Cordless Power Tool Chargers

It will be consuming some power. Prob not much, prob not worth worrying about. It's the fire hazard which is prob more worrying as the components will have a finite life and who knows what the failure mode will be?

Del

Del's probably right.

On the other hand, I always leave my chargers plugged in; too lazy to unplug them.

My house is a fixer-upper so I am constantly charging my tools.

I have had mine plugged in for over 3 years and haven't had any issues.

Most run-of-the-mill chargers will use some power when not charging.

Feel it. If it's warm, it's using power. It may not be warm but, still consuming power.

When I unplug my smart phone from the charger, the screen reminds me to unplug the charger from the wall.

Plug the chargers into a power strip sitting on the table. Turn the power strip on and off.

Not too worry, many Energy Star rated chargers are so clever that they sense whether there's a battery being charged, no battery no current draw. But for your older legacy wall-warts you might find this article, especially the answer to your problem at the end of it, very informative.

There is sort of a myth out there battery life and leaving your phone plugged to the charger for extended periods. But my phone is plugged to the charger more than it is not on a typical day, i.e. when I sleep and when I am at work and I have never experienced any problems with low battery life when I am disconnected.

I have chargers in my shop that have not been unplugged in years.

It's far from being on my list of rational concerns.

To be honest just firing up my plasma cutter to do a few seconds of metal cutting I could have done with a hand saw burns more power than all of my chargers combined sitting idle for several days or better.

I figure if I can't afford that extra 20 - 30 cents a month for the power it takes to leave my chargers plugged in and ready for my convenience I probably have far greater financial and energy consumption issues that need attention first.

The second part of my question was; if leaving the charger plugged in would it contribute to shorter charger life?

No, they rarely fail, many are impedance limited so as the current tries to increase the unit won't allow it to increase to dangerous levels; i.e., they don't overheat and burn out.

Yeah, but they are contributing to global warming, and the EMFs are burning holes in your wife's brain.

Take a walk around the house at night. Count all the LED's that are glowing.

Then add all the chargers that are plugged in.

None of this is free.

I'm probably one of the worst offenders.

After my wife's hysterectomy, we could have hung meat in the house.

Three growing boys, and their friends mean the refrigerator's opened every 10 minutes whenever they are home.

So, what's a few LED's and chargers???

My local power company has me on a smart meter (Good Lord! maybe thats her problem? ) and I can access it anytime I want through their website.

According to their readings my power consumption is at minimal around 100 - 200 watts which is exactly in the range where my own self audits say that I am with every major device turned off.

I can live with that considering that at the peaks I have times where my hour to hour readings are in the 20 -30 KWH per hour range and my overall average is 2 - 3 KWH per hour for any given month.

Not too many here.

I'm a closet greenie, and hate the idea of wasting electricity, regardless of how insignificant it may seem.

I live in North Dakota. If you have ever been through one of our winters that starts in October and doesn't quit until May you would know full well why I am all for global warming!

As far as the holes in my wifes brain I suspect they were there long before she met me.

I just checked my laptop charger. It draws 0.01 amp when not plugged into the device.

More later.

9.5 KWh /year?? cost $3 to $4??

I liked your post, a lot of good accurate comments that most here will not ever understand.....well done.

I actually only use about 70% capacity on my 12v Caravan LA battery (check the charge curve, that's the most charge for the least electricity input) and its been in use since 2001....See here:-

http://www.scubaengineer.com/documents/lead_acid_battery_charging_graphs.pdf

This shows that 70% is the max charge "Sweet Spot" so to say.....

I did not mention that the House batteries on the motorhome are LiFePO4. I try to keep them above 25% and sometimes they charge all the way to 100% on solar or when driving. They are 360 amp hour. I have taken them down to 20%. They are suposed to be able to go down to 10% charge without damage but I don't trust that. I replaced LA batteries because the space was limited to 220 amp hous and they wouldn't last more than 3 years. All my portable rechargibles are lithium ion so the only LA battery I have left is the start battery. I used to limit the discharge of the 220 amp house batteries to 50% but that still sucked the life out of them and required running the vehicle engine to charge them at least once a day. I paid for the solar panels quite quickly but still had to run the engine on cloudy days. Now I never have to with LED lights and the Lithium batteries.

I leave most of mine plugged in 24/7. Not worried about the extra $0.25 a month on my electric bill.

Overcharging is not a concern since smart chargers will maintain optimal battery condition.

Failure mode of chargers is "typically" dried out aluminum electrolytic caps or transformer winding insulation failure. Overheating and/or temperature CYCLING (on-off) seem to decrease charger life.

My chargers have always failed quietly. Unlike the new CFL bulbs which always (for me) flicker and jet acrid smoke! I worry about fire hazard from the bulbs, but not the chargers.

Ryobi Charge Center charger varies from 0.04-.1 amp and Harbor freight 18V charger 0.04.

The Ryobi charger is the latest and greatest they offer, but it still sucks power.

The HF charger is typical HF stuff, but a little better than the more expensive one.

As an aside--I heard (maybe from this site), that Li-Ion batteries last the longest when charged at 20% and removed at 80%. Heat has been touted as a battery's biggest enemy, with number of cycles being next, and my chargers (I have 4 of different ages, and therefore different technologies) are always warm, even if the battery is considered 100% charged. So that indicates power being wasted, and battery life being shortened. Maybe this type of info would also be of importance when looking at various types of batteries and their chargers. Does anyone have, or know of where to obtain a graph , comparing these technologies? I am about ready to S**t can 2 absolutely perfectly running 15.6 amp cordless drills, because their batteries are going south, and the 2 replacement batteries alone, are more expensive than buying an entire set, with case, drill, batteries and charger. I have already replaced the batteries twice, (NI-Metal Hydride), at a cost of over $90 per battery). I am having a hard time with that.

The following should be followed for any battery type:-

Never run a battery to "Empty", it damages the weakest cell and makes them weaker.

Never charge a battery to "FULL", it damages the weakest cell and makes them weaker.

Never charge for no reason.

Never leave the battery on the charger, even a clever one for longer than required.

Store battery with lowest allowed charge (except lead acid), but never "empty".

Never let any battery get warmer than just low warm....cold is better.

Never allow an LA Battery to gas, it should almost NEVER need water, never more than once a year, otherwise you are charging too much.....the sealed ones are more difficult to judge without a voltmeter....

Which is why I make my own LA Chargers, because commercial ones are no good for the battery. I have written about such things many times on CR4....few actually believe me I sometimes feel!!!

Here's a fact about leaving a charger with a battery on all the time. Back in 1997, June 21st to be exact, my garage caught on fire. The fire came from my work bench, which had an assortment of cordless tools hung nicely on the wall and a Bosch 9.6V charger with a battery in it. They were never able to find out which charger caused the fire, since they were all in the area where the fire started.

A few years later in 2001, I was working on our new store (we were getting ready to open it) and my Bosch 9.6V charger was plugged into the wall with the battery in it. I remember hearing a popping noise and smelling burnt plastic. When I got to the charger, it was smoking and the battery was leaning over (plastic melted). I unplugged it and without thinking, I grabbed the battery to take it out of the charger. When I tried to take it out, the plastic case of the battery had melted and it was stuck to the charger - and yes, it burned my fingers.

I did contact Bosch, who apologized and sent me two new batteries and a new charger. To this day, I don't leave larger batteries in a charger unattended. Cell phone and cordless phone size batteries, I don't worry about.

WOW!

In my youth, in the UK, I seem to remember that to call something as being rubbish, there was a name like "Bosch" or similar......e.g. what a load of Bosch!!! (or similar!)

Bosch power tools with the green cases are absolute rubbish. The gears are the weakest part!! There are some professional ones that are better, but you can all safely avoid Bosch in the power tool market, there are plenty of better ones around.

Even B&D are better in the drill department, I have one that I bought in 1973, mains, 2 gears, no speed control, no reverse and no battery, works well (Orange and Grey colour scheme). I wanted to put a bigger chuck on it and the Guy (idiot) in the shop in Eastbourne UK, would not sell me one as I might/would damage the drill by using it!! I simply bought one elsewhere and the idiot is probably long dead, but not my B&D drill!! I had good teachers in the RN!

Another B&D mains drill I bought in 1986 and it is still in a great condition (Black series). That has reverse, and speed control as well as two gears and goes through concrete like a hot knife through butter!!!

I have a cheap big "No-Name" for heavy jobs, bought from Aldi Germany.....years ago!

My only other is a B&D from the 60's that belonged to my Father, I keep just as a keepsake, it also still works, one speed, no reverse, no speed control.....

I have had loads of battery driven ones over the years with chargers, but I also have several mains timers that have been rewired by me to also "switch themselves off" when the timer deactivates the socket. Really simple and easy to do.

I use them to stop over charging of batteries, stop the charger overheating and to save electricity. (and apparently, to stop fires...!)

I simply bought the really cheap, mostly mechanical timers 24 hours (no LCD display or battery backup) for only a few Euros each.....a good tip for the rest of you guys!!!

Set to switch off at 14:00, start it at 00:00 hours. 14 hours being the standard rate (then) of charge. Its easy of course to set a shorter time for fast chargers as well....

Here in the US, we get the blue Bosch tools. I also found out that Bosch makes tools for Skil (orange and black). I am not a fan of Skil tools - I find them cheaply made and nothing like the old Skil tools.

I recently purchased a Milwaukee cordless hammerdrill. I do like the Bosch cordless drill, but the Milwaukee is a much better product. The chuckless key is the best I've used. It came with two chargers and the batteries have a button which allows you to see the charge level. The only negative I see is that the Milwaukee is quite a bit heavier and the max torque setting doesn't have as good range as the Bosch.

Here's something to look at, regarding safe charging of batteries: http://www.toolcrib.com/blog/2009/04/battery-charger-fire-starter-dont-let-them-charge-unattended

Great link, everyone here should read it!!!

Most of it I had worked out for myself over the years, mainly to reduce my power bill, but what reduces the power bill, also reduces the likelihood of fires as well.

My cheap (very old fashioned!) idea with the 24 hour timer modification is a good and very effective way to reduce the possibility of a fire when charging ANY battery.

I also use special power units to turn off the mains to a TV when it has been switched off with the remote, to stop "Standby" power.....TVs on standby are also a constant source of house fires.....they are not alone!!

Most people only learn about this when they have had a fire.....sadly .

My dad bought Craftsman tools (Sears department store). They were pretty good back in the 60's and 70's, but I'm not very fond of the newer models. I have a Craftsman cordless drill which doesn't have a quality feel and the battery doesn't last very long. I definitely prefer the Bosch or Milwaukee. My friend has a DeWalt, which I think is a pretty nice tool. Years ago, I had a nice set of Makita cordless tools which ran off the long battery stick. These were okay tools, but I like the Bosch much better. Lately, I've bought a couple Ryobi tools and they're actually good tools. I bought a Ryobi chop saw and a Ryobi jig saw. Both work well and the price was good.

Here in the US, we have cheaply made Chinese tools with Chicago Electric labels on them. They are sold at Harbor Freight stores and online at Harbor Freight. They are not very well made, but they are cheap. I have a couple Sawzalls, cordless drills, 1/2" hammer drill, oscillating jig saw, circular saw and a tile cutting saw. They don't do a great job, but if I have something really messy and I don't want to get my good tools dirty, then I use the Harbor Freight tools.