Dying Drill Killed Batteries!!

[jboyce13]

I have the ridgid 18 volt kit that came with 3 batteries, drill/hammer drill, circular saw, recip saw, dual charger, and have a jig saw and single charger.they are all a year and a half old

the other day i was using my drill and it slowed suddenly and acted as though the battery died, I tried two other batteries (not knowing if they were charged) and got a very slow drill still. I charged the batteries, placed them on the drill and got a very slow drill for about 3 seconds then a faint "poof" sound from the battery, then it was motionless. Thinking i had a faulty charge, i put on another battery....same thing. well now, i have a dead drill and 3 batteries that are dead as well (3 batteries will not work in other tools either, 1 battery is fine). The charger will not even recognize that the battery is on there (constant red light, as if nothing is on it)

Anyone ever had this problem?? The set is only a year and a half old. HD will not do anything for me, now i have to take it to a service center, closest one is 1 hour away.

[ump107]

I do not have the set you are referring to but I believe that your switch in the drill has failed. When this happens it shorts out the batteries. Being that the drill still falls under the Ridgid warranty taking it to the service center will get you 3 new batteries and the trigger replaced on the drill. From what I have seen on other posts your drill may be out for repair for a little while but it will be fixed. This seems to be a existing problem with the switch provided on the drill

[woodslayer]

13

I vaguely recall someone posting a similar malfunction a while back, but I can’t remember the end result. You may be able to find the thread by searching on malfunctioning drill or batteries.

Good luck

Woodslayer

[RedBaron]

Once again HD has underwelmed their customers. Home Depot has a company that repairs their power tools called Altaquip not sure of the spelling. RTV clerks should have this information as well and the phone number for Altaquip. Also you can send things back to One World Technologies should be a number in your owners manual check it out. Hope this helps.

Here is the website for Altaquip: http://www.altaquip.com/

[House-Medic]

Yes I had the same problem and it killed four of my batteries. It is the variable speed switch that has gone bad. Take it to a service center with the batteries and they will fix the drill and give you three new batteries all under the warranty.;)