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I left my Dewalt 14.4v cordless drill to charge overnight and forgot it. The next afternoon my wife needed it and went to get it from my workbench in the garage. When she picked it up she noticed it was quite hot and looked closer when it would not fit into the tool. She was alarmed to find that the battery had expanded, bursting the plastic case, and it was partially melted. When she checked the charger she found that it had partially melted too, in the area just below where the battery rests on it. She next checked our Black & Decker cordless screwdriver and found that the “wall wart” transformer had also partially melted. What could explain this? Could the two tools fail at or near the same time or had we not noticed the screwdriver failure since we don’t use it very often. Could there be a problem with the wiring in the house?
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Peter,
I read in fhb a few months back that Dewalt recalled a 14.4 volt charger that came with the drill kit that could possibly be a fire hazard.cc
*Yes, Dewalt had a recall on some of their chargers in the last year. My boss and I had the same drills, and his charger seemed to suck the life out of 3 batteries before melting down entirely. And he threw them all away about a week before I found out about the recall. Anyway, I brought mine to Acme Tool Crib and they sent me on my way with a new one. Not sure why they both melted for you. Some one with a bigger brain than me is going to have to explain that to you.
*Thanks for the tips folks. I looked on the web and found the following:http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml01/01057.htmlCPSC, DEWALT® Industrial Tool Co. Announce Recall of Battery ChargersWASHINGTON, D.C. - In cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), DEWALT Industrial Tool Co., of Baltimore, Md., is voluntarily recalling about 1.7 million battery chargers used with cordless power tools. The battery chargers include two models of DEWALT (DW9107, DW9108) and two models of Black & Decker Industry & Construction™ (97015, 97016) brands. The battery charger can fail to automatically shut off after the battery is fully charged, which can cause the battery to burst, and poses fire, burn and electrical shock hazards to consumers.DEWALT has received two reports of batteries bursting and consumers suffering injuries, including minor lacerations and a minor burn.The DEWALT battery chargers have model numbers DW9107 and DW9108, which is written on the front of the charger. The recalled DEWALT chargers have date codes from 9616 through 9752 located on the bottom of the charger. The DEWALT chargers are black with yellow lettering. "DEWALT" is written on the front of the chargers. The Black & Decker Industry & Construction battery chargers have model numbers 97015 and 97016. The model number is written on the front of the chargers. They have date codes from 9616 through 9752, which is located on the bottom of the chargers. The Black & Decker Industry & Construction chargers are black. "Black & Decker Industry and Construction" is written on the front of these chargers.Home center and hardware stores sold these battery chargers nationwide from May 1996 through August 2000 for between $50 and $60. During the same time, these chargers also were sold with some DEWALT® and Black & Decker Industry & Construction cordless tools. Consumers should stop using these battery chargers immediately, and take them to a DEWALT or Black & Decker service center for a free replacement. To locate the nearest service center, or for more information, call DEWALT toll-free at (866) 543-3401 between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, or go to DEWALT's web site at http://www.dewalt.com.
*Peter,The fact the two chargers have been fried makes me think that it's the wiring and not the appliances.For starters, I'd measure the voltage at the outlet or outlets where the problems occurred. If you can get a "peak hold" or min-max recording DMM, that would be great. These aren't all that expensive these days. Camp on the outlet with the meter for a day and see what the max voltage is.Have there been any other weird electrical things going on, like light bulbs burning out quickly, micro chip controlled appliances acting up? These things are symptoms of a loose neutral on the utility side of the service--the utility drop wires, or transformer. That's a serious life-safety situation.Please let us know what's going on... Cliff
*B&D has had recalls on chargers too - they are the same outfit remember!
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I left my Dewalt 14.4v cordless drill to charge overnight and forgot it. The next afternoon my wife needed it and went to get it from my workbench in the garage. When she picked it up she noticed it was quite hot and looked closer when it would not fit into the tool. She was alarmed to find that the battery had expanded, bursting the plastic case, and it was partially melted. When she checked the charger she found that it had partially melted too, in the area just below where the battery rests on it. She next checked our Black & Decker cordless screwdriver and found that the "wall wart" transformer had also partially melted. What could explain this? Could the two tools fail at or near the same time or had we not noticed the screwdriver failure since we don't use it very often. Could there be a problem with the wiring in the house?