What to do with all those chargers?

[Roady]

Just completed a attached garage for daily drivers and general tinkering. Over the years I have accumulated a lot of rechargeable devices...Drills, portable power devices, ect. I was wondering if anyone has any slick ideas for organizing everything into a neat area for recharging things.

Roady

 

[rsanter]

that is why I have stuck with one brand (dewalt) for all of my cordless stuff. one charger will charge lots of batteries and I have backup batteries..

bob

 

[Hades12]

I have found some pegboard stuff to hold the chargers and tools. Just rack it all up with an outlet close by.

Dewalt 18V FTW!!!!

 

[Bob88Vette]

I wasn't smart enough to stick with one brand. I have the end of one workbench reserved for recharges. All the power blocks plug into a massive power strip bolted underneath the workbeanch and just the cords come up from the back of the workbeanch then I use wire marker type tape flags over the ends of the cords that say what they go to. Like "DeWalt 18V Drill" etc. The only drawback is if you have a charger that you have to look at the indicator light on because your doing a quick charge and see when it's ready this doesn't work well for that since all the brains is under the work bench.

 

[timgr]

I made a charging station. A shallow shelf near an outlet is what I use. Add a plug strip from Staples to plug the chargers into. The plug strip will have a master switch to turn all the chargers off. Leaving the parasitic load on all the time is not green. If you wanted to switch the chargers individually, outlets and wall switches can be had for about 50c each.

 

[Roady]

Thanks guys...

 

[MN4x4]

Resurrecting this thread because I am about to have to deal with this problem in my shop re-do.

I have mostly Dewalt 18 volt tools (If I remember right: 4 drills, 3 saws, 2 impacts, a flashlight, a vacuum, a grinder, and maybe one or two others), but I also have several Milwaukee V28/M28 tools (2 saws, 2 impacts, 1 drill). I have at least 8 batteries for the Dewalts and 4 for the Milwaukee. That means if I am going to have the capability of charging all my batteries at one time I will need to connect and have easy access to 12 chargers.

Does anyone have pictures of how they dealt with this? Enquiring minds want to know...

 

[Greatbear]

For tools that have common chargers, like the DeWalt 18V stuff, you only have to have a couple chargers handy. Ditto the other tools that share similar packs or chargers. I have a ton of 18/14.4 stuff, but I leave two dual-well chargers "permanently" on the shelf for those. A pair of 12V Bosch chargers, one 18V Bosch charger and a 36V DeWalt charger round out my "charging station." For the few items I have that get intermittent use, I take out the chargers for those when they need a charge, though there is space to leave them out. If I should need to charge more than the number of batteries I have chargers for, I pull the chargers from the kit boxes and gang them up as well. I have extra chargers for the various tools (mostly gotten in battery/charger combo packs). This does well for me since I can grab a tool in it's kit box and take it out on a job knowing there is a charger in the box along with at least two batteries. Set up a shelf to line up the chargers, plug them into a multi-outlet power strip and you'll have a handy charging station. When done with the charging, throw the switch on the power strip to kill the unneeded power to the chargers.

 

[Jack Olsen]

I keep all the chargers in one plastic bin. It's rare that I'm charging more than one battery at a time -- I'd hate to waste a lot of bench space (I have a small garage) on chargers set up and waiting. When I need one, I know where it is.

 

[Gary S]

I quit the battery and rechargeable tool problem. Now I don't have battery problems or charger problems anymore. The fewer batteries you own, the better life gets.

 

[73Chevy]

I use one of these, it covers most tools:
http://www.batteryspace.com/multi-c...6v-18vnimhbatterypackstamiyaplugullisted.aspx

 

[Torque1st]

One of the problems I have noticed is that all the chargers have a different "signal language". Blinks, steady, different colors, all gets to looking like Christmas lights.

 

[tatra]

was hoping this was about old ans. machine, cordless shaver etc. chargers.............must have at least twenty...........

 

[MN4x4]

One of the problems I have noticed is that all the chargers have a different "signal language". Blinks, steady, different colors, all gets to looking like Christmas lights.

Hmm... gives me a decorating idea for next year. I wonder if the wife would let me put them on the tree in the house....?

Bet not....

 

[red69ss]

I built one for my chargers last week, I just got two of those cheap shelf brackets from home depot and cut a scrap piece of 1 x 8 about one inch wider than the widest charger and mounted it a couple feet above the work bench. I only have two chargers, but I got tired of them being in the way on the work bench.

 

[MScott]

Here is a great way to store chargers:

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=39367&page=12

Look at post #234

 

[djd99]

that is why I have stuck with one brand (dewalt) for all of my cordless stuff. one charger will charge lots of batteries and I have backup batteries..

bob

X2 no need for a dozen chargers and bats I have 3 dewalt chargers and 6 bats.

 

[jeepmedic]

I dont have pics of it but I did a couple small shelves for battery storage and chargers. the charger shelves are slanted to make it easier to load them. I plug the power strips into a an outlet that is built into the shelf unit, that outlet is wired into a timer which has a power cord coming out. Just pop in the batteries and turn on the timer. no over charging or excessive power usage.

 

[GMCAMARO]

I am sick and tired of replacing "rechargeable batteries", I have started to go back to plug ins. The royoby(sp, in English, "Home depot ****") stuff lasted about 1 year, then the batteris go away qickly, the dell lap top batteries lasted about 9 months. Went back to desktop. Dewalt, stuff no better than any of the others. Plus getting rid of the is an Al Gore bozo no, no.

Yah, I know they are all replaceable, but that just adds one more expense to an already expensive life.

 

[csargents1546]

One of the neatest setups I have seen, a guy took all his chargers and put them in a custom built drawer with a fan to cool them and a timer built right in. He even had holders for the different tools he had. Looked really clean and neat. Wish I had a picture of it.