When these are order in there are other adapters that come with it or can be bought separate. My first one only had the 1 adapter and worked on the older Sovereigns and the Excalibur if you had the Excalibur battery adapter. some I got later had a adapter so it would work on the Elites and GT plus the Explorer and E- Tracs, so if you have the right adapter it should work on them all. I used the Sun Ray charging cradle where the battery sit in a tray and connect to the clips on the end of the pack to charge them, never use the factory plug in on my GT. I just wish I had one of those charger here right now as I feel yours is normal.
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Help Solve my problem with charger
- Thread starter rl48off
- Start date
Remember, my Powerizer unit is auto detecting, if it doesn't sense the battery pack, it won't charge, yours may be different. If yours is also auto detect, it should say so on the charger, I looked at the picture of your charger and didn't see that so your charger may be ok......
24V x 60% (the out put with a load; generally, though it can vary by about 6%) = 14.4V means that it is rated properly for the battery pack.
Try turning on a fan and blowing the heat away from the battery pack. They shouldn't get that hot. But, there could be something wrong with the pack.
I would hook up the battery pack and check what the Voltage and amperage are. The label says the output is 16V @ 0.7 amps. If it is off by more than a few %, something is amiss.
Try turning on a fan and blowing the heat away from the battery pack. They shouldn't get that hot. But, there could be something wrong with the pack.
I would hook up the battery pack and check what the Voltage and amperage are. The label says the output is 16V @ 0.7 amps. If it is off by more than a few %, something is amiss.
dewcon4414
Well-known member
I cant see those pods not getting hotter on a quick charge. Ive often thought about a quick charger..... but to be honest i use mine about every day and then put it on the ML charger and its always charged the next day. Ive NEVER had it die on me out there.... ever. So ive talked myself out of needing a quick charger.
Dew
Dew
Critterhunter
New member
If you buy an aftermarket charger shoot for one about 1/3rd C to at the most 1/2C, so assuming your pack is 800ma that would be about 400ma at the most for around a two hour charge on a completely dead pack. That's about as fast as I'd push a battery in a POD where it can't get rid of the heat, and even then it might be getting hot so check it.
John's above is 600ma output, so thats lower than your 700ma charger, so if he's not having issues with the *same* pack (meaning same capacity) getting hot in the POD you should be good to go. If he's using that replacement people like at 1600ma then that might explain why his isn't getting hot because it's higher capacity so it can handle a higher amp rate since that's roughly around 1/3rd C charge rate, not to mention a good aftermarket pack probably is using better cells that can handle higher charging rates without being pushed.
One thing for anybody new to batteries that might be confused about capacity versus charging rate. If you charge say a 1000ma pack at 1/2C (500ma), that will take about two hours on a nearly drained pack, but it doesn't mean you are only putting 500ma into the pack. It will still charge to full capacity of around 1000ma, it's just that it takes longer to charge than a higher amp rate.
Also, good quality cells often hold a good bit more capacity than the label says. For a 1000ma pack it might actually hold about 1300ma or so. That's why the math without using a charger that tells you when the pack is peaked is pretty fuzzy, and why I'd overshoot the estimated charge time by an hour or two maybe than the math says.
That's also why I prefer not only a charger that tells you when the pack is done, but also one that displays the capacity it put back in. If the pack is drained dead and then charged you'll have a good idea about how healthy the pack is. If it's not holding as much capacity than the label says then it's a good sign it needs three to five drains and re-charges to excercise it. By watching how much capacity gets put back in over those cycles, I keep cycling until I don't see much more gains than say the last 2 cycles before that.
He's right about your charger. It might be normal for it to be showing voltage without a battery hooked up because it's a different charger than yours. The voltage could be that high too because it can do from 1 to X amount of cells, so it's waiting for you to plug a pack in so it can sense the number of cells in the pack and adjust the output voltage accordingly. Also, the unloaded voltage will be higher until a load (battery) is placed on it. Only way to know for sure what is going on would be to read the voltage of the charger WHILE the battery is hooked up and charging. I'd suspect that for a 10 cell pack the output voltage should be around say 14 to 16V or so since it's trying to raise the pack to 12V, because the voltage has to be higher in order for power to flow to the pack.
Another possibility is you've got a bad with very unbalanced cells. Some cells might be fully charged while others aren't catching up by the time the charge is done, and so you are over charging some cells and it's getting hot. That's also one of the reasons I like to drain my packs dead here and there to excercise them, because it puts all the cells in an equal state of discharge so they are matched to each other when thrown on the charger to re-charge. I have seen nimh packs go nuclear from this on a normal not-too-fast charge rate, and they got so hot that the plastic shrink wrap on the pack melted.
Also, what he said about a charging not recognizing a fully drained and completely dead pack is true with some cheap chargers. The quick fix for that is to put the pack on the stock "charger" because it doesn't care what the battery is doing as the wall transformer is just putting out a constant amp rate with no thinking involved. If you find a pack won't take on a charger then feed it a constanst DC supply for a few minutes and then try putting it back on the other charger.
I've had several friends bring me over cordless drill packs that have sat for years and their charger that came with it wouldn't recognize or charge the battery. I threw them on my aftermarket computerized/computer screen charger and was able to charge them with no problem.
I blasted them at 1 to 2C for the first couple charges too to break up resistance crystals that form in the cells when people only slow charge all the time. It takes a higher amp rate to break them up, and some people will even blast charge at say 5C. I've done that, but only for say 5 to 8 minutes at the most just to be sure I'm breaking down the crystals in them, because IMO that is asking for trouble unless you know a pack is designed to handle that fast of a charge rate. Usually 1C will to the trick for the first few charges at breaking down the crystals, and then I go to say 1/2 C for the rest of the drains/charges to bring the drill packs back to life.
But even if I didn't blast charge them, I'm sure they would still have been revived simply by me charging and draining them say 5 times at even the normal charge rate for them, because the main issue was that their charger wouldn't see the pack due to it having zero voltage having sat for years.
When I drain a pack I use a car tail light bulb placed in the middle of a cement floor because the bulb gets hot and could cause a fire if it was on say carpet or something. I'll let the light go out and then let it sit like that for around 20 or 30 more minutes to insure all the cells are at equal discharge. As soon as I take the load off the voltage starts springing back up again, so I don't worry about reverse polarity issues or a cheap charger (if I was using one) not recognizing the battery.
Even my car battery computerized charger won't recognize a car battery that is completely dead. When that happens I break out a dummy cheap car battery charger that doesn't "think" and just puts out a constant voltage/current to give the battery about 10 minutes of juice and then I can throw it on the computerized charger. I like that charger as it will even bring sulphered up car batteries back to life by blasting them at a higher voltage to bust the sulpher off the cells. Saved a few car batteries like that. It automatically can tell if the battery is sulphered and will output a higher voltage for a while until it feels it's done it's job, and then will go back to a normal charging voltage.
John's above is 600ma output, so thats lower than your 700ma charger, so if he's not having issues with the *same* pack (meaning same capacity) getting hot in the POD you should be good to go. If he's using that replacement people like at 1600ma then that might explain why his isn't getting hot because it's higher capacity so it can handle a higher amp rate since that's roughly around 1/3rd C charge rate, not to mention a good aftermarket pack probably is using better cells that can handle higher charging rates without being pushed.
One thing for anybody new to batteries that might be confused about capacity versus charging rate. If you charge say a 1000ma pack at 1/2C (500ma), that will take about two hours on a nearly drained pack, but it doesn't mean you are only putting 500ma into the pack. It will still charge to full capacity of around 1000ma, it's just that it takes longer to charge than a higher amp rate.
Also, good quality cells often hold a good bit more capacity than the label says. For a 1000ma pack it might actually hold about 1300ma or so. That's why the math without using a charger that tells you when the pack is peaked is pretty fuzzy, and why I'd overshoot the estimated charge time by an hour or two maybe than the math says.
That's also why I prefer not only a charger that tells you when the pack is done, but also one that displays the capacity it put back in. If the pack is drained dead and then charged you'll have a good idea about how healthy the pack is. If it's not holding as much capacity than the label says then it's a good sign it needs three to five drains and re-charges to excercise it. By watching how much capacity gets put back in over those cycles, I keep cycling until I don't see much more gains than say the last 2 cycles before that.
He's right about your charger. It might be normal for it to be showing voltage without a battery hooked up because it's a different charger than yours. The voltage could be that high too because it can do from 1 to X amount of cells, so it's waiting for you to plug a pack in so it can sense the number of cells in the pack and adjust the output voltage accordingly. Also, the unloaded voltage will be higher until a load (battery) is placed on it. Only way to know for sure what is going on would be to read the voltage of the charger WHILE the battery is hooked up and charging. I'd suspect that for a 10 cell pack the output voltage should be around say 14 to 16V or so since it's trying to raise the pack to 12V, because the voltage has to be higher in order for power to flow to the pack.
Another possibility is you've got a bad with very unbalanced cells. Some cells might be fully charged while others aren't catching up by the time the charge is done, and so you are over charging some cells and it's getting hot. That's also one of the reasons I like to drain my packs dead here and there to excercise them, because it puts all the cells in an equal state of discharge so they are matched to each other when thrown on the charger to re-charge. I have seen nimh packs go nuclear from this on a normal not-too-fast charge rate, and they got so hot that the plastic shrink wrap on the pack melted.
Also, what he said about a charging not recognizing a fully drained and completely dead pack is true with some cheap chargers. The quick fix for that is to put the pack on the stock "charger" because it doesn't care what the battery is doing as the wall transformer is just putting out a constant amp rate with no thinking involved. If you find a pack won't take on a charger then feed it a constanst DC supply for a few minutes and then try putting it back on the other charger.
I've had several friends bring me over cordless drill packs that have sat for years and their charger that came with it wouldn't recognize or charge the battery. I threw them on my aftermarket computerized/computer screen charger and was able to charge them with no problem.
I blasted them at 1 to 2C for the first couple charges too to break up resistance crystals that form in the cells when people only slow charge all the time. It takes a higher amp rate to break them up, and some people will even blast charge at say 5C. I've done that, but only for say 5 to 8 minutes at the most just to be sure I'm breaking down the crystals in them, because IMO that is asking for trouble unless you know a pack is designed to handle that fast of a charge rate. Usually 1C will to the trick for the first few charges at breaking down the crystals, and then I go to say 1/2 C for the rest of the drains/charges to bring the drill packs back to life.
But even if I didn't blast charge them, I'm sure they would still have been revived simply by me charging and draining them say 5 times at even the normal charge rate for them, because the main issue was that their charger wouldn't see the pack due to it having zero voltage having sat for years.
When I drain a pack I use a car tail light bulb placed in the middle of a cement floor because the bulb gets hot and could cause a fire if it was on say carpet or something. I'll let the light go out and then let it sit like that for around 20 or 30 more minutes to insure all the cells are at equal discharge. As soon as I take the load off the voltage starts springing back up again, so I don't worry about reverse polarity issues or a cheap charger (if I was using one) not recognizing the battery.
Even my car battery computerized charger won't recognize a car battery that is completely dead. When that happens I break out a dummy cheap car battery charger that doesn't "think" and just puts out a constant voltage/current to give the battery about 10 minutes of juice and then I can throw it on the computerized charger. I like that charger as it will even bring sulphered up car batteries back to life by blasting them at a higher voltage to bust the sulpher off the cells. Saved a few car batteries like that. It automatically can tell if the battery is sulphered and will output a higher voltage for a while until it feels it's done it's job, and then will go back to a normal charging voltage.