Dewalt 20V battery - charge at 2bars or 1 bar

[branimal]

Recently bot a dewalt drill and an impact driver. I was using Ridgid b/f. Ridgid has a 4 bar battery charge indicator. When the ridgid battery hits 2 bars i'd charge it. I read that batteries should be charged when they reach 50% capacity. 25% is running it too low and 75% is too soon to charge.

With dewalt there are only 3 bars. So do you guys charge at 1 bar or 2 bars?

Using 2amp batteries.

Yeah I get i might be overthinking this one....

 

[PCustoms]

Yeah I get i might be overthinking this one....

Yes.

Charge when "dead". The pack/tool has a BMS to prevent full discharge, so when it's "dead" you're likely at 20-25%

 

[Steve_P]

If I run a battery down to one bar and notice it, I'll swap out and charge it; I have plenty of batteries. If I'm done using a tool and it has 2 bars, then I charge it. If I just drill a few holes and it shows full, then I put it away.

 

[Citation]

Charge it when it's handy. This isn't a NiCad battery that has memory effects. The only "wrong" thing is don't fully charge it then leave it for a long time. If you aren't going to use it for a while, don't charge it. You will get better long term battery life if you store the battery about half charged. I'm assuming it has a safety circuit to prevent over discharge.

 

[SILVERPLATE]

Charge mine when dead and have spare ready to go always.

 

[honcho]

Charge at 1 bar unless you want to charge your batteries 30 feet underwater at 2 bar

Ok, bad attempt at humor, please forgive me.

 

[dutchgray]

Charge when convenient is all I have ever done with lithium ion took batteries, usually get 10 years plus out of any battery, some are 15 years old at this point and still ok, Makita, Bosch, Panasonic is what I have.