 6 months, For me it would be a win.
Yeah that's not bad!
No guarantees but that is where I am at!@@TheDemiDestroyer
Milwaukee has an awesome warranty. They look it up by the battery or tool itself. You have to take it directly to a Milwaukee warranty store. They have more than most people realize.
This is true!@@disht2
This charger is no longer available on Amazon. Do you recommend any other charger for this fix ?
Any other charger that can charge lithium ion batteries like these will work.
The replacements are 240V on Amazon. I read someone used an old cellphone charger cord that was low amps. I’m trying that now.
The cellphone charger works but took five hours to get the voltage from 2.068 to 3.075
@@Marv2049 oh wow that does take while!
Great video I have been looking for an easy way to balance a battery pack you found it thank you
Glad I could help!
does this work for batteries that discharge quickly?
Good question.. I would think not. That seems like an issue with failing of the individual batteries in the cells.
what i did was , i took another battery and ran jumper wires to the pos and neg terminals and let it sit for some time and the battery actually started to charge , but i do have others with problems and 1 i tried this with but it still failed with a flashing light and green on the charger, which im suspecting a bad board. thanks.
Interesting... And you double checked that all the cells were balanced?
this was before i took it apart to investigate, the other 2 that gave me trouble were so far successful with the jumper wires.
@@rick3090 Oh I see!
What type of charger do I buy for the lithium battery
There is a link in the description!
Do you still charge at 500mA or is it safe to go high?
I have since started doing this on high or 2000ma. It still takes a while!
@fixer2u Thanks, I have done all the banks now. I started with the lowest banks and the lights only came back once I had done all the banks. I now have banks between 4.0 to 4.15. I originally had 4 banks under 4.0 ( lowest 3.2). I have taken a note on the cell level and I'm going to let it sit for a few days before I start using it and re check.
When you put the bank that you just charged to full on the charger again straight away it doesn't come up as full straight away it starts trying to charge. Is this normal and it will go back to full with little charging time? I just didn't test it.
Note to self is to mark off the bays you charge when you do them as it get confusing
@@MatBanis82 Yes I have seen this. THe charger has to take a min or so to detect what the actual charge is at it seems line.
I am in the midst of trying this, but it is taking forever. Does it usually take a really long time to charge the cells?
IT does take a long time. You can turn the mah up from what I listed in the video. I use 2000 on my charger now. But it still takes a while.
I don't think my charger goes above 500
But it charging it. Went from 3.55 to 4.15 in almost 24 hours
@@waterstruck1917 Oh iISee. Yeah that will take a while then. What charger do you have?
@@waterstruck1917 Ooof yeah that is slow... But alt least it is working!
I thought I followed the video precisely on each Bank and got them all over 4 V. But it still blinks like it’s dead and won’t charge. Did I miss something? I checked them again and they’re all still holding over 4 V.
@@brandonbeachy3327 interesting... I have not had that issue before. Does the battery work when you use it in a tool?
No it doesn’t. I can’t seem to reply to your question so I am trying to reply to mine.
It doesn’t charge or run the tool. The only thing I did was first I used another battery to jump it. And it worked but did not last very long. It even charged one time a little bit, but did not go to full charge just three bars. So I decided to try this method and charge up all the banks and it seemed to go perfect. Each one is holding over 4 V now but it is still blinking on the first bar and will not charge. Like It didnt help anything
@@brandonbeachy3327 ok
@@brandonbeachy3327 that is strange, if all the banks are full, I have no idea why it will not go..... Are you sure you got all of them?
How do you automatically get 4.2 if you set it to charge up to 5.00 mah? Also, I'm lost on polarity. So, it looks like the battery starts on negative on bottom left and ends on positive at top right. Series. So when you charge band 2 starting at bottom, should you flip from positive to negative on the next jumper to bank 2? And swap going to the next? And swap against until you end at top right positive? I saw your second charge and you switched the left negative blue 12v ring hole wire to the next one in line. I'm confused. Anyone know how to explain this better? Thanks
4.2 is Volts not amps. The charger is a smart charger so it knows what the max capacity of the battery is. so it stops at 4.2V and its 500mA not 5.00 mAH. I have since tried this on other batteries and have used the 2000 mA. As for polarity. If you look at the very bottom of the banks, it shows you which ones are pos and which are neg. Yes they do alternate each cell. That is why I encourage you to use a multimeter and make the polarity on each one so you can see for yourself how they are laid out. I hope this helps. Feel free to ask more questions.
I have one that only flash red, and when i search it said that the temperature of the battery was too cold or hot. I left it in room temperature and still flash red why?
Have you checked the voltage of the cells as in the video?
Very good video will save DIYers a lot of money including me thanks for the information
Thanks for the comment! Hope it helps!
The fix works great ! It has 4 bars !! But at the next charge got 3 again.😢 is there a permanent fix?
It is best to charge all the banks to get them equal at as close to 4.2 as you can get.
@@fixer2u I charged all 3 to 4.20 with a 18650 charger.
@@ivallejo1456 That is odd that it would happen again so quickly. I have had to redo mine once every couple of months not right away. There must be a couple really bad individual batteries in there.
@@fixer2u the batery is nearly new. I will do the all over again to see what happens. Thanks
@@ivallejo1456 If the battery is that new, I would suggest trying to warranty it. If you still have the receipt from when you bought it, you should be able to get it taken care of!
My charger was able to charge 1 bank, but it won't charge the other bank that is low... Any suggestions?
I have not had that happen before. Are they not charging at all or are they going very slowly?
@@fixer2u I figure it out. Looks like the 9.0 has a weird bank design.
@@AndrewMcSpadden OK great, glad you got it!
worked like a charm on my unbalanced 8 amp hour m18. working on a 9 now... wonderful
Awesome! Glad it worked!
Im scared to do it how bad will this will explode when wrong connection?
Not sure, have not tried that!
how did it get out of whack originally?
Don't know. Just noticed it not going to 4 bars one day.
Ive done this twice to my 9.0 over a year..untill my lab power supply burned up charging a bad ridgid battery ..it keeps going back to the same unbalanced charge after a month or so.. I suspect most if not all will become unbalanced again in short order . They need a way better bms and balancer.
@@Mrhilljack Agreed!
Looking for this charger but doesn't say 21700 cell type? It's that a problem
Did you mean 21700?
@@fixer2u yes
The Opus BT-C3100 will charge 21700 batteries just fine.
@@jeffreycaban5107 thanks!
@@fixer2u No problem. Love my Opus Charger.
This Man deserves a new Fluke, or at the very least, a new Klein MM. 😊
I am going to try this on a couple of my M18 XC batteries that give the ‘Christmas lights’ when placed on the charger, as well as a couple of my M18 8.0 HO ( expensive ) batteries with the full charge showing only 3 bars. I have a NiteCore charger that will charge LiIon batteries up to 21700 in size, so will try this. I have scrap dowels lying about, so will give it a go. I’m thinking the NiteCore charger will suffice?? What say You? Much appreciated! 👍
Thank you! I would think your charger will work!
Outstanding, thank you; easy to follow and makes sense!!
Thank you! Glad it helped!
I just did the trick same thing with a razor on both ends on my 18 work like a charm thanks save me a trip and money
Glad it worked!
Do you know of a smaller cheaper one because this charger is no longer available
Looks like this one will work. I have never used it though. So do a little research please! www.amazon.com/EBL-Discharge-Functions-3-2VLiFePO4-Rechargeable/dp/B0BS6GF5ZJ/ref=sr_1_45?crid=2UA3EDOUC5G33&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.0z1Ap0SDETC7UFpwucj4Rua_8Nv8mXXwxBY-N-1Gs23_wKcE-o9RqAxtU8ZPPIVE5ZNO-QEknY-9CufghrOhLDMtWGleXM1nfaZbLfJ-7Lu2UZFEqvAK_Tc173pY15ZcwldxCNImA-D38gDDpSYVWSRteurpIGkqaMQNwBRGQGlZ001SdpLHdL334Q5VrEsGJudT6REVbcPsNPjcdgL0RMZ7SHvZdeuBVnexArH2h60utXhII4ffbiLKO0gNahct6u0fVCEO7hWLwL_GkPI4XHsQRrFenTsHEexhD9zDmWc.aYOzqHMQVUX206UbQp5lTvyChZX2sit3lcj4K8i_8d4&dib_tag=se&keywords=lithium+battery+charger&qid=1708694983&sprefix=lithium+battery+charger%2Caps%2C126&sr=8-45
Did same, after month laying on shelf same problem. So it is definitely problem with self discharge of cells, not only balancing
Agreed!
*Mine was blinking red and green alternating, what I did was just push the battery a bit more to the charger and it turn only red and start charging*
Oh very nice!
Great video! Thank you so much. I'm now charging the second low bank.
Awesome!
Just ordered my charger. Thanks man!
Great, Hope it helps!
Thanks, man. I appreciate the video. Saved me money
Awesome glad it helped! Thanks for the comment!