Repairing Husky Batteries?!

[Caring4Trees]

Hey everyone!

Wanted to see if anyone has had any experience with troubleshooting and repairing Husqvarna batteries (BLi150 or others) that aren't working. We have now had our second battery simply stop working and not charging. I've opened them up to look inside and check wiring/terminals but all the terminals are fully cast in a resin of some sort. I asked a shop a while back and they said they don't touch the batteries.

Curious to hear if anyone is having any of the same problems, figured out a way to troubleshoot/repair, found a specific shop to take them to or simply recycle and replace. At $150 - $300 a pop, I'd love to be able to figure it out and repair them but if it's not feasible or cost effective, then we'll continue with recycling and replacing.

The batteries and tools are kept indoors when not in use and rarely used in rain/snow. Seems like they last couple years then quit.

Thanks!

 

[RopeShield]

metal recycler pays cash for batteries. store them and save up for your annual metal run/beer fund
they have limited life cycle/number of charges left in them

 

[southsoundtree]

I had a battery go bad, and separately a charger. Both were checked at the dealer and replaced under warranty.

If you go to the dealer, you can have both checked in conjunction with a known-working counterpart.

 

[Reach]

There are some battery repair shops around this area (Lancaster county) that rebuild power tool batteries, try visiting one of them, they can probably help you out.

 

[ghostice]

The battery thing drives me nuts - had a buncha DeWalt batteries over the years for drills and skillsaws, etc. - some from the same packages/ lot numbers - one keeps working and the other packs it in after 12 mo. No rhyme nor reason it seems. Is the solution to only buy them, in packs of two, but only at a half price sale? Most of these faults have been failures to charge but again a vexing feature of this is that they indicated fully charged when on the bench, but just pack it in after 5 minutes on the job. No way to tell. So "the backup" is always a 150 ft 12/2 extension cord and a corded drill.
Our Husky top handle saw batteries have so far been outstanding though (if the battery Gods are listening . . ) for three to four years or so.
And maybe beware on line "Sale" pricing sometimes. These can be rebuilt batteries that are junk (there can be much wisdom around the old dude coffee table from time to time . . .).

 

[TFord]

I had some BLi 200/300 batteries refusing to charge, and replacing the charger solved the problem. Besides keeping the contacts clean, I don’t see any maintenance or repair possibilities. My dealer is clueless and the Husky website/tech line also no help at all. That said, I have had no batteries fail, and some are in their 3rd year.

 

[Caring4Trees]

Thanks everyone for your responses!

I'll check with the dealers we've gotten them from or a battery repair shop to see if they'll help.

Otherwise, might just be a cycles to failure thing if they're a few years old.

Thanks again!

 

[ellamental]

Have you checked the voltage with a multimeter? Modern Li-ion batteries are pretty sophisticated, there's usually some "smarts" (microcontrollers) in both the battery and the charger. "Charging" usually involves some negotiation between both, with some defined limits for "acceptable range".

One possibility is that your batteries are reporting outside this range (for whatever reason), usually voltage too low. I've frequently come across this issue online and it seems as though people have had success with using alternative charging methods and higher voltages just enough to get the batteries to report "in range" and then switching back to the standard chargers. You might want to try asking on r/batteries.

That being said, lithium ion batteries are quite dangerous and I personally wouldn't risk it. Manufacturers often have repair services, maybe check Husqvarna's "servicing dealers"?

Unless I'm reading it wrong, this page from Husqvarna seems to indicate that the BLi100 and BLi200 should both get ~1,500 charging cycles (the BLi150 doesn't seem to be sold anymore and I can't find specs). So if you're getting substantially less than that, you might want to talk to your dealer to see if there's any warranty options.