K78 Posted September 9, 2018 Share Posted September 9, 2018 How long should the initial charge take on Makita lxt battery? its been charging for hours. The fan is off but the green light is still on. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Davies Posted September 10, 2018 Share Posted September 10, 2018 If it's the DC18RC charger then the green light on steadily means it's charged. Green light flashing means the charger's on but there's no battery in it. I don't think the fan goes off until a bit after the charge completes but it's been a while since I watched one closely. Normal charge from flat is about 20 minutes I think. Initial charge of a new battery should be shorter than that as they'll be shipped at least partly charged. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeSharp01 Posted September 10, 2018 Share Posted September 10, 2018 (edited) There is also a possible wrinkle to watch out for as the charge sense circuit may be devised so as to not sense the presence of the battery if the battery is in the charger when it is first turned on. My Dewalt multi charger has this problem (Which might be a design feature I suppose) - if the battery is in the charger when you plug it in / turn it on it never charges the battery, take the battery out and pop it in again and it does its job perfectly. Edited September 10, 2018 by MikeSharp01 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickfromwales Posted September 10, 2018 Share Posted September 10, 2018 14 hours ago, K78 said: How long should the initial charge take on Makita lxt battery? its been charging for hours. The fan is off but the green light is still on. Thanks It means take the battery out and use it now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Davies Posted September 10, 2018 Share Posted September 10, 2018 (edited) Just tried with the DC18RC - inserted battery, plugged in, turned on at wall. Started charging immediately. Battery I charged last week so came to full charge pretty quickly. Green light on. Fan still running. Will turn off as it's annoyingly loud, rather than wait for it to go off by itself. That's why I'd forgotten the sequence, I always leave it in another room because of the noise. Wish they did a slower charger which didn't need the fan and probably would look after the batteries better. Edited September 10, 2018 by Ed Davies Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickfromwales Posted September 10, 2018 Share Posted September 10, 2018 4 hours ago, Ed Davies said: Just tried with the DC18RC - inserted battery, plugged in, turned on at wall. Started charging immediately. Battery I charged last week so came to full charge pretty quickly. Green light on. Fan still running. Will turn off as it's annoyingly loud, rather than wait for it to go off by itself. That's why I'd forgotten the sequence, I always leave it in another room because of the noise. Wish they did a slower charger which didn't need the fan and probably would look after the batteries better. Au contraire. The Makita is a clever beast. If you’ve been working the battery hard and it’s hot the charger will refuse to charge it when first inserted into the charger. The fan will blow through the battery pack ( it has a dedicated airway designed to effectively cool the cells inside ) and when the onboard thermistor says it’s cooled down the charger will start to charge the battery. The fan will then run to keep the batteries cool whilst being fast charged. As I’m ‘in the trade’ I need my batteries chop-chop and favour the design. When one of my batteries dies it gets full honours and quite deserved too. I then list it on eBay and someone gives me £10 plus p&p for it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crofter Posted September 10, 2018 Share Posted September 10, 2018 I'm not sure what you have to do to kill a Makita LXT battery. I'm still using the original pair of 4Ah ones I bought three or four years ago, and they've built an entire house and a heap of other stuff besides. Still seem to be going strong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Davies Posted September 11, 2018 Share Posted September 11, 2018 Yep, have one 3 Ah LXT battery bought 2014-07-21 and two 4 Ah bought 2015-04-24. Still going strong, touch C24. From what I've read the problem is that the internal electronics in the battery runs off just one row of cells so that row discharges quickest when left on the shelf. Combine that with shallow charges and the cells can easily get out of balance. So my strategy is to run them to empty then recharge that evening, cycling through them fairly systematically (numbered 1 to 3, replace one that's empty with the next number in the cycle) other than if I'm using the circular saw a lot when I tend to jump to the 4 Ah batteries even if the 3 Ah is next in turn. Typically I start a day's work with one battery at whatever state of charge it was left at the previous day and two fully charged. I've only run out once on a day when I was doing quite a bit of circular sawing. I can see why Makita makes fast charge the default they sell but I would like at least the option to charge slower. Maybe it really doesn't make much difference or maybe Makita either wants to sell more batteries or doesn't dare admit that fast charge is sub-optimal. Dunno. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K78 Posted September 11, 2018 Author Share Posted September 11, 2018 On 10/09/2018 at 14:54, Nickfromwales said: It means take the battery out and use it now It says in the instructions that it would beep when the battery is fully charged? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickfromwales Posted September 11, 2018 Share Posted September 11, 2018 2 hours ago, K78 said: It says in the instructions that it would beep when the battery is fully charged? Or play one of the default tunes but yes it does make a noise when the battery is charged but the single beep option often goes unnoticed if your 'at it'. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterW Posted September 11, 2018 Share Posted September 11, 2018 12 hours ago, Ed Davies said: I can see why Makita makes fast charge the default they sell but I would like at least the option to charge slower. Oddly mine is the standard charger and a 3Ah takes less than 40 mins to charge to full. I rotate the two I have and rarely run out as one gets an overnight charge and the other goes on when I have a brew. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickfromwales Posted September 11, 2018 Share Posted September 11, 2018 I have a 2007 3.0ah and its still going. Even the guys in CNS cannot believe it. Its brother snuffed it years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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