Ryobi Batteries

[kenmac]

I know this would have been covered on here before but I've just bought a 3 piece ONE + kit comprising of an 18v hammer drill, circular & jig saw in the blue & yellow bodies.
What I'd like to know is, will the batteries from the new ONE + 18v Green colour bodied tools fit mine or have they modified the batteries.
Cheers
Ken

 

[r896neo]

yes the new batteries are lithium ion and fit and work fine as do the old ni-cad batteries from the blue tools work fine in the new tools. In short any one plus battery will fit any one plus tool old or new.

On a seperate note all batteries can be charged with the super charger but the old style nicad charger (probably what you have) will not charge newer lithium ion batteries. A super charger is only 30 quid or so though.

http://imagi.es/esl/HMEproducts/540/0/RYBBLK1820.jpg
This is the super charger

 

[big-all]

a point to add is a lot off the old kit has been supplied with new li-ion chargers even though the batteries are old nicads
brick shaped charger nicad
more stylish li-ion

 

[kenmac]

Cheers lads, I just wanted to know because at some point the ni-cad ones will be obsolete stock at some point in favour of the lithium ion & i'm really impressed with the tools so I'll be getting any other power tools I need with this ONE+ system.

 

[big-all]

if you need any hints on ryobi stuff just ask or search "big-all i rate ryobi as diy light to medium trade"
i have over 20 one plus tools plus radio and lantern

 

[gblades]

I have a drill/driver set with a couple of the larger lithium ion batteries. One battery died after about 10 months but ryobi were very good and just sent out a replacement and collected the faulty one.
I bought a angle grinder at the same time as it was on special offer at half price. You are lucky to get 5 minutes from a battery charge. I believe ni-cad batteries are better for these but I may be wrong.

 

[r896neo]

Some tools just eat them up. Angle grinder and circular saw being the common culprits.

To my surprise and dismay i found the radio chews through them quite quick too!

 

[Terry7556]

i have a drill and impact driver set tith ni -cads , two years old and they will not keep a charge any more.i have to charge them up on the day/morning i use them.pleased with the performance of the tools but the batteries have become a pain

 

[big-all]

radio canes batteries surprised at that ?
i have 6 nicad batteries up to 6 years old they all hold a reasonable to good charge
nicads must be cycled from charge to 95-98% flat no more no less iff you charge to early the battery develops a memory effect and next time will hold a fraction less charge and with each progressive charge
too flat there is a chance that a cell will reverse polarity blowing up the battery and charger

best way to look after nicads is once a month [max ideally but certainly 4 times a year] run through the full cycle
as in use the battery till nearly flat then recharge
number the batteries for refferance this will allow you to work out the good and bad batteries

if you flatten a battery on an angle grinder circular saw planer or router do not charge it as it has loads off life step it down to a drill /jigsaw sander
then when they are going too slow use them on the torch or radio both low power usage

this way 4 or 5 batteries will keep you going all day

can you put a fully charged battery on your radio at half volume please and time it
do this twice with different batteries and give me the running time i will do the same and report back

 

[big-all]

heeelllooo kenmac i cannot respond to you battery query untill you accept me as a freind or accept messages from non freinds apparently

if the lights are alight the charger is working
was it a brick nicad charger or the fancy li-ion charger nicad or li-ion batteries ??

 

[joe-90]

if you need any hints on ryobi stuff just ask or search "big-all i rate ryobi as diy light to medium trade"

Why didn't you say that before?

 

[^woody^]

A few points

I got two of the refurb Li batteries from China, off ebay. Worked out about £30 each and they are running well

If you get hold of the Ryobi battery checker (good if you have loads of batteries) you can leave it on the battery and it will run it down

Has anyone got one of the 6 unit multi chargers? It is supposed to monitor the batteries when not in use and give them a top up once a week - so the batteries should always be ready. Mine seems to just run the batteries down and does not top them up. In fact I think that it has killed 2 batteries, but can't be sure if it was the charger or just their age - they were a couple of years old

 

[big-all]

not tempted by the 6 way charger
it may do an exellent job but any thing that is powered up continuously will use power i already have 2 nicad and 2 li-ion chargers so no advantage

if the multi charger has flattened your batteries have you tried another charger
keeping in mind iff the battery or charger is hot or cold [below+5 or above 25] it may not work

 

[^woody^]

I have my suspicions as after a week I took the batteries off and they were all flat!

They all seemed to charge properly ... well the lights indicated full, so it seemed that all was well. But as I was taking batteries off and using them they were clearly not full ... even though the charger said they were.

So that is when I got the Ryobi battery checker, and now have to do some tedious testing with different chargers to see if it is really the multi-charger at fault or just old batteries

The charger is a great idea IMO, as you can just leave the batteries on it and they should be full whenever you need them ... but not great if they are flat when you need them

 

[big-all]

I have my suspicions as after a week I took the batteries off and they were all flat!

They all seemed to charge properly ... well the lights indicated full, so it seemed that all was well. But as I was taking batteries off and using them they were clearly not full ... even though the charger said they were.

So that is when I got the Ryobi battery checker, and now have to do some tedious testing with different chargers to see if it is really the multi-charger at fault or just old batteries

The charger is a great idea IMO, as you can just leave the batteries on it and they should be full whenever you need them ... but not great if they are flat when you need them

i may be misunderstanding how it works but if it charges the nicads before they are nearly flat they will cause the memory effect
if it discharges the batteries then charges them it may keep then in peak condition but at the cost off wasting energy
of course only a few pence a day but a waste non the less