Battery or Charger

[ghh]

Both my Dewalt and Makita cordless drills batteries or chargers are bad......how can I tell which one needs replacing......the charger looks like it's charging and the batteries only charge a little bit.....thanks for the help.

[godale]

hello i believe on the dewalt if you look at a owners manual for the drill in the manual it shows the pattern of the lights on the charger.this will tell you if it is the pack or charger. not sure about the other.

[Stephen Tashiro]

Do you have a volt meter? Measure the voltage (DC) across the contacts of the charger. That should indicate whether it is charging.

[a. palmer jr.]

Also measure volts across the battery. I'm betting the batteries are bad if they are a few years old. Most people don't charge them up when they are down unless they need to use them. You need to keep ni-cad batteries charged up or they will short out. That's probably what's wrong with yours. It's quite common.