New M18 battery melted during its first charge

[ScottsGT]

Son just bought into the M18 lineup and the first charge on one of the new batteries this happened. Told him to quit using the charger and this battery and call Monday.
Anyone ever see this?

 

[Nthill93]

Where’d he buy it from? Lots of knockoff batteries out there and they are hard to spot. Looks like a bad connection and it got hot and melted the plastic. Doesn’t look like it’s a cell issue

 

[ScottsGT]

This was on of those combo deals. He got the vac and the big boy and stubby impact and two batteries and a charger.

 

[Kscardsfan]

Check the charger as well. Contact Milwaukee customer service and see what they can do for you.

 

[finn]

Looks like the battery lugs weren’t fully engaged in the charger spades, causing a high resistance connection, and excessive heat.

I would think the safeties in the charger electronics of the charger would detect a fault shut it down, though.

 

[ScottsGT]

Just a follow up after conversion with my son this evening. He called Milwaukee and they shipped him a new battery and gave him a $100 refund towards the package deal he bought. That blew my mind.

 

[B_Bimmer]

Wow, can't really complain about that.

 

[Vicdog]

I have lots of those batteries. Never an issue. Glad they took care of it!

 

[dnschmidt]

As much as I despise what they tried to get away with on the High Torque impact I have to admit that Milwaukee has taken care of me over the many years I've had their products. I've had a lot of battery failures (not of this type but simply that they would not charge without the dreaded flashing green and red lights.) The biggest offenders have been the M12 6.0 batteries and the M18 8.0 and 12.0. In all cases they've replaced them under warrantee for me. The only hassle was that you much keep your receipts showing the actual date of purchase or they simply go by the manufactured date which can be a full year before you actually purchased the battery. If the manufactured date is beyond the warrantee period they will not replace the battery as it's considered out of warrantee. If you have the recipe proving that you still have warrantee coverage all is well and they will replace them.

 

[boom_bap]

Those chargers can be tough. You think the battery is on there, but you gotta push down hard for them to seat all the way. They flash reg green, normally, but it must have been just enough to not trigger.