Another reason you can get that discouraging red to green alternate flashing is if you haven’t inserted the battery all the way in. I know it sounds fatuos, nevertheless it is a rookie mistake that happen to me the very first time I unpacked a brand new starter kit. 🤦🏻♂️ Just wanted to leave this comment to avoid anyone else from feeling the way I did as a result of lack of experience. After watching the video I learned how to assertively insert the battery all the way into the slot. Thanks for the video very useful!
M18 Red Lith XC5.0 I jad the same problem. Tried this and it worked. I only left the batteries connected for about 30 seconds. Thanks for the fix! Saved me from dealing with Milwaukee.
Milwaukee customer service is absolutely 💯 HORRIBLE. Either you pay to ship it in or you go back to the store you bought it from. A BRAND new battery! I will try this, thanks.
@@rvz77 I hate to hear that, especially with how much they are in love with their products! Their prices on that stuff are getting insane! I guess I'll be looking more into Harbor Freight stuff in the future, I hear it is getting pretty good, and hell, it's all made overseas anyway!
This also works for a Forge battery. My 6.0 Forge was dead, no lights coming on at all. Jumped it from an old 5.0 XC battery, it took just like 10 seconds and the Forge started lighting up and then charged fully. Thanks for the vid
THANK YOU! This (my own similar method) worked for me, with a simple 9V battery as the donor. My drill, battery, and charger were all brand new. I used the drill till the battery was depleted, so I went to charge it for the first time, and it wouldn't charge; I got the alternating red/green lights on the charger. Didn't know WHAT could be wrong, this stuff is BRAND NEW! I found your video. Now, I did not have a second battery to use as the donor charge, so I tried a 9V battery. Hooked up the wires, + to +, - to -, and let it sit for about 10 minutes. Neither battery got hot, nor did the wires. After the ten minutes, I disconnected the wires and slid the battery onto its charger, and BAM... red charging lights! AWESOME! Thank you so much. Now I just hope I don't have to do this every single time the battery is depleted.
@bernardo81 Right on, my friend. I'm glad it worked for you! Thanks for the feedback, I love hearing folks got some help and didn't get screwed out of some hard earned dough!!
Whoever you are , you are a lifesaver!! I hope you get whatever you wish this year!! I used a car battery jumper with 2 butter knives and it worked!! Thank you so much!!!
Just watched your video and tried it. I have been so annoyed red-green flash of death coming from the original battery that was never out of the case. I made the jumper wire, connected them for 10 minutes and problem solved! Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and posting the video!
Wow this shit worked!!!! I had nothing fancy like you. So I used a coax cable stripped it to the wire made two small cables for positive and negative waiting 8 minutes and boom!!! Thank you
Just started working at a heavy diesel repair shop. I noticed many chargers and batteries out of commission. Deap pockets just buy new batteries and chargers apparently. Thank you for the information.
Worked on mine - I have a variable power supply - put in 18V 1A max, and in 20 seconds the voltage went up to 11V, with one blinking light on the battery pushbutton LED display. Plugged into the charger, and it worked great
Thanks, Fyi- I used two larger carpet razor blades, put one blade on positive sides of two 5.0 batteries, then added second blade to the negative side and the same method you used worked like a champ after several minutes of jumping dead battery, then charged perfect. Stack batteries on each other for fitment.
Thanks! This method worked for me too!.. tricked the smart charger by recharging it from another battery 👌🏻 too legit to quit ⚡️😎. Snagged a used battery deal on offer up & 1 of the 3 flashed red/ green.. prolly drained dead for too long. This fixed it! 👌🏻
Thank you, this sort of worked. My dead battery (which the indicator showed zero bar) when place in the charger, flashed red/green. Then I tied your trick with a good battery (neg to Neg / Pos to Pos) and when I put the bad battery in the charger it went direct to Green. So it did make a difference. I left it on the charger for about an hour or more, it still stayed on green. On the battery itself, the indicator only showed one bar and was flashing red. Another hour, charger is still green and the battery indicator is still showing a single bar, flashing red. Any suggestions or thoughts?
I have a 1.5 AH M18. Used it once in an LED lamp. Perhaps I left the lamp on, perhaps not, but the battery was dead. Tried to charge it in the Milwaukee charger. Two chargers the same symptom, flashing red and green. I have an electronics lab bench supply. Connected the supply to the battery as in the video. Turned the current limit all the way down, and cranked the voltage up to maybe 12V, then cranked the current up to 1A. As the battery charged, the current went down, so I gradually turned up the voltage in steps until I got to 18V. At 18 volts, I let it charge until the current started dropping below 1A at 18V. Took only about 5 minutes. Disconnected the supply and plugged the battery into the charger. Now is charging OK. Up to 2 bars. Just completed charge.
That's awesome!! Is it funny to you that I read your comment in my best "hillbilly British" accent after seeing the "pound" symbol designating your currency?? It made me chuckle and smile together! I'm glad it helped you out! Take care!!
It might seem like it's inserted all the way but I guarantee you it is not, it will take a lot more force to pop in for new batteries sometimes... had this happen few times just really push on it a lot harder to pop in
I heard this trick of an adding a small charge manually also works for enabling charging of a really dead automobile battery with one of those portable lithium battery jump starters they won’t operate with a battery that is too far gone. However, doing this trick to fool a smart charger into charging a dead or defective battery can lead to overheating, swelling, and possibly fire/explosion. One of the cells in series in the pack may have gone bad so forcibly charging it could have undesirable consequences. The safety features are put there for a reason.
I'm sure there is if you know what you're doing. I do not know a great deal about electronics, so I don't want to tell you something that can ruin your gear or hurt yourself. I'd imagine if you have a battery with the same or similar voltage you could probably excite the cells enough to trick the charger. As far as I know, all you're doing here is tickling the cells with enough charge to show at least a little charge on the battery so the charger will recognize it is a battery. If you go to throwing too much amperage or voltage to an electronic device, I do know you have the potential for bad things to occur like explosions, fires, and possibly injury, so be careful! If you've never had a battery blow up on you, I'll tell you this, you don't want to! I witnessed a truck battery explode one day many years ago on my Dad's old 70's C-10 Chevrolet. If you would have been working under the hood when that damn thing blew, it would have killed you without a doubt, it was about like a grenade going off, it was a hell of an explosion, one I hope to never witness again!
A nearly new 2.0 battery had 1 bar, sat on charger at a job site with a large generator running (for all contractors to use). Charger solid red light for 5 hours, still only 1 bar on battery. Tried at home just now and after maybe 5 minutes, charger light steady green, but just 2 bars on battery. But only way to see bars is to remove battery from charger and press button, bars don’t show while charging. What’s going on?
Can i do this with a different battery to try jump my m18? I have several different drills br only 1 m18 battery. Just bought a new charger thinking that eas the issue an it flashing like yours was
I bought a 2 pc combo drill and driver pack from home depot that came with a 3rd battery....after trying the insert and remove 20 times (only guidance I got from milwaukee) it still didn't work....I'm going to try this with 1 of my other batteries and see if my 3rd battery just is too dead to charge, I sure hope it works.
What if you have two brand new batteries and charger, and both batteries blink dead? I'm going to have to pull voltage from the charger eh? I know there's a "reset" on Echo batteries, but this is my first Milwaukee battery. Maybe I should try my Echo for voltage--no wait, those are 60v!
I tried this probably six months ago. Not sure what I did wrong because it killed my 8ah battery. I now have a dead 12ah, 8ah, and two 6ah batteries that are all paperweights. Seeing all the positive responses makes me think I did something wrong but I did a similar process to your video. Used 12 gauge wire and the wire got extremely hot, extremely quick.
@@AccuracySpeaks um...I have no experience with stuff like this. I'm a 61 year old cat-lady. What should I be careful of? BTW...THANKS SO MUCH FOR RESPONDING!!!😘
@@calonstanni putting too much voltage or amperage into batteries and such can cause some nasty things to occur. If you do things incorrectly, you can have a battery explode or possibly a fire, and you don't want that to occur! I'd ask a friend that is handy for some advice. As far as responding, you're certainly welcome! I'm sorry I can't tell you anything with certainty. Check out a comment below from a viewer that stated that they used a battery tender.
@RayH- Ray, I'm not an electrical expert, so I can't comment on that. It may do it, may not, I haven't broken down the amp/voltage mathematics on it. Is your charger all jacked up?
@RayH- I'd say it's certainly possible, but I'd make sure the charging output of the charger was within acceptable specs of the batteries before doing so, or you may have a bomb on your hands. If you haven't seen a battery blow up, you certainly don't want to! Shoot, my 12v battery charger is the same as the Milwaukee, as it has the "smart" feature too, in fact, I've probably thrown away a dozen perfectly good batteries because of it, man it p's me off! Now, if I need to charge a completely dead auto battery, I have to jump it. I guess the good news is that at least I learned and now can remedy the situation.
I'm not an electrical engineer, so I cannot positively answer this, however, I'd say it's possible. If it were me, I'd be careful and use similar voltages... I have an automotive charger with this so-called "smart" technology that I have likely replaced several perfectly good batteries because the charger wouldn't charge the battery! I feel this is no accident, they want to sell batteries!
I'd suppose any two lead insulated conductive wire/cable you can find may work. make sure of the polarity while hooking up the wires, or you may cook them! We're simply trying to transfer a little current to bypass the "smart" feature of the charger to show just a little voltage to bypass the "smart feature". I wouldn't, under any circumstances, hook up a very small gauge wire to the batteries and leave it for any length of time. As far as the proper gauge wire, I haven't done the calculations, as I just used some speaker wire I had laying around to accomplish the very low-tech cheat. In other words. be very careful if you use small gauge wire, keep an eye on it, and make sure it doesn't get too hot, watch the insulation for visual heat markers. If you have any issues, jerk the wires off. That said, I think my speaker wire I used was 18 ga. or there abouts, and I had zero issues, however, I did not leave them hooked up for very long. If I had some scrap heavier gauge wire laying around, I would have reached for it. One place folks get into trouble with electrical projects is utilizing too small of gauge wire for projects. For instance, with extension cords around the house using high amperage appliances that draw too much current for the cord. With extension cords, bigger is better and copper is superior to aluminum. The bottom line is, be very careful and be present when you're performing the task, the outcome is on you. If you're not sure, don't do it. Batteries, especially these new very high power Lithium ones can be very dangerous, safety glasses are a must! If you have never witnessed a battery explode, I can tell you, you do not want to! Especially a car battery, they can very easily END you! They're like an acid-filled grenade going off! I witnessed a battery blow up when I was a kid with my dad in an old Chevy truck he had, it was something I'll never forget, very violent explosion! I'm thankful we were in the cab of the truck when it blew, it was insane! Hope this helped, not trying to scare you, just laying it all out there so to speak.
An angry trip to Home Depot these days would be just that, just you being angry! Home Depot nor Ol' Milwaukee could care less, nor would they likely do anything to curb your anger. Then you'd just be standing there angry with a dead battery with the ol' Lady, kids, and the dog all upset cause you're angry, haha! And if you don't have an ol' Lady, kids, and a dog, you'd just be angry, and Home D and Milwaukee would just be laughing at you with your dough in their pocket! All joking aside, you're welcome! The sad fact of the matter is the joke is REAL these days with the lack of customer service and the lack of a company standing by a product!
Giddyup…thanks saved my boss from having to replace that….well, ok….told my company that battery was no good, they bought me a new one, and the old one is going home with me….lol.
I made mine with about a foot of speaker wire and crimped on 4 spade connectors. If you don't have any wire laying around, Radio Shack, if they even still exist, would have some wire, or a car stereo shop would probably have some. They may even throw you a jumper together if they were cool if you asked them...
If your using your tool and when it is almost a dead battery you'll hear the tool slow down. Stop right there and put it on the charger when the battery cools down. Never run your battery to the completely dead point . .... The charger is looking for 18 volts to know what to charge your battery with. If you run it to long it'll be a voltage the charger does not know and faults out the charger
I had the same issue with a brand new drill and battery package bought from Home Depot. Instead of following these directions, I noticed that the batteries had 1 bar left of charge. I put each battery into the drill and ran it for 10 seconds or so and then back into the charger. Now, both batteries are charging fine. Somehow the batteries need to be "woken up" before charging. Bizarre. Seems like a consumer complaint or something should be done to warn shoppers about this.
I have a brand new M12/M18 charger, model 48-59-1812, that seems to charger the batteries OK, but the area above the port for the M18 gets so hot that you can smell melting plastic. Has anyone else experienced this? If so, was there a way to correct it other than sending it to Milwaukee for evaluation?
If it's brand new it would for sure be under warranty. If it's getting that hot, I'd recommend not using it and contacting them, I'm sure they'd gladly get you another charger out to you, you certainly don't want to burn your house down! To answer your question, I have never experienced the situation you are.
The chargers fine its the stupid bms in the m18 packs. They're a joke, it's more common the 9 ah and 12 ah that go to shit in my experience, nearly all of them end up doing this (I have one with about 15 charge cycles on it that's playing up already). I can't tell if they're just poorly made or it's planned obsolescence. This is only a temp fix. Now the ones I've done this to flash as empty on the battery and the charger says they're full, multi meter says 14v. Only way to fix now is buying a spot welder and cells to replace the dodgy ones.
Hello, i have a Milwaukee charger that flashes red, i tried jumping but it didn’t work. Red flashing means outside charging temperature, i left it over night and that didn’t work. It's an expensive 12amp and to say im pissed is an understatement. Whats the issue can anyone reading this shed some light if battery can be fixed or is it toast?????
This isn't working for me as the battery that is showing red and green flashing has over 19V in it. Your trick didn't work with a near fully charged battery.
Amazon won't take it back they say. Milwaukee won't warranty Amazon purchases they say. I just got a tool and a pair of batteries and dual charger, no good battery signal. Time to throw some voltage around.
Battery Issue. The Fix is Place a Jumper from bad battery to a good charged battery. Pos + to Pos + and Neg - to Neg- terminals wait for about 15 minuets for battery to equalize. problem solved. both batteries are ready for work or charge to full
It’s disgraceful and embarrassing that Milwaukee would even allow this stupidness to exist. What do you do with a dead battery you charge it and you can’t charge a fully dead battery? What type of bullshit is that?
@Drewjoseph1982 it's not only them, I have an Exide charger that I probably tossed a half dozen perfectly good batteries due to it showing the batteries were bad! With the "smart" feature, if the battery was totally dead, it wouldn't charge the batteries. Jump it with a charged battery, and it would magically then start charging....
Another reason you can get that discouraging red to green alternate flashing is if you haven’t inserted the battery all the way in. I know it sounds fatuos, nevertheless it is a rookie mistake that happen to me the very first time I unpacked a brand new starter kit. 🤦🏻♂️ Just wanted to leave this comment to avoid anyone else from feeling the way I did as a result of lack of experience.
After watching the video I learned how to assertively insert the battery all the way into the slot. Thanks for the video very useful!
M18 Red Lith XC5.0 I jad the same problem. Tried this and it worked. I only left the batteries connected for about 30 seconds. Thanks for the fix! Saved me from dealing with Milwaukee.
Worked for me! Took 1 minute
Milwaukee customer service is absolutely 💯 HORRIBLE.
Either you pay to ship it in or you go back to the store you bought it from.
A BRAND new battery!
I will try this, thanks.
😮😢😮😮😮😮😅😅😅😮😅😮😅😅😅😅😅😮😮😅😅😅😅😅@@203isaiah7
@@rvz77 I hate to hear that, especially with how much they are in love with their products! Their prices on that stuff are getting insane! I guess I'll be looking more into Harbor Freight stuff in the future, I hear it is getting pretty good, and hell, it's all made overseas anyway!
When one buys brand new battery should you charge it or run it down completely?
I did this trick with my m18 battery. It worked!! Thank you for the Video!
Excellent, I'm glad it helped you out!
This also works for a Forge battery. My 6.0 Forge was dead, no lights coming on at all. Jumped it from an old 5.0 XC battery, it took just like 10 seconds and the Forge started lighting up and then charged fully. Thanks for the vid
That's great, you're welcome!
THANK YOU!
This (my own similar method) worked for me, with a simple 9V battery as the donor.
My drill, battery, and charger were all brand new. I used the drill till the battery was depleted, so I went to charge it for the first time, and it wouldn't charge; I got the alternating red/green lights on the charger. Didn't know WHAT could be wrong, this stuff is BRAND NEW!
I found your video. Now, I did not have a second battery to use as the donor charge, so I tried a 9V battery. Hooked up the wires, + to +, - to -, and let it sit for about 10 minutes. Neither battery got hot, nor did the wires. After the ten minutes, I disconnected the wires and slid the battery onto its charger, and BAM... red charging lights!
AWESOME! Thank you so much. Now I just hope I don't have to do this every single time the battery is depleted.
@bernardo81 Right on, my friend. I'm glad it worked for you! Thanks for the feedback, I love hearing folks got some help and didn't get screwed out of some hard earned dough!!
@@AccuracySpeaks The next thing to do is build a more permanent, portable, and convenient 9V battery "stimulator" for when this happens again.
I had the exact same problem, and i did the same steps you showed here. It worked perfectly!! You save me $$.. Thank you so much!!
That's awesome, glad it worked for you!!
That worked great! Thanks for the video! It brought my xc4.0 back to life after leaving it in my sawzall for too long.
Whoever you are , you are a lifesaver!! I hope you get whatever you wish this year!! I used a car battery jumper with 2 butter knives and it worked!! Thank you so much!!!
Just watched your video and tried it. I have been so annoyed red-green flash of death coming from the original battery that was never out of the case. I made the jumper wire, connected them for 10 minutes and problem solved! Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and posting the video!
@@bradray3893 Thank you for your kind words, I'm glad it worked out for you!
Wow this shit worked!!!! I had nothing fancy like you. So I used a coax cable stripped it to the wire made two small cables for positive and negative waiting 8 minutes and boom!!! Thank you
Just started working at a heavy diesel repair shop. I noticed many chargers and batteries out of commission. Deap pockets just buy new batteries and chargers apparently. Thank you for the information.
Congratulations on your new job! What is your area of expertise, everything?
@@AccuracySpeakshe must be Jack of all trades.
@@rvz77not spelling lol
Worked on mine - I have a variable power supply - put in 18V 1A max, and in 20 seconds the voltage went up to 11V, with one blinking light on the battery pushbutton LED display. Plugged into the charger, and it worked great
This works! I left mine plugged in for an hour, and it works!
Nice, glad it worked!
I did it and it worked the only difference is I used a battery maintainer, thanks.
Bingo bango!! Like you said, not even a minute we had to wait, and it worked. Thank you!!!
Nice!!
Thanks...IT WORKED and you saved me from buying a new one!
Sweet, glad it worked for you!
THANK YOU!!!! Hurricane bearing down and battery wouldn’t charge! Saved me $$!!
Stay safe brother, where you located? Fla??
That worked great! Thanks for the video! It brought my xc4.0 back to life after leaving it in my sawzall for too long.
Sweet, glad it worked for you!
I just did this and IT WORKS! my XC5.0
That's awesome buddy!!
I used 2 paper clips, only a couple minutes and they both showed 2 bars. Put both back on the charger and it worked!!!
@jeffreybuckmaster4600 I love it!! Do what works, that's serious ingenuity!
Thanks, Fyi- I used two larger carpet razor blades, put one blade on positive sides of two 5.0 batteries, then added second blade to the negative side and the same method you used worked like a champ after several minutes of jumping dead battery, then charged perfect. Stack batteries on each other for fitment.
Well done, gotta love genuine old school ingenuity!
Thanks! This method worked for me too!.. tricked the smart charger by recharging it from another battery 👌🏻 too legit to quit ⚡️😎. Snagged a used battery deal on offer up & 1 of the 3 flashed red/ green.. prolly drained dead for too long. This fixed it! 👌🏻
Awesome, glad it helped!
M18 RED LITH XC3.0 PACK I was able to get it fixed, using the same trick. Thanks for the video.
Sweet, glad it helped out!
Many thanks Big time you have saved me a few pounds just done mine following your instructions Brilliant 👏
Sweet! Always nice to keep a few pounds, in your pocket, that is!! I noticed you saved a few "pounds", where are you from?
Thank you, this sort of worked. My dead battery (which the indicator showed zero bar) when place in the charger, flashed red/green. Then I tied your trick with a good battery (neg to Neg / Pos to Pos) and when I put the bad battery in the charger it went direct to Green. So it did make a difference. I left it on the charger for about an hour or more, it still stayed on green. On the battery itself, the indicator only showed one bar and was flashing red. Another hour, charger is still green and the battery indicator is still showing a single bar, flashing red. Any suggestions or thoughts?
I have a 1.5 AH M18. Used it once in an LED lamp. Perhaps I left the lamp on, perhaps not, but the battery was dead. Tried to charge it in the Milwaukee charger. Two chargers the same symptom, flashing red and green.
I have an electronics lab bench supply. Connected the supply to the battery as in the video. Turned the current limit all the way down, and cranked the voltage up to maybe 12V, then cranked the current up to 1A. As the battery charged, the current went down, so I gradually turned up the voltage in steps until I got to 18V. At 18 volts, I let it charge until the current started dropping below 1A at 18V. Took only about 5 minutes. Disconnected the supply and plugged the battery into the charger. Now is charging OK. Up to 2 bars.
Just completed charge.
That sounds like the professional way to go for sure!!
Worked with mine! I was wondering what to do with it? It was brand new as well. Never used
Excellent!!
You’ve saved me £120 today and I’m extremely grateful, thank you!
That's awesome!! Is it funny to you that I read your comment in my best "hillbilly British" accent after seeing the "pound" symbol designating your currency?? It made me chuckle and smile together! I'm glad it helped you out! Take care!!
I just bought a set off someone and the same thing happened. I tried this for about 10 seconds and it worked!
@@joeamaya176 sweet!!
Before you try this, unplug your charger and plug it back in. A couple try's and this worked for me.
It might seem like it's inserted all the way but I guarantee you it is not, it will take a lot more force to pop in for new batteries sometimes... had this happen few times just really push on it a lot harder to pop in
Thank you for doing this video! I will try this as mine is flicking back and forth red to green
@@Conservative01 You're welcome, I hope it works for you!
Wow tried it out on a battery and it worked like a charm. Appreciate the video
Thanks for the reply, glad it worked for you!
Great video and great information, I was curios if anyone had ever tried to modify one of the chargers, I know we all have tons of the things.
I heard this trick of an adding a small charge manually also works for enabling charging of a really dead automobile battery with one of those portable lithium battery jump starters they won’t operate with a battery that is too far gone.
However, doing this trick to fool a smart charger into charging a dead or defective battery can lead to overheating, swelling, and possibly fire/explosion. One of the cells in series in the pack may have gone bad so forcibly charging it could have undesirable consequences. The safety features are put there for a reason.
But you need a second milwaukee battery to make this work? Is there a different battery i can use as the power source?
I'm sure there is if you know what you're doing. I do not know a great deal about electronics, so I don't want to tell you something that can ruin your gear or hurt yourself. I'd imagine if you have a battery with the same or similar voltage you could probably excite the cells enough to trick the charger. As far as I know, all you're doing here is tickling the cells with enough charge to show at least a little charge on the battery so the charger will recognize it is a battery. If you go to throwing too much amperage or voltage to an electronic device, I do know you have the potential for bad things to occur like explosions, fires, and possibly injury, so be careful! If you've never had a battery blow up on you, I'll tell you this, you don't want to! I witnessed a truck battery explode one day many years ago on my Dad's old 70's C-10 Chevrolet. If you would have been working under the hood when that damn thing blew, it would have killed you without a doubt, it was about like a grenade going off, it was a hell of an explosion, one I hope to never witness again!
Thank you so much! Worked great 👍
@MrMicky1m sweet, glad it helped!
Thank you for showing how to save a new battery!
It works. Appreciate your video
@@jansonlai sweet!!
100% worked. Thought I needed to buy a battery. Thanks
A nearly new 2.0 battery had 1 bar, sat on charger at a job site with a large generator running (for all contractors to use). Charger solid red light for 5 hours, still only 1 bar on battery. Tried at home just now and after maybe 5 minutes, charger light steady green, but just 2 bars on battery. But only way to see bars is to remove battery from charger and press button, bars don’t show while charging. What’s going on?
I couldn't tell you, perhaps some of the viewers can though. I hope you get it figured out, if you do, please share with us! Take care!
This is awesome, thank you! It worked for me.
Excellent, glad it helped you out!!
Can i do this with a different battery to try jump my m18? I have several different drills br only 1 m18 battery. Just bought a new charger thinking that eas the issue an it flashing like yours was
I bought a 2 pc combo drill and driver pack from home depot that came with a 3rd battery....after trying the insert and remove 20 times (only guidance I got from milwaukee) it still didn't work....I'm going to try this with 1 of my other batteries and see if my 3rd battery just is too dead to charge, I sure hope it works.
Hope it works! Yeah "OLD Milwaukee" isn't going to tell you anything, they just want your money!
What if you have two brand new batteries and charger, and both batteries blink dead? I'm going to have to pull voltage from the charger eh? I know there's a "reset" on Echo batteries, but this is my first Milwaukee battery. Maybe I should try my Echo for voltage--no wait, those are 60v!
I tried this probably six months ago. Not sure what I did wrong because it killed my 8ah battery. I now have a dead 12ah, 8ah, and two 6ah batteries that are all paperweights. Seeing all the positive responses makes me think I did something wrong but I did a similar process to your video. Used 12 gauge wire and the wire got extremely hot, extremely quick.
Maybe you crossed positive and negative. If the batteries are facing each other end to end, the positive poles would be on opposite ends.
I don’t have another tool battery to hook my dead battery to. Can I use a trickle charger or my car battery?
Someone in the comments said they used a maintainer to trick theirs, however, I haven't tested it, nor can I confirm it. Just be careful!
@@AccuracySpeaks um...I have no experience with stuff like this. I'm a 61 year old cat-lady. What should I be careful of? BTW...THANKS SO MUCH FOR RESPONDING!!!😘
@@calonstanni putting too much voltage or amperage into batteries and such can cause some nasty things to occur. If you do things incorrectly, you can have a battery explode or possibly a fire, and you don't want that to occur! I'd ask a friend that is handy for some advice. As far as responding, you're certainly welcome! I'm sorry I can't tell you anything with certainty. Check out a comment below from a viewer that stated that they used a battery tender.
Actually works! THANK YOU
would you have to do this every time you have to charge it or just once
No, only if there was zero charge on the cells.
Thanks for the video 📹 it really help out
You're welcome, glad it helped!
It worked!!! Thank you!
@@TheMusicVideos1 Sa-weeet!!
Hey man great video. I did what you said, and it worked !!!!!!! thank you thank you thank you
@@wldwon excellent!
Do you think a 12 v two or three amp battery charger will work?
@@RayH- as a jumper, or to charge the battery?
@AccuracySpeaks To charge.
@RayH- Ray, I'm not an electrical expert, so I can't comment on that. It may do it, may not, I haven't broken down the amp/voltage mathematics on it. Is your charger all jacked up?
@AccuracySpeaks I was just wondering if a charger might work to revive a battery that won't take a charge. Just a thought
@RayH- I'd say it's certainly possible, but I'd make sure the charging output of the charger was within acceptable specs of the batteries before doing so, or you may have a bomb on your hands. If you haven't seen a battery blow up, you certainly don't want to! Shoot, my 12v battery charger is the same as the Milwaukee, as it has the "smart" feature too, in fact, I've probably thrown away a dozen perfectly good batteries because of it, man it p's me off! Now, if I need to charge a completely dead auto battery, I have to jump it. I guess the good news is that at least I learned and now can remedy the situation.
Milwaukee disapproves of this video.
@darioesqueda5727 you know it! It's a wonder they haven't contacted "Big Brother" and tried to get them to disappear it...
Will this work with the M12 batteries? My XC6.0 is doing the same thing.
I'm not an electrical engineer, so I cannot positively answer this, however, I'd say it's possible. If it were me, I'd be careful and use similar voltages... I have an automotive charger with this so-called "smart" technology that I have likely replaced several perfectly good batteries because the charger wouldn't charge the battery! I feel this is no accident, they want to sell batteries!
Worked on a h.o. 6.0
Thanks for the info
Awesome, glad it worked for you!!
Did not work for mine 😢 well ill eat my words after a while dead flashing light had 2 bars and charged life saver!!! 🙌
I imagine you can do this with a Car battery as well. Car Battery to Milwaukee Battery?
18 volts are not in most car batteries. M12, sure.
@wadepatton2433 Would it be enough 12 volts to at least get it going? I only also because I don't have another 18 volt battery 😔
Does any cable work? Cheers
I'd suppose any two lead insulated conductive wire/cable you can find may work. make sure of the polarity while hooking up the wires, or you may cook them! We're simply trying to transfer a little current to bypass the "smart" feature of the charger to show just a little voltage to bypass the "smart feature". I wouldn't, under any circumstances, hook up a very small gauge wire to the batteries and leave it for any length of time. As far as the proper gauge wire, I haven't done the calculations, as I just used some speaker wire I had laying around to accomplish the very low-tech cheat. In other words. be very careful if you use small gauge wire, keep an eye on it, and make sure it doesn't get too hot, watch the insulation for visual heat markers. If you have any issues, jerk the wires off. That said, I think my speaker wire I used was 18 ga. or there abouts, and I had zero issues, however, I did not leave them hooked up for very long. If I had some scrap heavier gauge wire laying around, I would have reached for it. One place folks get into trouble with electrical projects is utilizing too small of gauge wire for projects. For instance, with extension cords around the house using high amperage appliances that draw too much current for the cord. With extension cords, bigger is better and copper is superior to aluminum. The bottom line is, be very careful and be present when you're performing the task, the outcome is on you. If you're not sure, don't do it. Batteries, especially these new very high power Lithium ones can be very dangerous, safety glasses are a must! If you have never witnessed a battery explode, I can tell you, you do not want to! Especially a car battery, they can very easily END you! They're like an acid-filled grenade going off! I witnessed a battery blow up when I was a kid with my dad in an old Chevy truck he had, it was something I'll never forget, very violent explosion! I'm thankful we were in the cab of the truck when it blew, it was insane! Hope this helped, not trying to scare you, just laying it all out there so to speak.
I had my doubts man, you just saved me from making a very angry trip to Home Depot, thank you!
An angry trip to Home Depot these days would be just that, just you being angry! Home Depot nor Ol' Milwaukee could care less, nor would they likely do anything to curb your anger. Then you'd just be standing there angry with a dead battery with the ol' Lady, kids, and the dog all upset cause you're angry, haha! And if you don't have an ol' Lady, kids, and a dog, you'd just be angry, and Home D and Milwaukee would just be laughing at you with your dough in their pocket! All joking aside, you're welcome! The sad fact of the matter is the joke is REAL these days with the lack of customer service and the lack of a company standing by a product!
F.... this work with my battery.. thanks buddy..👍👍👍
Worked for me....took about 30 seconds but be careful, my jumper wires got a little warm
Giddyup…thanks saved my boss from having to replace that….well, ok….told my company that battery was no good, they bought me a new one, and the old one is going home with me….lol.
Saaweet!!
Fantastic. Many thanks pal 👍
@FlatEric971 You're welcome, brother Eric! Glad it helped!
Helloo, where i can find the cables?
I made mine with about a foot of speaker wire and crimped on 4 spade connectors. If you don't have any wire laying around, Radio Shack, if they even still exist, would have some wire, or a car stereo shop would probably have some. They may even throw you a jumper together if they were cool if you asked them...
Thanks brother 🙏 💙 ❤ 🙌
Thanks it worked! I did it for 10 sec
That's great!
Worked on mine😂 thank you
You should NOT have to do this for a new 1 Bar Battery. Thanks for the info 👍
I owe you a beer good sir !
That'd be cool!! Glad it helped you out!!
thank you worked like a charm
If your using your tool and when it is almost a dead battery you'll hear the tool slow down. Stop right there and put it on the charger when the battery cools down. Never run your battery to the completely dead point .
.... The charger is looking for 18 volts to know what to charge your battery with. If you run it to long it'll be a voltage the charger does not know and faults out the charger
I shit you not.....this hack really works. I had the same issue, and it fricken worked
Excellent, glad it helped you out too!!
I had the same issue with a brand new drill and battery package bought from Home Depot. Instead of following these directions, I noticed that the batteries had 1 bar left of charge. I put each battery into the drill and ran it for 10 seconds or so and then back into the charger. Now, both batteries are charging fine. Somehow the batteries need to be "woken up" before charging. Bizarre. Seems like a consumer complaint or something should be done to warn shoppers about this.
I have a brand new M12/M18 charger, model 48-59-1812, that seems to charger the batteries OK, but the area above the port for the M18 gets so hot that you can smell melting plastic. Has anyone else experienced this? If so, was there a way to correct it other than sending it to Milwaukee for evaluation?
If it's brand new it would for sure be under warranty. If it's getting that hot, I'd recommend not using it and contacting them, I'm sure they'd gladly get you another charger out to you, you certainly don't want to burn your house down! To answer your question, I have never experienced the situation you are.
The chargers fine its the stupid bms in the m18 packs. They're a joke, it's more common the 9 ah and 12 ah that go to shit in my experience, nearly all of them end up doing this (I have one with about 15 charge cycles on it that's playing up already). I can't tell if they're just poorly made or it's planned obsolescence.
This is only a temp fix. Now the ones I've done this to flash as empty on the battery and the charger says they're full, multi meter says 14v. Only way to fix now is buying a spot welder and cells to replace the dodgy ones.
Merci la mienne était plat sans charge du coup il s'allume rouge et vert, je fais la même manipulation sa à marcher !!! Merci
That is great, I'm glad it was able to help you out!
Wow .. Thanks you !! it workk for my battary m18 8ah
I got a dead battery for let the battery charge off several time using the miwakee fan
This just worked for me.
Sweet!!
thank you-simple and effective
Hello, i have a Milwaukee charger that flashes red, i tried jumping but it didn’t work. Red flashing means outside charging temperature, i left it over night and that didn’t work. It's an expensive 12amp and to say im pissed is an understatement. Whats the issue can anyone reading this shed some light if battery can be fixed or is it toast?????
Me too
Thank you! Worked for us as well. What a dumb design…well smart if the intent is to force people to keep buying replacement batteries
I’ve tried this several times on different batteries and it wouldn’t work on any of them.
The charger may be jacked...Do you have a buddy that can let you try their charger to verify it?
@@AccuracySpeaks we moved it to several different chargers and it wouldn’t work on Any of them.
Hero
This isn't working for me as the battery that is showing red and green flashing has over 19V in it. Your trick didn't work with a near fully charged battery.
The only time I have ever utilized the "trick" is when a good battery has zero charge. Sounds like your battery has a serious issue.
@@AccuracySpeaks Yup, I have the rapid charger, and need to try using a normal charger but catching up with a pal of mine who has one is an issue.
Just done mine as we speak and it's gone up to bars 🎉
@@BrianVickery-b7r Excellent!
@BrianVickery-b7r I think I'll try again. Watch this space, as they say.
I just bought new for the 1st time and flashes red and green
. Time to return it
Amazon won't take it back they say. Milwaukee won't warranty Amazon purchases they say.
I just got a tool and a pair of batteries and dual charger, no good battery signal. Time to throw some voltage around.
THANK YOU!!!!
it melt the cables
Much appreciated!!👍
I received brand new batteries that wouldn't charge and had to do this. I only jumped them for about 30 seconds.
@jsantef Excellent, glad it worked for you!
i tried this, it sparked and the wire/battery got hot right away.
Awesome. This worked great! Thank you!
Excellent, you're welcome!!
Battery Issue.
The Fix is Place a Jumper from bad battery to a good charged battery.
Pos + to Pos + and Neg - to Neg- terminals wait for about 15 minuets for battery to equalize.
problem solved. both batteries are ready for work or charge to full
I wanted to learn but couldn’t get past th😂 heavy breathing
Would kee perfect. Thanks!
Don’t work for me…….👀🙄😖
Yea it will work now sell it! Some wrong with the battery anyways
You got one battery that’s real
I have 4 batteries flashing red to green right now. I'll try this and report back.
It’s disgraceful and embarrassing that Milwaukee would even allow this stupidness to exist. What do you do with a dead battery you charge it and you can’t charge a fully dead battery? What type of bullshit is that?
@Drewjoseph1982 it's not only them, I have an Exide charger that I probably tossed a half dozen perfectly good batteries due to it showing the batteries were bad! With the "smart" feature, if the battery was totally dead, it wouldn't charge the batteries. Jump it with a charged battery, and it would magically then start charging....