my charger shorted out. anyone else?

[Caspian]

I plugger in my battery charger and it sparked, smoked a little, then went dead. Has anyone else had this happen?

For what it's worth, i don't leave the charger plugged in. it is only plugged in when i charge batteries. Also, i only charge the batteries once every couple months (i'm not a heavy user or contractor).

has anyone else had this happen? I called my local service center (2 hours away) and they will replace it when i bring in the old one and my receipt.

The lifetime warranty is great, but it's not free. 4 hours of drive time and 10 gallons of gas to replace a charger that was a fire hazard.

Caspian

[BadgerDave]

Why not just mail the charger to the service center along with a copy of your receipt. I doubt if you're required to personally hand deliver your charger in order to have it replaced under the service agreement. You probably will have to pay some shipping to get the new one but whatever the cost is, its got to be much cheaper than 4 hours of your time and 10 gallons of gas.

[Caspian]

you're right. i called them after posting that and they said mailing it was o.k.

I don't know how we're going to work return shipping. hopefully they have something worked out with HD. i'll get my shipping one way or another. ;o)

Caspian

[Kevink]

Regarding any charger as per your manual it clearly states do not leave it plugged in when not in ( USE ). I'm not one that usually reads my manual but I took interest in Ridgids new charging system.

[imported_wbrooks]

Hmmm, didn't see that. Every charger I own (5) have been plugged in since day 1. For the craftman 12 V thats working on 15 years now (2 for the ridgid). I did have a dewalt that smoked right out of the box and of course it had to be one that I bought while I was on a course in the US but I have to give dewalt credit as they authorised one of their repair centers here to replace it