What does "Evaluate" light mean?

[Steve Sawyer]

I have a 12 Volt Ridgid cordless drill. There are two LED's on the charger, one red, one green. The Green light blinks while charging, and glows steadily when fully charged.

The red light occasionally blinks, and the legend on the charger indicates that a blinking red light means "evaluate".

Huh? I remove and replace the battery, and the red light continues to blink. If I swap batteries, the one I've been running in the drill charges fine. Note that these are two brand-new batteries.

What am I supposed to evaluate?

Thanks.

[Woussko]

The flashing red light means that the charger thinks you have a bad battery in it. It may be taking very little charging current, too much current or may have wild Voltage swinging.

Please try this and report your findings.

A) Take a pencil eraser and rub the contacts of the battery until shinny clean. Then rub them a bit with a clean paper towel. Now try charging it and see if that helps. You must have very good contact.

B) With the battery that gives you a flashing red light, leave it in the charger a few hours but do check both the battery and charger for overheating every few minutes during the first 1/2 hour and then say every 15 minutes there after. As long as they don't get really hot see if after about 2 hours if either the red light stops flashing and the green light flashes or the green light comes on steady. If the red light keeps flashing you have a defective battery and it should be replaced under warranty. If it does seem to charge up given more time in the charger, let it cool and then over a week try running it down only to where the tool gets sluggish. Then give it a few minutes of cooling time and try charging it up again. Sometimes batteries need a few good workout cycles to come around. Do not totally discharge either battery. When the tool gets sluggish, STOP using that battery. Do get it to the charger soon too.

Hint: Batteries charge best when at normal room temperature. Right after use they are warmed up inside. Give them a few minutes of cool down time before charging. Also, if you have had the battery outdoors in sunlight it may be warm.

[garager]

I don't have the Ridgid drills, but usually the charger is sensing the battery. If its hot or something is wrong with the battery, it won't charge it until it senses that the battery is ok to charge (evaluate). Sometimes the charger can go bad and starts to falsely read the batteries, I've never had a charger do this, but I have heard they can go bad too....

If the battery is not charging, put it back on the drill and run temporarily, then try to recharge, this may activate the battery for the charger to sense it... Sometimes you can buy a new battery and its no good... Take it back to the store to exchange if still under warranty and you exhausted all alternatives to get it to charge.....

[wbrooks]

From the manual ...

CHARGING A HOT BATTERY PACK
When using the tool continuously, the batteries in the
battery pack will become hot. You should let a hot
battery pack cool down for approximately 20 minutes before
attempting to recharge.
If the battery pack is above normal temperature range, the
red LED will begin flashing and the green LED will be off.
When the battery pack cools down to approximately 104°F
(40°C), the charger will automatically begin fast charge mode.

On a hot day the battery may never cool to below 104°F, put the charger in a cooler area

[Mike from Pa]

I have actually put my batteries in the freezer a few times when they wouldn't charge...just dumb luck I guess, as I never read the manual.