RYOBI Lithium not charging

arichard21

I just bought a brand new Ryobi Lithuim 18v and when I opened the package and put one of the batteries on the charger, the red led was flashing. The instruction book lists 3 reasons for red led flashing: cold battery, hot battery and deep discharge. The battery is none of those, and 4 hours later it is still flashing.

Both batteries do this. Any ideas?

handy man88

Is this the drill identical to the one that someone noted on a recent post that was for sale during Christmas at Home Depot for $99, but with only 1 battery?

End Grain

Try unplugging the charger. Next, insert the battery into the charger. Then, plug the charger in the wall.

arichard21

I'm not sure, possibly. I paid $169 for it (with 2 batteries)


After I posted this, I found a forum on ryobitools.com and there were ALOT of people who had this problem! Apperantly it is a manufacturing defect where the 3 contacts in the charger 1 of them doesn't make proper contact sometimes. Ryobi recomended using pliars and bending out the contact a bit. I did that, and all is good now.

End Grain

Glad to hear that you can use the charger now but I think you should write Ryobi and insist that they send you a good one in exchange for the original charger which has this problem. This is their problem and not yours to fix. There's a lot of great and helpful advice on forums, including this one, but that doesn't mean that the manufacturers should not be held accountable for shipping out a suspect product, especially their new and much ballyhooed lithium ion line. Home Depot is pretty good about power tools that just don't perform as they should.

Nowadays, more and more companies are "banking" on the fact that the consumer just doesn't want the hassle of bringing something back. Just my two cents as a professional AND as a consumer. FWIW, I recently had a brand new (FAMOUS PRO BRAND NAME) 18V lithium ion drill/driver for all of 2 weeks and it just did not live up to its $200 price tag. It had a problem with drill dust rendering all of the switches stiff and inoperable at times and that's not good for my needs. I shipped it back at the seller's expense and got a full refund along with an apology for my troubles.

rjniles

I bought the new Ryobi lithium drill set back before Christmas and had the same problem. Brought back to HD and they took a new charger out of the box for me. I tested it before I left the store.

arichard21

The only quam I have with bringing it back to HD is because it is an hour from here, and with 3 kids I can't hardly find time to go!

End Grain

I hear you and I agree it's a PITA to make the trip. But, my only concern is that given we live in a litigious society that is dictated to by lawyers, you should not have and use a 110V electrical device - one that works in conjunction with a battery pack - that did not function properly as designed from the factory. If forbid a battery explodes or causes a burn or if the charger starts a fire, you're possibly way out on a limb as far as recourse with the makeshift fix. Just my 2 cents. Be well.

Vitesse04

I thought I had the same problem until I firmly pushed the battery into place and heard/felt the latches engage. I'm used to other brands where the battery just loosely rests on the charger. If I had bothered to read the booklet, it talks about engaging the latches.

woodworkbykirk

yer problem sounds about right for a product from tti.. ive had 2 rigid drills that have or had the same problem... they really have to get better with quality control..

Jay 78

You guys should have waited a few more weeks before bumping this thread so it would be exactly five years old.

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woodworkbykirk

lol, just saw that now thanks.. whos digging up old threads here now....

joeseabee

I have a Ryobi 12v lithium set and both batterys went dead last summer after some hard use...would not take a charge. I had read somewhere that lithium batterys like the cold, so I put both in the frige overnight. The next day I put them in the charger...they both took full charges and have been working great ever since... maybe luck ... maybe something to it.

woodworkbykirk

if you put it on the charger right after its been discharged it wont take the charge do to being too hot.. they have to be a certain temperature to charge.. if their out in the cold all night sitting in a vehicle then out in the cold during the day they wont charge.