Problems with Milwaukee M12 Charger(S)

[jgromada]

Ok I've been pretty happy with Milwaukee for a while. All of a sudden late last week I went down to my old M12 charger to retrieve a battery. I thought it was really strange but no LEDs were lit on the charger. When I put the battery into my multitool noticed it was fully charged.

I proceeded to put the old (drained battery) into the charger but NO LEDS came on. Left it in for a day and then No charging going on.


I said ok maybe my old charger (year and a half old) went bad and pulled out the new charger that came with multitool (approx 2 months old). Well the LED initially came on (solid red) but then checking back an hour later I noticed NO LEDS on and the battery had only been partially charged.

Right now not very happy with Milwaukee. Before I did anything else and wanted to hear if anyone had experienced similar problems. Is there an internal fuse to these chargers? I have a variety of M12 tools that i have been using for the past year & a half and this is the first problem i have had. So at this point i have 2 M12 Chargers none of which LEDS light up for. I also have 4 M12 batteries and i have the same proble with ALL of them. My voltage to charger is good I checked that as well.

 

[DFB]

Ya with M12 steady red light = light power on and charging. Steady green light = full charge. Flashing lights = cold/hot/ other issues

About all I can suggest is to double check and make sure the battery is seated down into the holder all the way. It is quite odd that two 2 chargers would randomly exhibit similar problems unless there is an issue with the power outlet itself.

 

[Michael_in_DE]

I had a similar issue.. turned out that it was how I had the charger mounted and I did not have the battery in all the way.

I also ended up with a Charger from a GS. It was dead, upon testing it with a multi-meter... it fried the multi-meter. But take that with a grain of salt, I have no idea what I am doing.

 

[vintagewalrus]

Going to necro this as it's a top hit in the googler. Mine did the same thing as OP today. It's the little one that came with my m12 kit. Battery on charge had charged but no lights. Tried to charge a couple others and nothing. Only 4 torx screws holding it together. Looks like a pretty solid build inside. No smell, nothing obviously fried. Blew it out and tested the main lines in for continuity. Looked good. Tested a battery and it worked. Put it back together and it's working fine. IDK if maybe there was dirt blocking a connection or what. Anyway, don't be afraid to pop in there and clean it up. Thought I had an excuse to buy a new tool kit to get a charger but no luck. Maybe I should reward myself for fixing it and saving money...

 

[ThatSickRip]

Ive got 1 that came recently (not sure which tool or deal) and its dead too. Id try to warranty it, but with as many as I have I dont want to pay the S/H to Milwaukee

 

[FuzzyTiger]

Yeah. If you're buying M12 tools, you'll end up with a closet full of the things. No point in warrantying them. Just replace it and get on with your day. If for some reason you don't have extras, just check your local classifieds, there's bound to be someone trying to give them away.

 

[PugetDude]

Yeah. If you're buying M12 tools, you'll end up with a closet full of the things. No point in warrantying them. Just replace it and get on with your day. If for some reason you don't have extras, just check your local classifieds, there's bound to be someone trying to give them away.

Check with your local thrift store- for example 2nd Time Around in Port Townsend, WA sells all cordless chargers and batteries for $2/each.

 

[jgromada]

I dug into this a little bit more, took the charger apart and then discovered if i bent the connection prongs a little bit it would make contact and work! All fixed now

 

[Joelk]

I had a similar experience. New M12 charger, but I had not used and approx. 2YO(it was a spare) Went to use it and no lights, tried multiple different batteries and nothing.

I took it apart and found no issues, so assumed it had been a waste of time, but when I put it back together, it worked fine. I assume something got "realigned" in the disassembly/reassembly process but...

 

[Milton Shaw]

I ran into a strange issue with a new M18 charger. It shows the battery bad with fast flash etc. The problem was that I had set the charger on top of a Ryobi 18 volt charger. The RF energy from the charger was effecting the M18 charger, I even took it back and of course it worked fine when it was separated from the other charger. So they are more sensitive than you would think. I have another M18 charger that is dead with a blown special fuse. I have not decided to fix it myself or return it under warranty.

 

[Gss]

Going to necro this as it's a top hit in the googler. Mine did the same thing as OP today. It's the little one that came with my m12 kit. Battery on charge had charged but no lights. Tried to charge a couple others and nothing. Only 4 torx screws holding it together. Looks like a pretty solid build inside. No smell, nothing obviously fried. Blew it out and tested the main lines in for continuity. Looked good. Tested a battery and it worked. Put it back together and it's working fine. IDK if maybe there was dirt blocking a connection or what. Anyway, don't be afraid to pop in there and clean it up. Thought I had an excuse to buy a new tool kit to get a charger but no luck. Maybe I should reward myself for fixing it and saving money...

This morning two other techs that work with me had the same problem with their Milwaukee m12 new battery chargers. So I had one of them take the charger apart, when he did low and behold there is a reset inside. All I had to do to create the reset was plug the charger in, (with a test light) clipped the ground end on the ground tab that the battery connects to and touched the point of the test light to the reset tab (which is not a button) and the charger started working again.