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usdsbuilder
07-13-2007, 09:58 AM
I was using my R841151 hammer-drill to drill for a post-base bolt in concrete. When I changed the battery I noticed the odor of hot plastic. Inspection showed that the negative battery terminal insulation showed signs of melting and the areas around the negative terminal on both the drill and battery were hot to the touch. Is this expected?

I do not remember any duty-cycle restrictions in the instructions for the drill. Are there any published limits? Are there any recommendations?
roadrashray
07-17-2007, 04:17 PM
I was using my R841151 hammer-drill to drill for a post-base bolt in concrete. When I changed the battery I noticed the odor of hot plastic. Inspection showed that the negative battery terminal insulation showed signs of melting and the areas around the negative terminal on both the drill and battery were hot to the touch. Is this expected?

I do not remember any duty-cycle restrictions in the instructions for the drill. Are there any published limits? Are there any recommendations?

Did a search on your model # and got a no show which isn't surprising since Ridgid's web site is almost as far behind as their LSA registration. Anyway since my 24V LI hammerdrill is a 50 instead of a 51 I thought they might be the same. I don't know about ni cad but the instructions I have for 24V Li is that protection cicuitry will shut things down if tool or battery get hot.
With that said I wondered if it was possible you got some foreign object into the connectors shorting them out?
Let us know how you make out and what kind of service you have getting it repaired or replaced.
Velosapien
07-17-2007, 04:35 PM
Sounds like something shorting out to me. Hammerdrilling is actually not very taxing on the motor or power consumption, particularly with smaller bits. It takes little torque compared to something like a hole saw on wood which will force the drill to work a lot harder.
Woussko
07-17-2007, 07:36 PM
Because this seems (correct me if I'm wrong) that the battery terminal got hot during charging, I would think there was a bad connection between the battery and charger. I had this problem some time back with a DeWalt 14.4 Volt Ni-Cad battery and charger. It required repair of both the battery pack and charger.