Bosch Rechargeable Hedgecutter Problems

[Martin109]

I’ve had this Bosch hedgecutter for a few years, and it’s been fine.  It has a detachable battery pack, which has charged up in an hour or so.  I could tell when it was charged when the green light on the charging unit went from flashing to constant.

But now the light stays flashing for ever, and the battery pack has no charge.  Can’t work out if this is a problem with the pack or the charger.  If it’s the pack, how easy is it to replace the rechargeable unit(s) in it?  I’ll post some pics later, if this would help.

The battery pack says 'Bosch 12v 1.4Ah' & '2 607 335 055 12v'
The charger says 'Bosch AL60 DV 1411 7.2-14.4v'

It would be a waste and a pity to have to chuck the whole thing away.

[rae]

For £34 you could get a new battery with quite a bit more capacity:

Bosch / Skil 12v 1900mAh battery BAT011 Battery Trader

Probably the battery - if the light is flashing the charger has power at least, and the batteries do have a limited lifetime.   The flash -> constant is normally a voltage change detection - your pack is no longer doing this, so it just charges forever.

Yes, you can strip the pack and put new cells in it, but that will probably cost about £20 and be fiddly.

[Martin109]

Thanks rae!  That's fantastic!  There was me thinking that, as the unit is a few years old, I would just be told by any dealer that it's obsolete, and I'd have to buy a whole new appliance!

[rae]

Google is your friend in such cases.  You're right, pretty much any dealer would try and get you to buy a new one.  I get that all the time for something that just needs a few quid in parts (if you can find them).

Note: I have no idea if those people are good, they were just the first ones I found. 

[TimO]

One thing to be aware of, is that very shortly (end of September?) you will no longer be able to buy NiCds, so if this is using a NiCd pack, you may want to make sure you buy it before then.

[Zoidburg]

For £34 you could get a new battery with quite a bit more capacity:

Bosch / Skil 12v 1900mAh battery BAT011 Battery Trader

Probably the battery - if the light is flashing the charger has power at least, and the batteries do have a limited lifetime.   The flash -> constant is normally a voltage change detection - your pack is no longer doing this, so it just charges forever.

Yes, you can strip the pack and put new cells in it, but that will probably cost about £20 and be fiddly.

That particular type of bosch charger was often called a "smart" charge

Sadly it wasnt, the flashing green light just tells you that its charging, it will charge for an hour then shut its self off, they will still cook batteries and the danger of part charging and losing capacity is still there

Charge fully- run till flat - repeat, stick to that and you wont have many problems with a Ni Cad

[rae]

One thing to be aware of, is that very shortly (end of September?) you will no longer be able to buy NiCds, 

Never heard of this, and Google didn't turn up a link in response to "NiCd UK regulation" in the first three pages.   This is a big deal, because for high current (>2C) applications, NiCd has yet to be beaten.

[Zoidburg]

One thing to be aware of, is that very shortly (end of September?) you will no longer be able to buy NiCds, 

Never heard of this, and Google didn't turn up a link in response to "NiCd UK regulation" in the first three pages.   This is a big deal, because for high current (>2C) applications, NiCd has yet to be beaten.

Been ditched

Nihm was the next generation powertool more than 5 years ago, all the major manufacturers are going to Lithium Ion packs now, they have fiddled with the chemical make up of the pack to suit high drain and they indeed do the business

[Wombat]

Acciording to the new regs, portable power tools are excluded from the new regs:

The Regulations – In Detail
Materials Prohibitions (Regulation 4)
18.
This Regulation transposes the prohibitions set out in Article 4 of the Directive. The intention of Regulation 4 (Prohibitions on mercury and cadmium), is to prohibit any persons from placing:
(i)
any battery or accumulator on the market that contains more than 0.0005% of mercury by weight; but this does not apply to button cells which are permitted a mercury content of no more than 2% by weight; and
(ii)
any portable battery that contains more than 0.002% of cadmium by weight, but this does not apply to portable batteries intended for use in emergency and alarm systems, including emergency lighting; medical equipment; or cordless power tools.

Kind of makes me wonder quite what they ARE targeting then... whats the point in sort of half heartedly banning dangerous heavy metals?  Cadmium isn't very nice stuff.

[Zoidburg]

Acciording to the new regs, portable power tools are excluded from the new regs:

The Regulations – In Detail
Materials Prohibitions (Regulation 4)
18.
This Regulation transposes the prohibitions set out in Article 4 of the Directive. The intention of Regulation 4 (Prohibitions on mercury and cadmium), is to prohibit any persons from placing:
(i)
any battery or accumulator on the market that contains more than 0.0005% of mercury by weight; but this does not apply to button cells which are permitted a mercury content of no more than 2% by weight; and
(ii)
any portable battery that contains more than 0.002% of cadmium by weight, but this does not apply to portable batteries intended for use in emergency and alarm systems, including emergency lighting; medical equipment; or cordless power tools.

Kind of makes me wonder quite what they ARE targeting then... whats the point in sort of half heartedly banning dangerous heavy metals?  Cadmium isn't very nice stuff.

That means cordless kit owned by the emergency services

Sabre saws, grinders etc

You and I will have to ditch them

[Wombat]

No, read it again, and note the semicolon.  emergency etc equipment OR portable power tools.  I'm fairly sur eI'm interpreting that correctly, and I'm fairly used to regulation documents.

[Zoidburg]

And this bit prefixes it

 "does not apply to portable batteries intended for use in emergency and alarm systems"

Not domestic use kit